Izzy

I was in Burger King, with two friends. One Male, and one Female. We are all 16, and it was after school so we stopped by to get some food and just talk about things. Halfway through, we noticed a Middle Aged man sitting across from us, winking, gesturing, and smiling menancingly at my friend and I. My female friend was immeadiately intimidated and upset and wanted to leave as quickly as possible, while my male friend was more embarrassed than anything and wanted to leave. I, however, was infuriated. As a 16 year old girl, this treatment is fairly common when in public, but I had decided I’d had enough. I told my friends that I was going to do something about it, and I was told not to, that it was a “bad idea” and that I could be “judged”. But I wasn’t having any of that. As I walked up to the man, he continued to wink and gesture. I immeadiately questioned him “Is there something wrong?” (The whole of Burger King went quiet) He slowly looked up at me and said “No I just find you very beautiful”. At this point I could see people giving each other looks and raising their eyebrows at the girl who was just “making a fuss” I looked him square in the face and said “Oh so you’re attracted to children? I’m a 16 year old girl and this not only counts as perverse, but paedophilic as well. Leave me and girls like me alone and don’t you dare even look at me again, pervert”. To my surprise this was greeted by a slow applause, coming from various women in the joint. This not only made me feel happy but also thankful that the movement on social media has helped me to believe that I can stand up for myself, and others can too, and instead of being greeted by shame at the end of this experience, I was backed by other women who go through the same thing daily.