"Okay, so here's why girls don't get flattered when guys comment on their bodies."
A few months ago, you said I looked āobjectively really hot, actually, youāre definitely the hot one of us.ā I laughed and thanked you because we have the kind of relationship that allows for that kind of banter. Your phrasing amused me. I took a little bow.
You asked me why girls get upset when guys comment on their bodies, and wondered why my reaction to you was different than, say, a girlās reaction to a random guy on the street. Why I was mildly flattered, instead of scared or angry. You honestly didnāt understand, and wanted to know.
I tried explaining, but I think I left you more confused than I found you.
I have a better explanation now.
The first time I can remember a guy staring at my boobs, I was in eighth grade. I didnāt even notice; I was still a kid and was largely oblivious to such things. My dad, however,didnotice, and started glaring at the twentysomething stranger ogling his thirteen-year-old.
I couldmaybehave passed for fifteen back then. There was no way anyone would have mistaken me for an adult. That wasnāt the issue, though. To that guy, it wasnāt about who I was or how old I was. I was a set of boobs to him, not a person, certainly not a child.
My experience is pretty common. Girls start getting unwanted attention at a young age, and it happens for the rest of our lives. Men yell things at us on the street and invade our personal space on the bus or trolley when there are plenty of other seats. They try to look up our skirts when we sit down. They donāt listen when we try to rebuff them. We see reports of yet another girl raped on her way home last weekend, another woman whose body was found in a ditch. Weāre told not to go out alone at night, to take someone with us even if weāre only driving to the store or the library or the gas station. Weāre told to carry our keys like weapons, to park in the lot instead of the structure because itās better to get rained on than raped and murdered. Weāre told not to walk alone even during the day. Weāre told close friends might rape us if theyāve had a bit to drink because theyāre men, that itās wrong, but it happens sometimes and we should be on our guard.
Imagine hearing that from the age of five. Imagine being told from childhood that men are more likely to hurt you than women are. Imagine knowing that, though you might be smart and well-trained, men will almost always be bigger and stronger than you, and you wouldnāt be able to beat most of them in a full-on fight. I can best my brother at arm-wrestling, yeah, but that doesnāt have many practical applications.
Now imagine that one of the people youāve been taught to regard as a threat to your body says he wants your body. If he really does, youāll have a hard time stopping him, and people will treat you as an object lesson for others, like youād done something wrong for ālettingā him hurt you. Theyāll ask why you didnāt do more to protect yourself, why you wore that dress, or walked into the parking lot at that time, or talked to that person. Why you went out after dark or flirted with someone at a party.
Iām not saying all men are awful. Iām saying that decent men should be the norm, but there are a lot of men who arenāt, and who make us feel unsafe in our normal lives. We canāt tell the difference between decent people and potential rapists by looking.
What you said to me was meant as a compliment, and I took it as such. Thatās because Iāve known you since we were kids, and I know you didnāt mean any harm. We have the kind of relationship where words like yours are appropriate, and youāve never strayed outside the bounds of whatās okay. I donāt have that kind of relationship with the car full of drunken guys I walked past on the way home from D&D last weekend.
Girls get upset when guys comment on their bodies because weāre being treated like sources of pleasure, not people. We get angry because we canāt go about our business without having to worry about sexual predation. We get scared because, when it comes down to it, if a guy tried to act on his shouts of āHey baby, nice tits, keep it upā we probably wouldnāt be able to stop him, and some would blame us.
Girls get upset because weād much rather be seen as people, not just bodies.


























