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straighten your back

go pee goddAMN IT STOP HOLDING IT

go take your meds if you need to

drink some water

go get a snack if you havent eaten in a while

maybe wander around the house/stretch a little if you’ve been sat at the computer a while (artists especially: sTRETCH THOSE WRISTS)

reply to that text/message from earlier you’d forgotten about

Oof. Whew!

She nodded and accepted my salty language like a seasoned sailor.

I’ve had experience with this before, in Prague a group of five girls and I were followed by three men at night. After a while they started yelling at us, the most common being “how much?” Meaning how much we “cost” as prostitutes. Seeing as they weren’t going to stop, I turned on my heel, faced them (which surprised them), spat at their feet and responded with “You couldn’t afford me.” This prompted the other girls to start yelling back at them as well, starting with our spitfire Czech friend to start slinging curses in Czech as she and the rest of the girls came up beside me. Needless to say the men backed off and pretty much fled. They weren’t expecting a fight. It empowered me and encouraged the rest of the girls to yell back too.

I’ve heard that a lot of people don’t know what to do in this situation because they’ve been taught all their lives to be polite and non-aggressive. Keep your heads down or whatever.

Keep in mind that studies have shown that rapists look for victims who won’t fight back.

Remember that nobody has the right to touch you without your consent or harass you, and you have all the right to make the biggest fuss about it that you can possibly make.

It’s also more common for women to jump to ‘freeze’ or ‘fawn’ in a dangerous situation just because of the ways society has been encouraging and training women to behave from a young age. Girls are heavily conditioned never to make a scene or inconvenience other people and it can be really hard to overcome that conditioning especially in stressful or scary situations.

For a lot of girls and women it’s also hard to speak up if they’re being harassed or assaulted in public because of shame or embarrassment, they’ve been taught there’s something shameful and embarrassing on their part for being harassed or assaulted in public which can make it difficult to overcome the shame to draw attention to what’s happening. Always remember, if you’re being harassed or assaulted in public you’re not the one who should feel ashamed or embarrassed, you’re not the one doing anything wrong.

A loooot of people always talk big game about how they’d respond if they were being sexually harassed or assaulted, like “well I’d totally punch that guy, I’d totally give him hell!” but the thing is, you actually don’t know which f your brain will jump to in any given situation.

That’s why it’s so important that we need to start telling girls from a young age that it’s not just okay but it’s best if they scream, fight, and make a scene if they’re scared or uncomfortable. Tell them if a man touches them or makes them uncomfortable on the subway or the bus that they should yell and make a scene. Tell them if a man is in public making them uncomfortable to yell and make a scene. Tell them they have nothing to be embarrassed about if it happens to them because they’re not the one doing anything wrong.

Predators who touch girls and women in public or in any way harass girls and women and make them uncomfortable are counting on girls and women being quiet because of the heavy social conditioning to not make a scene or inconvenience anyone or their victims feeling too much shame and embarrassment to speak up. It’s really important that we try to actively combat that social conditioning in girls and work to undo that social conditioning in adult women.

buddie + quote by david levithan ✧｡*ﾟ✿ 911 (multi ep)