Dear men,
In wake of the #metoo movement, I’d like to lay down some ground rules and advice on interacting with women. Think of this as a little present in the form of a road-map made especially for you, crafted by your very own friendly neighbourhood feminist.
Listen up, because it turns out that rapists aren’t a big hit with the ladies.
1. Do not touch me.
Do not touch me, for any reason unless you have my explicit, vocalised permission to do so (medical professionals etc). If you touch me, I will interpret this as a sexual advance. There is no reason why you would ever need to touch a woman you encounter or work with in your day-to-day life. If you are CPR-trained, you legally have the assumed-consent of an unconscious person to perform this procedure on them.
Otherwise, do not touch my hair, arm, face, butt, shoulders, neck, breasts, or hips. If you are a close friend or family member, this does not necessarily mean I want to be hugged or kissed by you. If you are unsure, it is best to wait until I initiate this. If I don’t initiate, keep your distance. If you do not want to be touched, I will grant you this same respect.
2. Don’t assume.
If I consent to be your girlfriend, this does not mean I have consented to you owning me or my body. If I want to go on a date with you, that does not mean I want to kiss you. If I want to kiss you, that does not mean I want your dirty fingers pushing their way inside me when I’m not even wet (ugh), and so forth.
Top Comments
The anger in this opinion is clear. I think women’s anger about sexism deserves a hearing. Most men don’t need to take it personally.
It gets a hearing, trust is, it really does.
Where have you been? Women have had platforms to vent their anger at men for as long as I've been alive. 🙃
I can see your eyes rolling all the way across the internet though. Not the sort of hearing I meant!
As a man, I sympathise with Muslims in the sense they really hate the backlash they all cop when one of them goes a bit nasty and kills a bunch of people. Now when that happens the first thing our police and leaders do is to say, it’s not all Muslims, it’s just a tiny minority, don’t hold it against all Muslims. We’ve all heard that message and it’s a fair enough point to make.
But when some guy goes nutty and murders a woman, well, that’s different, isn’t it? All men need to be taught that violence against women is wrong! Yeah, we the 99.99% actually already know that, it would be nice for police or community leaders to start a presser with, men are good, this is a tiny minority, we must not discriminate against all men for this, like they correctly say of Islam. Just for once.
Why is it every chick with the name of 'Jacqueline' I meet is a raging lunatic?
Not Jacqui though. Jacqui was cool as.