I’m 4 years old and the boy next door steals my favorite stuffed animal and hits me -hard- when I tell his mother. He throws my stuffed dog in my face and calls me stupid and I hate him. His mom scolds him but tells me he has a crush on me and that I’ll understand one day.
I’m 6 years old and I’m having a play date with a boy from school. He brings us to his room to play with legos yet 10 minutes in i run screaming to my mother. “He tried to kiss me.” I’m crying and my mom takes me home, though his mother simply laughs and says I’ll appreciate the attention when I’m older.
I’m 7 years old and that same boy who tried to kiss me has ten dollars to spend on our class field trip. “I’ll buy you something,” he says and I refuse, I don’t want anything. “I’m buying you something,” he insists, and I’m uncomfortable, looking for our teacher. “Stop being a stupid girl and let me buy you something. You’re lucky I even want to! I’m not leaving until you let me.” I’m shocked and scared and I find the first ten dollar jewelry box I can and I smash it when I get home. In the broken ceramics I hear his mother telling me that I just don’t understand boys yet.
I’m 10 and my best friend won’t acknowledge me in public, nor even call me his friend unless we’re alone. We have sleepovers and movie nights and I’m kind of in love with him but he’s ashamed of me. His sister says I shouldn’t have been so open with my feelings because it made him uncomfortable, yet I never said a word. He loves another girl and I’m confused and lonely. His mom tells me I’ll understand how boys act one day, but that maybe I should give up.
I’m 12 and a boy in school pesters me every day to go get ice cream with him, and I feel uncomfortable when I’m with him. His mom tells my mom “She’ll come around, she’s lucky a boy wants to spend time with her!” I don’t come around.
I’m 15 and wearing a bikini and a boy in my class mocks the fat on my back and tells me that my best friend is hotter. My friend from my ten year old days laughs along and deep down I know inside that they aren’t picking on me because they have a crush, like parents always say. I ask my mom to take me home, and I don’t wear a bikini for two years. No one told them to stop.
I’m 16 and a boy gets my number from a friend of mine, without my permission. He texts me relentlessly for two hours and asks me to go out with him. We’ve never met. I tell him I’m uncomfortable with dating right now, and he fires back that he was just trying to make my friend jealous and I should be flattered that he asked me out. He terrifies me and I throw up. He sends me so many nasty texts that I block his number and hope someone decent will like me someday.
I’m 16 and the boy who mocked my fat calls me “mega hot” now that I’ve lost some weight and asks me to go out with him, as if that can ease the pain of his taunting and teasing through the years. I tell him to go fuck himself and for once someone listens, but I feel sick and angry for days. I don’t understand how someone could think that was okay.
I’m 17 years old and I’m close to a boy I’ve known since childhood. He flirts with me, makes me feel special, pretty even. Yet he strings me along, me and two other girls, and leaves me feeling confused and hurt and lonely and I don’t know why boys have always wanted to hurt me, or why it’s okay.
I’m 17 years old and I still don’t understand. I don’t understand how society can teach its daughters that the aggressive approach of a man is flattering. I don’t understand how relentless pursuing is romantic. I don’t understand how boys can get away with hurting girls and have it explained away. “Boys will be boys,” their mothers say, but I’m 17 and I’m confused and I don’t trust boys. I don’t understand how a man can endlessly pester a woman and it’s ‘cute’ or ‘sweet’ yet for girls it’s ‘desperate’ and ‘pathetic’ when they make their feelings known. I’m 17 and about to go to college and I’ve heard so many horror stories. I’m wary of men and of getting close, and I don’t understand how people can still say that “Boys will be boys, you’ll understand one day.”
2087
origamiaround
blakekathryn
tankhall
izzy806
yousharknotpass
turnnoffyourmind
germansingergirl
kianamaiart
