Warning: this comic contains groping, molestation and people being assholes on trains.
New comic! This story is in Sweet NV 2, which you can now download for free here! NV2 also contains much happier stories if you feel the need to read something less horrifying afterward.
---
Explanatory rant: Train Girls is a story that's been brewing in my mind for a while now. Some time ago, probably before I had read as much of the awful articles on rape and sexual assault as I have now, I read a very simple post on a website. A woman said that she felt uncomfortable standing next to men on trains, because a man had groped her on a train, when she was 14 and on the way home from school, and she didn't know what to do and nobody did a thing to help her. So now she tries to stand near women on the train and that is how she deals with it. She doesn't accuse all men of being evil rapists, she just says she doesn't know who to trust and so she finds herself a safe place.
Cue a whole bunch of posts about why is she bullying all men because of one little incident when she was young, why didn't she fight back or move away, not all guys are like that. Mainly "stop being mean to the menfolk because of one little thing that happened and you didn't do anything about it anyway". Well done gentlemen, you are certainly inspiring oodles of trust in me now.
That response made me very angry. Don't tell little girls to be gentle and pleasant and then expect us to suddenly switch to aggressive confrontational mode in a highly unusual situation. Don't tell us to be quiet in public but expect us to be able to scream.
To the young lady who had to go through that - I'm sorry, and I'm sorry for all the stupid responses you had to put up with when you finally told your story.