Dealing With It
[Note: This essay speaks largely to my personal experience as a white cisgender woman. I don’t wish to speak for the experiences of others here; I invite your experiences in comments.]
[Trigger warning for quotations encouraging sexual assault and racist quotations.]
I’m in ninth grade. I’m new to my school. I’m nervous about where to sit in the cafeteria, about what I’m wearing; my new school is bigger than my old one by some multiplier I’m not even sure of. Numbers transpose in my head something awful. I’m maybe most nervous about math class.
I’m assigned a seat next to the wall in a row of three, with a boy on the outside aisle and an empty seat in between us.
By now, I’ve already gotten enough shit from boys and men to suspect why the empty seat is there.
I’m right.
Starts with spitballs. (“Cut that shit out.”) Then slurs. (I ‘ve just turned fourteen; I have no ready response to the things he outlines should happen to my c***. I manage, “Drop dead.”)… Read more »