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When I was in my early teens myself and all my female friends were constantly groped and sexualised by our male friends. In private, in public, anywhere, it didn’t matter, we were always objectified. And at the time that was normal, that was “boys being boys” and we laughed
And it’s only now, being a woman in my twenties, looking back with what I know now and thinking “wow that wasn’t okay.” And I don’t blame the boys. And I don’t blame myself. Because none of us were ever taught about consent. We were all kids reaching sexual maturity and curious.
But the scary thing is that behaviour like this can get reinforced in the absence of education. Boys grow into men thinking their actions are okay because they were never met with anger, because we never knew we were allowed to be angry.
Girls grow into women who think their role in life is to please men, no matter what they want to do or feel like doing. That what a man wants to do is superior.
And now look around and see all these women, women who are angry because as children and teenagers we were never told we could use our voices. We were never told that we were more than our bodies. We were never told that we are so much more than a mans approval.
And our anger is constantly disregarded. And our right to consent and our bodies is constantly being argued by the people that never told us we were owed that right in the first place.