Image by liber via flickr

Within five minutes of arriving to meet up with friends at The Reef, around 10:30pm, I was approached from behind by a guy who touched my middle back and said something along the lines of, “Oh hey baby, you….” but I interrupted, “No, nope, nuh-uh” and turned away to diffuse the situation. To which he responded basically accusing me of being racist, “Oh I see you don’t like black guys!!” and I simply responded “I don’t like GUYS.” So he finally walked away, visibly defeated (like I was some conquest?)

But then witnessed him hit on every other female-bodied young lady at the bar, with varying levels of engagement or rebuttal. I wanted to run up and tell them that they don’t have to talk to him if they don’t want to (screw his fragile male ego!) but I felt like maybe that was their decision to make. Just because I’m at a bar, doesn’t mean I’m open to sexual advances and being touched by a male-bodied stranger, and I’m tired of men being so predatory in public spaces where the dim lighting, loud music, and alcohol seem to make this behavior justifiable.

Submitted by JK on 3/17/2010

Location: The Reef

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