Okay, I'm exhausted and floored of this whole stigma against men, and the reality of sexual harassment today. Yes, I know it is an issue, however, it happens to both genders. But, men are statistically more likely to be victims of crime than females by a landslide.
Before you act like any random male stranger is axiomatically targeting you for harassment, as if they don’t have anything else to do in their day-to-day lives; only a miniscule, microscopic amount of people actively pursue doing it. This is just a ploy from the mass media to get you to buy into the fear market, i.e. hair brush knives, lipstick pepper spray, emergency sos buttons for your keychains, date rape drug detection nail polish, etc... These are all products of the fear market that the mass media wants you to buy in and create new pockets of business.
I applaud companies for completing the work to prevent and detect crime, however this specifically targets women, despite crime disproportionately affecting men more. So where are the Bluetooth ear piece sos buttons, flash drive pepper spray, etc...? Additionally, we can't act like men are the only gender that participates in this variety of sketchy behavior. We all have a network of sources to access personal information of others up to and including having a friend follow an Instagram account of one of your crushes or obsessions, some people catfish an ex through one or more social media accounts, and hunting down Instagram posts to see what girl hearted and/or commented on your man's post, hovering over their shoulder to monitor who they text regularly, giving a cold shoulder to boyfriends that accept friend requests from random girls.
Just a few days ago, I had an acquaintance that won’t allow her fiancé to accept friend requests from girls unless they are family to avoid problems, while she accepts friend requests from anyone and posts inappropriate pictures of herself. I am her fiancé’s best friend’s fiancée, and she’s friends with my fiancé, so I don’t understand this double standard. The four of us all have intentions of getting married, and she doesn’t trust her fiancé enough to have friends of the opposite gender besides family? This is extremely manipulative behavior that I observe much too often, and it is disconcerting to me that this stigma continues to make its way into the mainstream media.
There are so many more behaviors like this, and I often see girls (not just girls) stalking and obsessing over their exes to check up on them, to the point of stalking and where legal action should be taken. No one ever talks about this. The last time I saw something on social media along those lines was the texting suicide case not too long ago, but long enough for the attention and awareness to burn out. I don't know one girl out there that hasn't participated in inappropriate behavior such as these that I listed, as well as others that I haven't. I myself am guilty of these behaviors, but through observation, and growing up, I have moved past it. So, the next time you see a stranger, please don't assume they're going to assault you, everyone deserves a chance as much as anyone else.
