I couldn’t walk to get my sister from her elementary school without roofers whistling and smiling at me. The highest occurrence of street harassment and inappropriate remarks was from age 13 to 16 from all ages of men. I remember having anxiety (I think my first anxiety experience) and an extreme sense of guilt as though I was dirty and wrong even though I didn’t really understand what was being done -outside of already having been taught, as a girl, to feel like my body and parts are dirty (not in a weird 'Carrie religious mom' kinda way, but how girls are taught to view themselves differently in general).
'They must have been exposed to way too much. They showed me books with the female anatomy, talked to me about female parts, and he drew nipples on my Barbies with a Sharpie.' He knew it was wrong because when his mom walked in, he jerked the blankets off. The nine-year-old would play with me and his brother in his room, pulling blankets over me and asking if I wanted to have sex. 'When I was five, there was a nine-year-old neighbor kid and his four-year-old brother who were my first experience with inappropriate sexual talk and requests.
