One time, about 2 years into my PhD, I gave a talk that went well. I was challenged in the questions by a respected senior scholar but I stood my ground and felt good about it. Later, the same man came up to me and was mega creepy /1

He grabbed my hand to say goodbye and didn't let go for several long minutes, asked me if I was French, when I said yes he said he knew we weren't from the same "gene pool" and then told me he had always found French women attractive. /2

No one else heard. It ruined what had been an otherwise fun day. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced he did this to punish me for publicly disagreeing with him. /3

I later told my supervisor about the incident and he offered to have a word. But I was too scared of the potential repercussions so I told him not to. He promised he would never put me in a situation where I had to deal with this man again (he had organised the conference) /4

This shit happens all the time.
The end.

Also, having a strong friendship network with female scholars helped me realise just how wrong and unfair this incident was and helped me build up the courage to tell my supervisor. Shout out to @Jade_E_Fletcher @coreen_anne @LauraSellers11 @alicemurphs