The first time I was approached by a strange man hitting on me I was 10.
It was the 80s and on an army base and he was extremely apologetic once my dad showed up.
But before that he was making the most lewd comments about my body.

You see, I was TEN and it was 90+ degrees in Louisiana and I had the audacity to wear SHORTS and a T-SHIRT. I mean, can you imagine? I was hot and didn't want to completely cover every inch of skin. The nerve.

That wasn't the only time, because it never is. I've been hit on when I was soaked in sweat from working out, reading a book in public, working on my computer in public, eating alone in public, sitting on my own bloody porch, you know, while LIVING MY FUCKING LIFE!

I've given pushy dudes fake names, fake numbers, helped setup a fake google voice number or two that had mocking voicemail messages. I've pretended male friends were my boyfriend, flashed my wedding ring, explained I was married, and even decked a few extremely aggressive dudes.

And no, there's nothing that really stops these dudes, and yeah, it's always dudes, except the presence of another dude that they consider you the property of.

So to the dudes saying "wow" or "I can't believe that happens", do you actually listen to women when they tell you this stuff or are you still pretending you actually care for brownie points?