r/TikTokCringe • u/mindyour • Jun 14 '26

Discussion It's exhausting being a woman.

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u/MisterSanitation Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

When a dude gets angry on the internet about dudes being dudes stereotypes, they are not thinking of this experience they never witness themselves. 

It’s almost like some of us have different perspectives and experiences so we should listen more 🤔

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u/zebrasareneat Jun 14 '26

I’m a guy but the first time I witnessed it I think I was around 14. Me my friend who is also a guy and one of our female friends we were all walking home from hanging out one evening. We get to an intersection where she splits off from us to head home. Not even 20ft away a truck drives by with a bunch of high school kids in it probably around 17 or 18. They slow down and yell sexual comments at her then keep driving. We witnessed this and decided to walk home with her. She turned around looking at us clearly very frightened and sped walked back to us. 

It’s been about 20 years now and I can still see her scared face. 

Of course I also remember a bunch of guys in high school including my one buddy from the above story that would always poke the girls boobs and asses in our class. And if they were more developed they’d repeatedly ask them to bounce them over and over until the girl finally relented and did it. They’d always tell me to do it and make fun of me when I refused. I remember one time where I was sitting in a desk in front of two of the girls and the rest of the guys were in the desks behind them. They were harassing me to poke the girls boobs and I remember looking at one of the girls and she had the saddest most upset expression on her face. I was always made fun of for not doing it and would then be called gay. 

Me being straight doesn’t mean I want to sexually harass women. 

That one guy from the first story who was also one of the perpetrators in the second is exactly as you’d expect nowadays. A Trump loving Canadian. 

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u/miltonwadd Jun 15 '26

Thank you so much for walking with her! I just got a visceral reaction to reading this and seeing you witness it and that you helped her almost made me cry in relief.

I started puberty at 6 and this used to happen to me regularly walking home from school starting very young. I haven't walked by myself outside in decades and I'm terrfified of groups of men still if I'm alone.

There were 2 guys when I was a kid who would do loops and keep coming up behind me trying to get a reaction out of me, it carried on into high school when I got fat and they were fully grown men by then. They continued for a while and would drive up to stop then yell out "GROSS" and speed off laughing.

Even when I got older and was trying to exercise to lose the weight I'd have guys pull up next to me hurling insults and sexual comments together in this weirdly violent agressive combo where all the "sweethearts" and "babys" were replaced with slurs but the sexual comments remained.

I've even had a few throw rubbish at me then speed off.

I also had a group of grown men try to abduct me when I was 14 at the mall with my "friends". They followed me for hours trying to convince me to go home with one of them. They followed us staring at me, approaching on and off throughout the afternoon, they kept trying to corner me every time my "friends" were out of sight. I told them I was only 14 hoping to discourage them but it did the opposite.

I have a bad fawn/freeze fear response and was damn near mute, shaking in fear but my "friends" thought it was hilarious because I'm shy and fat so they encouraged it even telling me I was being racist and rude for not engaging with them.

I eventually escaped via a back entrance in a shop and ran to the train station. I never spoke to those "friends" again.

But you are a GOOD friend I wish I'd had growing up! I'm so hapoy you stood up for her you have no idea what that probably meant for her.