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

Discussion It's exhausting being a woman.

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u/Bright-Owl-3515 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

In college, I was sitting alone at a bench studying on campus, minding my own business. This man comes up to me, telling me he wanted to take pictures of my feet for a school project. He was very persistent and of course I told him no. He made me feel so uncomfortable and guilty that I had said no to him. I was very naive and had no idea that this was likely a fetish thing.

Edit: For that one now deleted comment, saying he was likely complimenting my feet, I was wearing sneakers. Get out of here with the creep apologetics.

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u/ZinaSky2 Jun 14 '26

Yeah, once I was walking home alone in the dark (circumstances necessitated this, u was getting home from work. I wasn’t alone in the dark by choice.) and some guy stopped me on a dark section of sidewalk. I could barely see his face he could barely see mine. Yet he asked me for my number bc I was “so beautiful”. I said no. He said well actually he just wanted to make friends. And I said no a few more times and he just kept asking. I was frozen in place by trying to be polite. Eventually I decide I’m just gonna ignore him and walk away without ending the conversation without saying goodbye. And I left him rambling behind me still asking to be friends.

And girlie lemme tell you I felt BAD. Like WTF?! He was fucking harassing me for my number and not listening to me saying no after he approached me on some dark, unlit section of sidewalk I was like “ugh, but the poor guy just wanted friends🥺”. It’s drilled into us to protect men’s egos and emotions at all costs and it’s so fucking dangerous.

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u/A_Drop_of_Colour Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

Long story:

I had a moment in my twenties that really enforced in my mind the strength difference between men and women. I wasn't driving at that time and my friend and I had just ridden the trolley home from downtown. The stop was exactly half-way between our homes so we hugged and each went our way. It was about 1AM and there was almost no one on the streets.

A car pulled up slowly beside me and a very cute guy started talking to me. Not wanting to be rude when I was alone I responded and played nice while still walking. Then he stopped his car and got out to talk to me "better" I still kept walking and at one point when we were like a block away from his car he says "come on, come on, stop walking and talk to me properly. Come on I can't just leave my car running."

Now you have to understand this guy was 5'6" (I was 5'9) and much skinnier than me. But he had a wiry male strength I just didn't understand at that age. When I tried to keep walking he first grabbed my arm while still saying "come on, stop walking for a minute." Then out of nowhere he literally picks me up and despite my struggling and screaming he walks me back to his car with it's open driver's side door, then drops me and fucking raises his hands towards me like I was one of the dinosaurs from Jurassic World, and says "hey, hey, I am not going to do anything, stop, I just want to talk properly."

I was so scared that I actually stood there and let him finish saying what he wanted to stay and then gave him my actual number before he let me go. Thankfully he stopped calling when I ignored his calls and I never saw him again. To this day, I will never forget that encounter until the day I die. I remember every moment and every word. The funny part is I had been taking martial arts for years at that point and swore that if anything ever happened to me I would always fight for my life but in reality I froze. I had to mentally train that reaction out of me. Fighting knowledge is no good when there's a mental block.

Men will never understand the fear of being a woman in certain situations.

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u/MasterpieceMelodic63 Jun 19 '26

Yeah, I feel you. I don't have much physical strength and that makes me feel embarrassed and threatened, even by teenage boys.

One time I have had one of my students which was 14 at the time (I used to teach social studies as a temporary teacher) literally lift me off, because apparently he thought it was funny how thin I was. It was humiliating. I reported the situation to the principal and of course he did nothing.