Originally Posted by LadyJaye
Pink and I were taught to be excruciatingly polite, which I think completely obliterates a woman's ability to trust her own primal intuition. It enraged me that I was constantly talking myself out of feeling unsafe or menaced, because I was almost always correct. Living in an inner city area, there was a lot of violent crime, so we were very aware of ourselves and the people around us, so I finally just did myself a favor and told myself to go with my instincts if something made me feel endangered. Once, Pink my best friend and I were walking around a lake in town that is popular for joggers - I kept noticing this guy, who passed us several times going in the opposite direction. I knew he was doing something because the lake was too large for him to have lapped us so many times. I mentioned it to my friend, and kept walking. A few minutes later, I made the habitual check behind me, and there he was, right behind us. I stopped abruptly and made a huge scene - I bellowed at him that I knew what he was doing, and that if I saw him behind me again I was going to call the police. He didn't say anything, just got this flat irritated expression on his face, and then disappeared. We decided it was time to leave, so we finished our lap around the lake, and then went to the parking lot - Pink and I got in our car and drove about 10 minutes to a shopping center, and right as we parked, the GUY pulled into the parking space in FRONT of us, smiling this creepy smile. I was FURIOUS - I grabbed a wrench out of the floorboard and started to get out of the car, yelling at him through our windshield - he stopped smiling and started looking freaked out, but thankfully, Pink did the right thing and prevented me from getting out. It would have been such a horrible idea for me to have gotten out of the car. We went to a friend's workplace a few doors down, and the guy disappeared.
I used to think that Pink and I had more horror stories because we were in men's job fields, but the more I talk with my friends, the more I understand how easily women can be menaced.
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