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Unwanted touching by a stranger
Nov. 29th, 2010 02:11 pmThis past weekend, I went to a live showing of "The Clumsy Lovers" at a local venue, the Tractor.
As the show was going, one particular woman kept crossing back and forth the audience area, and every time she passed behind me, she would put her hand on my elbow or on the small of my back.
At first I thought she was just working her way through the crowd, but after the 3rd or so time it happened, I looked back quickly enough, and noticed that there was no "crowd", she was just specifically touching me as she passed.
She did it a couple more times, even as I tried to avoid it, until I finally ended up standing or sitting with my back to walls and pillars, so that nobody could come up behind me.
When I mentioned it to a friend who also was there, he asked "she cute?". No, she wasn't, and that should be beside the point anyway.
If we gender-flip the situation, if I as a man kept touching and following one particular uninterested woman there, she would have rightly made a fuss, and the bouncer would have ejected me. But as things were and are, there was nothing at all to be gained by me doing anything other than keeping my back to the wall, and being glad that my long heavy oilskin trenchcoat was keeping my skin covered and protected.
As the show was going, one particular woman kept crossing back and forth the audience area, and every time she passed behind me, she would put her hand on my elbow or on the small of my back.
At first I thought she was just working her way through the crowd, but after the 3rd or so time it happened, I looked back quickly enough, and noticed that there was no "crowd", she was just specifically touching me as she passed.
She did it a couple more times, even as I tried to avoid it, until I finally ended up standing or sitting with my back to walls and pillars, so that nobody could come up behind me.
When I mentioned it to a friend who also was there, he asked "she cute?". No, she wasn't, and that should be beside the point anyway.
If we gender-flip the situation, if I as a man kept touching and following one particular uninterested woman there, she would have rightly made a fuss, and the bouncer would have ejected me. But as things were and are, there was nothing at all to be gained by me doing anything other than keeping my back to the wall, and being glad that my long heavy oilskin trenchcoat was keeping my skin covered and protected.
