Lena Gonzales

Experiences Being a Female in a Perverted Society

Imagine this: you’re a 13-year-old female. You’re wearing simple clothing, just a t-shirt and jeans. Nothing sexy about that, right? It’s a plain-Jane outfit. You’re doing something simple; you’re with your mom at the grocery store getting some groceries. In the aisle comes four men, each one doing a double-take as they pass by you, some of them giving you the "elevator eyes." You know those eyes—the eyes that look you up and down like you’re something tasty. You stare right back at them, wondering what they’re looking at. At first, you’re in denial—they couldn’t possibly be looking at you like that, right? They were in their 50s, you in your first year as a teenager. Thirteen-year-old me didn’t know why they were staring. I thought maybe I had some leftover chocolate on my lip, but, alas, my mom told me it was because they were perverts. She told me that some men don’t have control, and that they stare and think horrendous thoughts, all at the expense of a little girl. This day was the pivotal moment when I knew that the world wasn’t what I thought it was.