"She lists a few of her own encounters with harassment and rape culture: the man who rubbed his crotch while staring at Percy and her friend; the man working a cash register who asked to touch her breasts; the man who asked to photograph her when she was 16, showing her an album of naked women. The point isn't to interrogate the men who supposedly did these things, or whether they happened."
"Girls are socialized to be pleasant. To be passive. To neutralize conflict rather than spark it. They learn to prioritize others' feelings over their own. In 1988, the feminist legal scholar Robin West argued that these habits and behaviors help foster intimacy and community, but that they also diminish women's protection under the law. If someone's instinct is to preserve relationships and stability as a matter of survival,"
An accumulation of everyday sexual harassment and sexually threatening incidents shapes women's responses over time. Women often encounter behaviors such as men rubbing their crotches, soliciting to touch breasts, and asking to photograph young women. Socialization trains girls to be pleasant, passive, and to neutralize conflict, prioritizing others' feelings over their own. Those instincts can reduce legal protection because survival tactics favor preserving relationships and stability rather than actions juries may recognize as resistance. Common responses to sexual assault include fight, flight, freeze, flop, and placate. Many survivors later comfort or care for their attackers as a coping response.
Read at The Atlantic
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