I Spent My Life Consenting to Touch I Didn’t Want - The New York Times

A year of isolation made me consider all the casual, unwanted touch women endure — and why it’s so hard to refuse it. Credit... Marta Blue for The New York Times Supported by By Melissa Febos My friend and I were both 12, our bodies simmering with new hormones. We had known each other since elementary school. Sometimes I would ride my bike over to his house, and we would kiss on the floor of his bedroom amid the lacrosse pads and video-game controllers. This would never have flown in my own house, but his mother was not as vigilant as mine. His older brother, a few years ahead of us in school, was handsome in a cruel sort of way, and though he had never before acknowledged me, I had a crush on him. One afternoon, as my friend and I shared a bag of chips in his kitchen, his brother arrived home with two friends, one of whom I recognized as the boyfriend of my neighbor. These boys were brash, and it was difficult to tease apart the allure and threat of them. When the brother’s gaze settl

A year of isolation made me consider all the casual, unwanted touch women endure — and why it’s so hard to refuse it. Credit... Marta Blue for The New York Times Supported by By Melissa Febos My friend and I were both 12, our bodies simmering with new hormones. We had known each other since elementary school. Sometimes I would ride my bike over to his house, and we would kiss on the floor of his bedroom amid the lacrosse pads and video-game controllers. This would never have flown in my own house, but his mother was not as vigilant as mine. His older brother, a few years ahead of us in school,