Coworker: You guys are so dramatic, not all men are evil and shit.
Me: …. I know that, intellectually. Emotionally I’m not that clear.
Cowoker: Ah?
Me: Let me put it this way. You know that if a skinny, rather short guy like you goes to jail, he’s rather likely to be raped, right?
Cowoker: Yes.
Me: So let’s suppose you go to jail for something rather harmless, something that harmed no one, like… ar… selling bootleg DVDs or something like that. Something that would keep you inside for a year or so.
Cowoker: Okay?
Me: So you go to jail and you know that people get raped in there. Yet you intellectually know it’s impossible that all inmates are gay and sexually interested in you, it’s statistically impossible. Right?
Cowoker: Right.
Me: But you’d still be scared, wouldn’t you? I mean you know not all of them are out to get you, but you know some might and you can’t tell who it would be. And yet you are forced to spend all your time with them, to share your space with them, and you know you might look at that ONE guy who could and would want to rape you. It would be ridiculously scary, right?
Cowoker: O__o it would.
Me: ……. well, that’s how women feel every day, all the time. We know not all men are out to rape us, most would never dare do something like that, but we know there are some out there who would, gladly at that, and we can’t tell them appart on sight alone. Also we feel like the short, skinny kid who did nothing really bad in jail, we know anyone can bring us down with a single punch.
Cowoker: …… O___O
Me: … so that girl who glares at you in the subway, she is not thinking you are a horrible man that deserves to die, she is trying to find out whether you are part of the small percentage of men out there who can and want to do her harm. You all should wear labels by the way, it would make communication so much easier.
Cowoker: …….. that’s fucking horrible.
Me: I know, right?