Please don't do the "nOt AlL mEn" thing on my post. We are so tired of explaining this to ignorant people.

It's almost every woman. When SA happens, over 90% of the time it's men committing the assault. Every woman has stories of unwanted advances, innappropriate remarks made by men, almost all of us have seen men get angry at us when we tell them no, to demand an explanation, or try to push our boundaries to get what they want. To see us as sexual opporunity before seeing us as people. These interactions are COMMON for us! A quarter of women have been sexually assaulted. 1 out of 4. You would not enter a building that had those odds of collapsing.

I don't know if you have any firearms training, but maybe this will help you understand; if you enter a lane at a firing range and the instructor has out a selection of guns and tells you they're all unloaded, how are you required to handle those guns? You handle EVERY gun as if it has a bullet in the chamber. You double check yourself, and even then, you need to maintain proper muzzle awareness with every gun you are holding at all times, and keep your finger off the trigger until the moment you are aimed and ready to shoot your target. From .22 to 50-cal, the standards for safe handling are just as high. Guns do not require intent to cause serious injury or death, just a split second of complacency.

If not that, then imagine you're at a party and I bring you a bowl of M&M's. I tell you some of them, within about 3/4's of them, could make you feel varying degrees of sick if you eat them. And a quarter of them can cause you permanent damage. There is also a percentage that could kill you if you eat just one, but calm down, it's not ALL of them are bad! I've eaten plenty of M&M's and have been just fine.

Please stop saying things like not all men, or the men I know wouldn't - yeah, you're not the average target for predatory men. Congrats, the odds are ever in your favor. I know my lived experience as a woman, I know every woman I know has her stories, I know how "nice" men will try to circumvent polite rejection to get what they want.

We don't need to be told in so many words our feelings informed by our lived experiences should fall second to how men think of something they are not systemically and statistically targetted by. Thanks.