By Sharanya Gopinathan
Earlier this month, Nathalie Gordon posted a series of tweets that all women everywhere instantly related to, and that sparked instant tweets in response from women expressing solidarity and sharing their own experiences. Beautiful stuff.
In the thread, she tells the story of how she was sitting on a bus with her earphones on, and a guy gets on and sits next to her, asks her where the bus is going, where she is going, what she’s doing after this, and then, if she’d like a drink. Once she said no, he took her earphones out of her hands and says, “don’t be rude”, to which she says she apologised, because she didn’t know what else to do, because she didn’t want to provoke him. Of course, dude needs no reason.
I look out the window but out the corner of my eye I see he is staring at me and has started to rub his crotch.
— Nathalie Gordon (@awlilnatty) May 4, 2017
When she complains to the male driver about the illegal incident happening on the bus, he has an infuriating but in the scheme of things, honestly unsurprising response:
I tell him that a man is rubbing himself on the bus. The driver, a man, says ‘he probably isn’t- sit somewhere else’.
— Nathalie Gordon (@awlilnatty) May 4, 2017
I say ‘the man just asked me for a drink and when I said no started to rub himself’. The driver says, ‘what do you expect me to do?’
— Nathalie Gordon (@awlilnatty) May 4, 2017
I say ‘remove him from the bus, call the police- I don’t care’. The driver then says to me, ‘you’re a pretty girl, what do you expect?’
— Nathalie Gordon (@awlilnatty) May 4, 2017
Well, obviously:
What I expect is for men to stop thinking every woman on the planet owes them something.
— Nathalie Gordon (@awlilnatty) May 4, 2017
Like we said, this conversation brought lots of women together to share their stories, but of course, it also brought out the #NotAllMen brigade, and some plain old trolls, who told her to dress decently, or that it was her fault, or that it didn’t happen in the first place.
Warning : the story contained within probably didn’t happen https://t.co/66nCqoIP06
— Bobby D@zzler (@cpfcdazzler) May 4, 2017
As always, we saved the best for last (don’t ever say we don’t tell you both sides of the story). The driver of the bus came out with his version of events and feelings, and it’s just as gross as you’d expect it to be.
@awlilnatty Your story inspired me. pic.twitter.com/xOYPPNC0Rq
— Samuel Vee (@antispamuel) May 4, 2017
May 12, 2017 at 9:01 pm
Gendered expectations do exist, but you’re supposed to overcome them. What pride is there in inaction? It doesn’t matter if it is a man or a woman who gets harassed, the driver is an equal opportunity coward.