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‘My youth wasn’t a deterrent to his sexual attention, but part of its appeal’
by Kate Demolder
28th Aug 2022
28th Aug 2022
Adult male attention – wanted or otherwise – creeps in at the edge of a young girl’s adolescence, at a time when we are still figuring out how to use a tampon or finish our homework before bed. From then on, the feeling of predation permeates. We never asked for this.
I remember the first time my body felt like a weapon. I was 11, walking to the church with my class when a boy snapped my best friend’s bra strap in an attempt to make her embarrassed. He laughed loudly, the cackle echoing around the acoustics of the church, as her body shrunk itself, slumping in her pew, while the rest of the girls in the class refused to make eye contact. She was embarrassed,...
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