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A Few Of My Least Favorite Experiences That I’ve Had With Men
Existing As A Woman In Society Can Be Exhausting And Demeaning

I’m not what you would call “conventionally attractive”. I’m overweight. I’m a lesbian. You’d be forgiven for thinking that I fall well under the radar of men. Unfortunately not.
Each of the following experiences may not be all that noteworthy in and of themselves but combined they really tell the story of how exhausting it can be to simply exist in our patriarchal society.
“She’s being uber cautious isn’t she!”
A few months ago, my wife and I went for a nice little lunch date on the outskirts of a nearby city. The cute corner cafe is part of a bustling street filled with Instagrammable places that Influencers no doubt try to pass off as their ‘little secret’. Since this is England, there’s also a grotty-looking pub on one of the corners that make up this street, with skinny men in tracksuits who are missing some teeth perma-standing outside smoking roll-ups. The pub really doesn’t fit with the rest of the street’s aesthetic, but I’m guessing it stood before the ‘cool’ venues popped up around it.
As we approached this pub, I saw — or rather, smelled — the smokers outside, and we naturally put a little more space between us and them by…