frustración

I just wanted to share my thoughts quickly about something that's been bothering me...

European men can be so sleazy!!

Today, as I was getting off the Renfe train at Arc de Triomf, this man who had been kind of staring at me for the short duration of the ride gestured to let me exit ahead of him. Then, as he was stepping off the train, he "fell" and blatantly slid his arm around my waist. I didn't know what to do but run out of the station! It was very creepy.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened. Beyond getting the honking that girls sometimes get even in the United States, I've also been called a "sexy mamacita" by a garbage truck driver and had men in the metro stations try and begin conversation with "hola chica..."

This isn't the worst of what happens, by far. A friend was told by a man in Portugal, "hey chica I want to have sex with you," another was groped on a tram, and another two friends had men leaning in for kisses and attempting to look up their skirts while traveling by train in Italy.

It's infuriating. What gives men the right to treat women like that? Why would they even want to? Do they think any woman would respond favorably to being treated that way? Do any women respond favorably to being treated that way?

Maybe it's a hyper-machismo that makes these men act this way; an elevated need to prove that they have power over women.

I shouldn't generalize; by and large the men here aren't openly disrespectful to women. It's just that the ones that are who stick out and leave me with a general frustration toward men here. Also, this kind of sexism supposedly doesn't exist in Northern Europe. In fact, in states like Sweden there is supposedly an atmosphere of absolute gender equality.

Anyways, I'm just annoyed and wanted to share. I just got back from a trip to Lisbon, which was INCREDIBLE! More about that later.