I agree with what you’re saying completely.
All of us women on this thread, former young girls like Libby and Abby, recognize that fear in their voices. We understand the mental gymnastics taking place.
Terrifying.
yes. 1000% yes. to add on, I’m from the next state over and any midwestern woman or girl has the burden of keeping sweet & staying polite. no one is gonna tell me that those poor girls weren’t terrified. still braver than I would have been.
So, so true.
Even from here on my couch, I feel that primal fear and a knot in my stomach.
Women and girls everywhere feel anxious when a strange man is coming up too close behind us.
I’m a lifelong New Yorker, so not Midwestern nice, but watching this video reminded me of something that happened when I was that age.
When my twin and I were 12 and my best friend was 13, we were walking over something that was referred to as “the Trestle.” It’s just a walkway that allows pedestrians to walk over a busy highway. There’s a lot to do in NYC so no one I ever knew walked over rickety bridges for fun, but this was a popular and crowded shortcut.
Plenty of people, nothing to fear; when suddenly to our right, a man was walking towards us with his penis hanging out. He was laughing maniacally. We all reflexively turned our heads away. He kept walking and so did we.
End of that story. This was decades and decades before cable TV, the Internet, cell phones, true crime shows, podcasts etc. so I don’t think we were habituated into thinking we’d be murdered. But it was very unsettling and here I have three grandchildren now and still can see it, now that I’ve been reminded.
I can’t clearly hear everything the girls are saying, but I 100% can hear the tension in their voices and the brief effort of trying to figure out what to do before he’s on them in a flash.
JMO and experience. I always tell the men in my life that they walk in a way that is very different from women. They aren’t perpetually sizing up their surroundings as women typically have to do.
Additional personal incidents with strange men are flooding back to my mind now. I’m uncomfortable just remembering.
I feel overwhelmed with wanting to save the girls and I’d guess that’s unanimous here.
Again, JMO and experience. Shared by most women here, I believe.