Thanks for reading!

Yes, I do agree that women tend to feel a need to validate their actions in the face of harassment, stalkers, etc. It’s very upsetting that people can’t understand that this type of behavior is scary and problematic.

It is very much a damned if you do, damned if you don’t type of situation. Had I acted angry and blew up at him (and God forbid something happened to me), the narrative would be “Well she should have been nice about it”. If I try to reject him nicely, I’d be criticized “She should have been more aggressive if she really meant it”.