Carl Collins is, Ever Bigger

“ They were saying things like, you always have to be alert, and you shouldn’t walk down the street with headphones. People love saying shit like this. It’s a way of subtly explaining why this wouldn’t happen to them. Ignoring the fact that literally everyone in New York with a pair of headphones and something portable to plug them into walks around with headphones on, I can’t believe anyone thinks someone who’s just been assaulted wants to hear about all the things they did wrong. One nice thing about this having happened to me so many times now is that this no longer even remotely hurts my feelings, but it still blows my mind all the same. ”

I Was Born Free: Kindness Prevails! Or, I Was Kicked in the Face: A story about a man’s fourth mugging.

I’ve been mugged twice and both times spent months scared of certain neighborhoods and scared of every person I passed. I’m almost glad for the experience, because it helps me begin to understand how truly terrifying a sexual assault would be, and how easily the victim could feel shamed and blamed afterward, how it would shatter their trust in humanity, and how lucky I am that men generally don’t get sexually assaulted.

But of course I’m not glad for the experience because it fucking sucked and made me feel like a helpless little shit and made me hate people and assume the worst of strangers and it cost me several hundred dollars and a long scary night driving around with cops frisking some innocent teenagers unlucky enough to live in the shitty crime-ridden area I’d merely wandered into, walking the wrong way home.

(via nickdouglas)