Every Man I've Dated Since I Was 18 Hates Women

| By Lauren Taglienti |

[Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom via Pexels]

Every Man I've Dated Since I Was 18 Hates Women

By Lauren Taglienti

No, it’s not because they just don’t like me:

Most of them do, 

At least for a little while,

But the amount of my care regarding that is more minuscule than I am to the universe. 

It’s because they’re too dishonest with themselves 

To be immediately forthright with women,

Myself included,

About who they are. 

People pleasing is merely a lie gripping flowers so hard they suffocate, crumble.

These men always ensnare me,

Only to do something incredibly misogynistic that I desperately overlook:

Tell me what to wear, that I should only wear white, that I should grow my hair out, tell me I’m too loud or too quiet, that I’m too ambitious or too ill, that I’m too much of an inconvenience, that not wearing a bra is why grown men on the train stare at me, tell me that it’s my fault, that I’m never enough, that my existence doesn’t deserve respect. 

They ignore me, threaten me, rape me, hate me.

They’ve all been the same man, and they show me they believe these misguided sexisms with their actions,

Never taking accountability for the harm caused. 

Stockholm syndrome runs through my subconscious deeper than my traumatic childhood: 

I could easily marry a man who treats me this badly and beg for their love the rest of my life. 

Every man I’ve dated since I was 18 hates women,

And I don’t care if a man never wants to date me again.