"One day while I was in the cafeteria with my friends, a guidance counselor approached me and said, “Your nipples are protruding.” I did not have the slightest clue about what her comment meant, but I assumed it was a positive comment so I said plainly, “Thank you.” She responded, “No, that means they are projecting out,” to which I, once again, said, “Thank you.”
I truly was not trying to be funny — I genuinely took that as a compliment because I was in a period of my life where I was trying to embrace my natural form and I assumed that a woman in a higher position would support that. I was sorely mistaken. She told me to put on a jacket or I would be removed from the premises. So I grabbed my jacket, stood up and walked myself out. The counselor followed and I was met with three security guards and my principal — who was a woman. She explained to me that their policy was meant to protect me from predatory men. I explained that it isn’t my job to conform to safeguard myself. She said — and I remember this quite explicitly — “If you were to go in front of a judge for being raped, you would be held at fault because you enticed them.”
I cannot make this up. I wish I was. An administrator working in an institution dedicated to learning told me this. I couldn’t believe it. It was humiliating. This was the first time I had been criminalized for my body by an authoritative figure. It would not be the last."
by Kailana Dejoie (she/they)
"Womanhood vs patriarchy: a battle to reclaim our bodies"
https://www.michigandaily.com/michigan-in-color/i-love-being-a-slut/
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