Good advice. I will add that for me these anxieties have been mentally (and often physically) exhausting to deal with. I can rationalise them away but they have already eaten up a huge chunk of my energy. It's why therapy is important to build resilience and tackle the anxieties at the source.

Thinking about this more, when I do take a leap and assert my intelligence then it can make me feel very embarassed and scared afterwards, afraid I did/said anything wrong and made a fool of myself. Do you relate to that at all?

Thanks for sharing, great story. Ditto on feeling stupid 🙋🏼‍♀️

I feel compelled to agree with you but that would require knowing what op is even saying. Totally incoherent to me.

But instead, the very same people giggling, memeing, & eroticizing these horrors will continue to defend patriarchy & vilify feminism. You cannot sincerely care about Epstein & his accomplices' crimes & support patriarchy. It's "virtue signaling" & entertainment.

Power is relative. The "powerful elite" can be members of your local church. Boosters & coaches for your local team. Frat houses. If we listened to girls long ago instead of men & how they choose to frame sexual abuse as individualized, anomalies, we wouldn't keep being shocked.

Men: these are aberrations. Boogeymen. Rarities.

Girls: