At what age/point did you become aware of male predators?

I was thinking about this the other day, about the gut feeling I would get around a specific neighbour who’d stand in my personal space when I was about 5 years old. I remember feeling a sense of danger that was different from a fear of violence or other discomfort. As I got older I was able to recognise what it was and in my early teens there were rumours about him.

That also brought up some other memories, like a time I was queuing at an ice cream van and a man with a limp arm (like from cerebral palsy) kept rubbing it back and forth across by butt. I remember freezing and then the lady serving calling to someone “there he’s doing that again to that girl”. This was in the 80’s and I was about 8 years old. Nothing ever happened. It was never reported by the staff and I never spoke of it but I felt shame.

So I think at quite a young age I was aware of that danger although I didn’t really understand it and I had already internalised some of it as my fault.

By age 11 I had to travel to my school on public transport and lost count of the number of men who sat next to me in my school uniform, jiggling their leg, asking “do you have a boyfriend, what do you do with your boyfriend?”

It sickens me now thinking about child-me having to experience those things. And the lessons “do what adults tell you. Don’t speak back to adults” ringing in my head when I just wanted to scream “fuck off”. Please if you have children, never teach them that adults deserve automatic respect. Don’t accidentally teach them to politely tolerate predators.