substack.com/@itsjustmelissak/…

Melissa Corrigan, she/her
Story time!

"A few days ago, I was almost home when I passed a disturbing scene. A teenage girl on the sidewalk, huddled up with her knees tucked to her chest as a man, boy perhaps, screamed at her, inches from her face. I was driving so I’m not positive, but it seemed like he hit her. He was clearly out of control.

I whipped my car around and positioned myself right in front of her, rolled down the passenger window, and asked if she needed help or a ride. She said no, but was really sobbing. I asked again, no pressure, but if I couldn’t give her a ride could I at least call someone? She shook her head. He was standing several feet away glaring at her and then at me, back and forth.

I pulled my car right around the corner at the end of the block and parked it. I stared at him. He walked a block down, staring at me.

[Mind you, I have my six year old in the car and I am just weighing my options. I texted my husband and asked him to come- this was very close to our neighborhood.]

Then I see a car pull up behind me. A woman got out and went to the girl and spoke to her. She was wearing a badge on a lanyard, so she was a teacher from the high school nearby. Then I got out of the car and went and spoke with her.

She said she thought she recognized the girl from school, and she was not okay with the situation, just like I wasn’t. We both stared at him. He walked another half block away.

The teacher turned and helped the girl gather up her bookbag and things and walked her across the street to the apartments where she apparently lived and where he was not letting her walk to.

My husband arrived. We stared at him until he walked another block… and another. The teacher gave the girl her number and left.

And then…

I was in my favorite coffeeshop and a beautiful young woman came in. Total stunner. She ordered her coffee, and it was her birthday so she got her coffee for free and we all said happy birthday. But she got a phone call and we could hear some guy literally screaming at her through the phone.

On. Her. Birthday.

She sat down and began to cry.

The barista (female) said, “Whose ass do I gotta beat?”

And then the cashier stepped up and said, “Yeah, me too.”

I said, “Yeah, me too,” and a chorus of every woman in there echoed as we all stopped to do what we were doing to offer our ass beating services.

“Nobody should make you cry, first of all, and most definitely not on your birthday. If your man makes you feel some kind of way on a day that’s about you, leave his ass NOW,” an older black woman piped up with advice for the young woman.

She smiled and wiped her eyes and looked at all of us. There was literally only one man in the place, and there were seven woman looking at her telling her we have her back. Her phone rang. She looked at it. Then stuffed it down in her bag and began sipping her free birthday coffee.

Two separate occasions in one week where women had another woman’s back. We didn’t know her, we didn’t know the situation, but we knew a man was misbehaving in a violent way and we weren’t having it. And we made sure she knew we had her back.

There were three protestors who stood up in a restaurant and called Donald Trump Hitler TO HIS FACE.

They were all women.

Women have stood toe to toe with ICE agents, Border Patrol, DHS, police, and MAGA nut jobs.

Women have stepped forward to lead mutual aid and community organizations.

There’s a reason they want to silence us so very badly.

We are strong.

We are powerful.

They are scared of us.

Because a woman will take off her earrings to beat your ass, in a moment’s notice, if she sees you hit a woman.

Because day by day, women grow less and less afraid of men and more and more emboldened to fight them.

Literally.

These men better learn. The tide is turning. Damsels in distress aren’t being saved by male knights on white horses, they’re being saved by other damsels. We don’t need no fucking knight. We have each other.

50% of the population is a lot. And we’re pissed, tired, and fed up.

These immature men with rage problems might want to think twice about their actions before they get caught by the wrong menopausal girl gang. He won’t be walking away from it, that’s for damn sure."

Melissa Corrigan, she/her (@itsjustmelissak)

Story time! A few days ago, I was almost home when I passed a disturbing scene. A teenage girl on the sidewalk, huddled up with her knees tucked to her chest as a man, boy perhaps, screamed at her, inches from her face.

^{Melissa Corrigan, she/her (Substack)}