Ladies, throughout your existence, how many times have you been told to “cover up”? That your skirt is too short. Or your back is too low. Or your top is too revealing. You might get harassed on the street, they say.
Macky Buenaventura, a writer and a BPO Team Manager, shares a story that reflects on this matter. He wrote about a time his former company had a team outing and one of his colleagues, an attractive girl, had too much drinks than she could handle. The story, which he posted on Facebook, struck a chord with many that as of writing, the post has already more than 34,000 likes and has been shared more than 11,000 times.
RELATED: Open Letter: Catcalling is Not a Compliment
Read on. It’s an insightful tale that traces the root of what truly matters in what has become a vital social issue.
The post reads:
“Cover Up So You Don’t Get Raped”
Let me tell you a true story. I used to work at one of the biggest BPO companies in the city.
We had one workmate who was admired by a lot of guys in the office. Let’s call her May. She was 5’6, caramel-skinned, and she had beautiful razor eyes.
During one of our team buildings at a nearby beach resort, she got drunk. Too drunk. Way too drunk.
I saw her passed out on the sand and the water was rising so I woke her up. She got up and ran into the water and collapsed into the water. A few seconds later she stood back up, ran up to me, and grabbed me by the hand.
“Come with me” was all I heard.
She took me to where she left her bag, grabbed it, and pulled me towards the bathroom.
Long story short, she ended up undressing in front of me cause she wanted to take a shower. I guess she was too drunk to care or step inside the cubicle before undressing. She was covered in sand.
Another female workmate passed us by and I asked for help but she didn’t seem to care. She just laughed and said I could handle it on my own.
Fast forward. It’s been five minutes and I haven’t heard any splashes or any running water at all. Worried, I decided to check on her, only to find her passed out on the floor, topless.
With no one else sober enough to care (I didn’t drink), I decided to just rinse the sand off her and washed her upper body. I didn’t want to go anywhere lower than her waist as I didn’t want any confusion to occur on her part when she wakes up the morning after.
Just as I was rinsing the soap off her, she regained consciousness and told me she could handle herself from there on. Scared to be left alone, she still asked me to stay and keep her company while she finished showering and changed.
The next morning, all the guys started commending me thinking that something happened. I of course insisted that nothing did. They ended up asking her teasingly and she just smiled and played it cool, even making jokes about the entire thing.
I’m sharing this story not because I want to brag about what I did, or in this case, what I didn’t do. I’m doing it to show you that it doesn’t matter what a girl does.
If you are truly respectful and you know what is right from wrong, then no matter what happens, whether she’s wearing a sweater or a bustier, pants or panties, it doesn’t matter if she’s passed out drunk or sober enough to calculate her taxes, you still would not take advantage of her.
Pretty powerful message here, don’t you think? Share your thoughts about this story in the comments.
