To the boys whose parents failed them.

To the boys who weren’t taught that a short skirt isn’t an invitation.

To the boys who think drunk means yes.

To the boys who put things in girls’ drinks and call it a joke the next day.

To the boys who learned entitlement before they learned empathy.

To the boys who confuse attention with ownership.

To the boys who were never told that silence is not consent.

To the boys who blame alcohol, hormones, or temptation instead of their own choices.

To the boys who say “she should have known better”
instead of “I should have done better.”

To the boys who grew up hearing “boys will be boys”
and believed it gave them a free pass.

To the boys who were taught how to win, but never how to respect.

To the boys who weren’t taught to sit with rejection.
Who were never shown how to hear no
without turning it into anger.

Did you know that 81% of women have experienced some form of sexual assault or harassment in their lifetime?

That number isn’t abstract.
It’s your sister.
Your friend.
Your colleague.
The woman walking past you at night.

It’s why we walk with keys between our fingers.
Why we share live locations.
Why we fake phone calls.
Why we scan reflections in windows.

It’s why we’re alert.
Especially after dark.

Sometimes we’re short.
Stern.
Even rude.
Because being polite gets mistaken for interest.

Sometimes we’re overly nice.
Smiling.
Laughing. Nervously.
Because we don’t know how you’ll react if we’re direct.

We calculate every response.
Every tone.
Every word.

Not because we want to.
But because we have to.

So to those boys,
this is what I want you to know:

Our behavior is not mixed signals.
It’s survival.

Our caution is not arrogance.
It’s experience.

Our fear didn’t come from nowhere.
It was taught.
By stories.
By friends.
By what happened to us.

And what happened to us was never our fault.

What we want from you is not guilt.
Not shame.

We want awareness.
We want accountability.
We want you to question the jokes, the silence, the behavior you let slide.

We want you to understand
that respect isn’t complicated.
And consent isn’t unclear.

And safety should never be negotiable.