Anyone who has watched Neon Genesis Evangelion should understand the concept of the AT field. If not, I will endeavour to explain it in layman's terms for all the ignorant using the analogy of personal space. Encroachment into your personal space causes you to put up a barrier, which is basically the activation of your AT field. It's what keeps human beings at a reasonable distance from each other, like two hedgehogs who can't get too close for fear of getting poked to death. Without it, all of humankind would just be one big swirling mass of orange juice.

A perfect example of this phenomenon would be the events that occurred on Monday the 7th of this month as I was walking back to school with the Dykemaster Fifi. We had just spent the day denouncing the injustices of the patriarchy, eating Subway, and searching sport-related establishments for examples of sexism in action, such as posters of male tennis players in mid-serve, and male footballers running and kicking, while a lone female tennis player stands posing with her racquet and smiles sexily; or the display of children's bicycles: while girls' bicycles are called "So Sweet" and "Radberry" and have colourful tassels hanging off the handlebars, boys' bikes have names like "Thunder" and such, and are without the said tassels.

So as we walked back to school after this fun outing, we encountered a first-hand example of abominable rudeness and the very patriarchical attitude we had just spent hours deploring. A group of young men in school uniform was approaching in our direction, and there was nothing for it but to pass through it. As we walked alongside the cluster of male youth, crass sexual comments were made, as is to be expected in such cases. But one intrepid fellow decided to take things to the next level. Young sir, while continuing to vocalise his crass sexual remarks, believed it to be in his best interest to grab me by the arm and pull.

Once again I address myself to those of my readers familiar with Neon Genesis Evangelion. Those who watch the series may recall witnessing scenes in which the Eva unit in focus activates its AT field, which manifests itself as a large, sprawling orange barrier of light off which Angels tend to deflect. A similar occurrence took place in this situation, which, needless to say, elicited my turning right around, grabbing away my arm and screaming at the top of my lungs, "DO NOT TOUCH ME". The general reaction to this flare of disapproval was mockery, and the penis-wielders decided to go along their merrry and vulgar way.

In response to this situation I can see Lynne Truss falling unconscious from sheer and overwhelming shock at the blatant disregard of the principles of social distance, and I can safely say that I would react thus had my ire not been provoked more by something else entirely. It wasn't his action that caused my towering outrage. No, ma'am. It was the attitude that motivated the act: the attitude of patriarchal entitlement, the mindset that "I should not do this thing, but as I am entitled to, as I am beyond reproach, and as I will get away with it, I am going to do it anyway". It is that which caused me to fume uncontrollably until I could get into contact with Leaves and tell him so that I could eventually calm down.

Incidents like these cause me to think that Trinidadian men are becoming less and less worthy of anyone's time. Their sense of entitlement is strong. And I've heard now from three different sources that I as a woman simply cannot do anything about it. I am told that I just have to accept that men are going to be assholes, and must comfort myself with the thought that this young man may eventually contract HIV, work at a thankless and low-paying menial job, and marry a promiscuous and uncaring woman.

In the meantime I can only wait impatiently for the hair upon my legs to grow a bit longer, and for the day when I feel like wearing bras again.