You know, the year I was 13 a friend of mine invited me to her Bat Mitzvah. I was super excited for a number of reasons (she liked me enough to invite me! I'd never been to a Bat Mitzvah before! The party was at a super nice restaurant!) and I spent a lot of time looking forward to it.
We were pretty broke when I was 13, mind you, but this was a big enough deal that we went to Ross and bought me a new dress. It was 1993 and babydolls were really fashionable and I remember finding one that was blue and white and looking in the mirror and actually really feeling pretty in it which was a rare feeling. I got a new necklace too and it was, like, a big deal to have a new dress and a new necklace and to feel pretty.
Mind you, I showed a bit of cleavage in it, because at 13 I was already a D cup and it's hard to not show cleavage when you're a D or higher. Unless you're in a turtleneck. Anyway. At the reception some of the other kids (who I'd thought were being really nice to me up to that point, and including a boy who I'd thought had been flirting with me) decided that it would be funny to try and throw food down my dress.
I remember feeling horrified and humiliated and like I had to laugh and pretend that yes, I too thought that throwing food at my breasts was funny. Nobody said anything to stop them. Nobody came to my defense. I spent the rest of the party outside on the porch of the restaurant, wishing my Mom would come get me right now.
I couldn't look at that dress afterwards without feeling sick. Because it was the dress's fault that they'd noticed that I had boobs and threw food at me. If I'd worn something with a super high neckline they wouldn't have had a target and I would have been safe. I just, how fucked up is that?
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We were pretty broke when I was 13, mind you, but this was a big enough deal that we went to Ross and bought me a new dress. It was 1993 and babydolls were really fashionable and I remember finding one that was blue and white and looking in the mirror and actually really feeling pretty in it which was a rare feeling. I got a new necklace too and it was, like, a big deal to have a new dress and a new necklace and to feel pretty.
Mind you, I showed a bit of cleavage in it, because at 13 I was already a D cup and it's hard to not show cleavage when you're a D or higher. Unless you're in a turtleneck. Anyway. At the reception some of the other kids (who I'd thought were being really nice to me up to that point, and including a boy who I'd thought had been flirting with me) decided that it would be funny to try and throw food down my dress.
I remember feeling horrified and humiliated and like I had to laugh and pretend that yes, I too thought that throwing food at my breasts was funny. Nobody said anything to stop them. Nobody came to my defense. I spent the rest of the party outside on the porch of the restaurant, wishing my Mom would come get me right now.
I couldn't look at that dress afterwards without feeling sick. Because it was the dress's fault that they'd noticed that I had boobs and threw food at me. If I'd worn something with a super high neckline they wouldn't have had a target and I would have been safe. I just, how fucked up is that?