On the night of July 3rd, I was assaulted by a woman in the streets. It was a random and crazy as it sounded, she called me an "evil white man", and ending up stabbing me. The cut on the neck doesnt look too bad, but the doctor said it was an inch away from being seriously life threatening and I would have likely died.

The next day, I'm at a 4th of July street BBQ (we had masks and social distanced). A woman who lives in the next building over said "hey, what happened last night? We saw the whole thing." (They didn't). I started answering, "yeah, crazy right?" thinking they were being sympathetic. Then she said this:

"so you like punching girls in the face?"

What?

"You like punching girls in the face? We saw what happened"

An hour ago I had been in the hospital getting staples. I was still very much on edge. And now, surrounded by 20 people, this is what I'm hearing. She's trying to goad men into assaulting me, right there.

Because I pushed her away when she tried stabbing me in the neck?

Something I noticed is that neither woman had reluctance of hesitation in how they attacked me- the woman brazenly assaulting and stabbing me, and now the woman at the party.

I was shamed because I didn't want to die. I was being stabbed and pushed her away. And the next day, a woman told me that it's NEVER ok to touch a woman. She saw my wounds, she saw me bloody the night before (she missed the first half, the FIRST time we were attacked). I should note what happened, this woman followed us in her car, getting out to charge us, and followed us all the way home. This was right in front of where I live.

For pushing her away.

Because I am a man, I was expected to let myself get hurt, even killed. I had to worry more about the comfort of my attacker than my own health and safety.

Since then, in the past month, everytime I walk past a woman I'm reminded- "50% of the population can stab me and I'm not allowed to defend myself." I've had physical altercations with men bigger than me, and this was much worse.

I just want to post this, it's really affected me.