One of the most dehumanizing and frustrating experiences of my life was when I was stalked.

I was 24 years old. I had made an arrangement with a 21 year old woman. We agreed at the beginning that it would be physical, with some casual dates, texting, and time spent together. We agreed that we were not exclusive.

Within two months, I began to realize that she was not satisfied with what we had. She wanted more--she wanted a lot more. She wanted to move in. She wanted to meet my parents. Since I had no interest in being in a committed relationship with her, I told her so in the kindest way I could:

I really enjoy your company, but I don't think we are meant for each other. You want a more committed and long-term relationship while I don't. I hate to do this but keeping you around just feels like I'm playing with your feelings and giving you false expectations, and I don't want to make any promises I can't keep.

She took it poorly, to say the least. At least three to four days a week, she showed up to my apartment at random times begging me for another chance. She called and texted me constantly. She wrote on my wall on Facebook at 2am talking about our future together, and showed up at my apartment knocking on the door when I noticed it and deleted the message. She messaged every one of my female friends on Facebook telling them to stay away because I was hers. She tried to blackmail me with old shots of us naked together, and then revenge porned me when that didn't work.

One of the worst things was that to all of our mutual friends (and those she revenge porned me to), I was the bad guy for "stringing her along." I was supposed to count my lucky stars that I had a beautiful young woman head over heels in love with me.

Two months later, she finally gave up. She ended it with a long email that I didn't even bother reading.

The way that it is portrayed is that men are perpetrators and women are victims. Stalking only hurts women, according to feminists (although they would agree that male on male stalking does exist). I have many male friends with experiences similar or identical to mine.

I think awareness needs to be raised about this. I would like to ask you guys, if you are comfortable with it, to share your similar experiences.