Hey guys, it's the resident Mudkip Man here. As of recent, esports Twitter has been doing the right thing and revealing people within their communities guilty of sexual harassment. Fortunately, I have never been harassed by people in this community. However, I'm a victim of harassment due to a relationship I had in high school. It lasted over a year but over that year it grew gradually worse. The first couple months were great, I had a lot of time since it was over summer and I felt like I mattered to her. We went to different high schools, and we both knew junior year was going to be busy for us, but rather than just accept that focusing on our school would make us stronger as a couple and as individuals, she kept encouraging me to visit her more often when school started back up. She would also get horrendously upset if I didn't text her for hours, and often times I would never get any homework done until 2 am when she fell asleep. If I was lucky, she'd get angry at me completely out of the blue due to her constant nitpicking in my behavior and bringing up old arguments, leave me on read if I tried to defend myself, and I could get to work by 8 pm. Outside of school stuff, there were still a host of other issues, all of which would lead to arguments if I introduced a counterpoint:

- "I'm more talented at music than you because I can sing and you play instruments. Singing doesn't come to everyone, but anyone can learn an instrument."
- "I'm better at tennis than you so I don't need to go to see your varsity matches but you need to come see mine, you might learn something."
- constantly being treated like a himbo even though I took more difficult classes, had a better GPA, and better standardized test scores, just because she went to a better overall school
- "Why should I be respectful to your parents? They owe me respect first because I'm actually making you happy." (she threw trash at my grandma's feet on prom night because of this mentality)
- "You're the boyfriend so you pay for dinner and drive me around, that's how a relationship works."
- "Hinduism is so weird. I researched it myself, I'd never let my children be Hindu." (right, because I trust you to visit the most reputable sources; "Don't Hindus [redacted crimes against humanity] to goats?")
- "I'll have you know that there are lots of guys who would love to take your place so you'd better do what I say"
- she got more political over time, and her whole family started being more racist, xenophobic, anti-LGBTQ, anti-Democrats, anti-Hinduism, etc to my face
- "you can talk to me about anything babe" -> arguing with me about what I talk about
- "Your friends are all gamers. Gaming is stupid and all gamers do are drugs. Get away from there."
- "Why are you friends with <insert female friend's name>? You must be cheating on me."
- she met some new "friends" who reinforced all of these opinions and behaviors and also introduced her to alcohol and partying

At this point I bet you're wondering why the hell I stayed in that for over a year. The answer is sexual coercion.

This next portion is stuff I never wanted to say in this community and I hope I never have to again, but telling your darker stories requires full context. In the middle of summer, we had our first make-out session. Closer to the tail end of summer, she introduced me to foreplay, but it was always "pleasure me, but I don't have to pleasure you. If you stay with me long enough, I might~" Just writing this is bringing back so many painful memories of being a consenting human being but at the same time bending to her every will because of this coercion/teasing and empty promises of love and seeing me as an actual person. Many times I didn't even want to acknowledge how shitty this era of my life was, but it's left me full well knowing:

COERCION = HARASSMENT

Even if there was consent, you're not innocent if you're using any kind of sexual behavior to take control of someone. At the end of the relationship, I had depression and insomnia, and now I'm a student at Ohio State and a part of the VGC community with new friends and life lessons I would have never had if I was still dating her. I might still be a virgin but in hindsight, I'm sure glad I didn't lose it to someone who harassed every fiber of my being!!!

Thanks for reading :) Respect the brand, Conics out~