College guys need to learn to accept our polite rejection

Why isn’t he taking the hint? I ask myself this while some guy I’ve showed no interest in keeps pestering me for my number.

I ignore him but he stumbles his way over to me and tries to convince me otherwise. It hasn’t even been five minutes and right away I get an unwanted catcall from another guy who probably will drop to the floor if he takes one more shot.

I politely tell him I’m with friends or simply trying to have a good time on my own, but of course, he doesn’t care about that.

He tries a couple more times and calls me beautiful so I’ll soften up, but I still (calmly) say I’m not interested. I don’t even know this guy’s name, but I look at his annoyed face and get ready to hear the cliché rejection insults. “Whatever,” he grumbles and stumbles away to another girl.

I got lucky in that instance, but unfortunately not every girl is lucky with a simple “whatever” response. Some guys will not take a hint.

We get comments like “slut,” “bitch,” “ugly,” “fat,” and even the “see-you-next-Tuesday,” word if we don’t want to give a jerk some satisfaction.

In many cases of rejection, the guy goes away or even apologizes if he knows he’s being too much. Other times, we just get insulted. Or we meet the worst kind of guy – the kind who takes it too far and loses his mind if we aren’t accommodating.

The truth is a whole lot of us have guys who threaten us, harass us, blackmail us, follow us home from parties or take advantage of our vulnerability and convince us we’re are in the wrong in a situation they created.

I should make this clear: I’m fully aware there are plenty of decent guys out there who respect girls and our decisions. I also am aware there are guys who get this type of harassment, too, but it more often happens to girls, and the results can be dangerous and/or damaging.

“It’s always risky. Sometimes at parties guys just think its okay to grope you and grind on you, and then when you reject them, they act like you’re crazy,” said Temple sophomore Rachel Dundorf.

House parties are a common place for girls to encounter a horny guy who won’t take a no for an answer.

Asia Kopcsandy, a sophomore, talked about her experience at a friend’s party: “This one guy wouldn’t stop touching me and he pretty much forced me to give him my snapchat.”

In situations such as these, most people would tell Asia, or other girls who’ve experienced this, to tell the guy to hop off or walk away. Many times we can’t, whether out of fear of an overreaction or of being labeled a bitch for not politely putting up with the guy.

We see articles or statuses all the time with incidents of girls being sexually assaulted, beaten, threatened, etc. for rejecting a deeply insecure guy. In February of this year, a Wisconsin man shot his coworker for allegedly rejecting his advances.

No, most women aren’t shot when they reject a guy. But any guy’s refusal to calmly accept a polite rejection is part of the problem. No means no. Sometimes there isn’t even a “no.” Sometimes silence indicates a “no.” Basically, anything that isn’t a clear “yes” is a “no.”

When will college boys (and some older boys) accept that? In most cases girls are casual or polite when they reject a guy, and he still doesn’t accept the rejection and turns it around at her. He has to try to belittle her so he can feel superior, which is a problem itself – and also pathetic.

As a college student, I can say from experience and observation that this isn’t taken seriously enough because of the college hook-up culture we’re accustomed to. Yes, we go out to parties, but we don’t ask to be groped or forced to give you our social media so you can find us. In the college party scene, there’s this standard of how girls must behave and put up with a bunch of horny guys on campus, but no one is asking for this treatment, nor should we accept it.

“There are two kinds of bad reactions that I repeatedly encounter from freshly rejected boys. There’s the angry, aggressive reaction and the quieter and sneakier, which are more about inciting guilt and emotional manipulation,” said Temple junior Katie Weaver.

Those are the two main reactions girls receive, and we’re sick of it.

It shouldn’t even have to reach to the point where girls have to put on a brave face and carry on calmly after we’ve been attacked verbally, physically or sexually.

We should be able to tell an annoying guy to f— off without him turning into a rejected, emotional shit.

Kudos to the girls who can confidently do this and walk away with pride. To the girls who struggle or let their fear get to them, we’re here for you. Hopefully one day college guys will finally get the point.