VIGNETTE ON CONSENT

BOYS AND MEN, MILAN

It is your first-time clubbing and you wonder if people can tell. You are wearing faux leather leggings. When you go to pee, a staff member comes in to fix the sink.  You come out of the stall and you smile it him. You wonder if he thinks you look old enough to be clubbing, because you are not (you are 17). He smiles back, “Ciao, bella, tutto bene?” He grabs you and pushes your face into the wall and grinds up against your butt. He asks you if you like Trump and then he laughs. He grapples with the waistband of your faux leather leggings. You think “I am going to get raped,” and then you think “I need to push him off me before that happens, but I don’t want to be rude.” You do. You tell your friends about it the next day. They don’t say much, but they think it is weird that a male staff member was in the ladies’ room.