I was in the Bahnhoff of a small city in Bavaria on the second floor, headed for the restroom. This guy turns the stairs and walks toward me. He catches my eye and I can see him suck in a breath and get ready to say something. I’m tired, I have to pee, I have to pay 2 euros to take a piss at McDonald’s, and this guy triggers my memory of a man who followed me in Munich. It’s an automatic reaction to nip this in the bud. I jerk my head no–sharply, while looking him in the eye. Maybe I put him off his game, because it took him a few beats to recover from the shock. He walks by and murmurs “fat cow.”

I’m shocked, so I keep walking. I assert my right to not talk to a complete stranger in a public but isolated train station with a curt nod and he thinks it’s okay to insult me? Because I nodded at him!? I really wish I’d have said something back-those words hurt, even two years later. Because I am fat, very fat. But I’m not bovine, or slatternly, or glutinous, or anything else implied by “fat cow.”

Was this my punishment for asserting myself, for denying him access? What an arsch lecker!

– anonymous

Location: Bavaria, Germany