How To Scare a Large Group of Men

We had an away game last week, in a town I had never been to. We were hanging out before the game (eating, chatting) and I noticed a gang of about 20 guys gathering along the side of the field, well apart from the rest of the crowd, just off first base. I play first base. I just knew it was going to go down badly.

So the game started and sure enough, they started shouting and harassing me. Nothing serious, just annoying and distracting and disrespectful. Also, they were trying to show off so they were shouting some things in English, which mostly ended up being nonsensical or stupid. Someone would shout “Hello how are you?” and the whole group would dissolve in giggles. These were grown men.

By about halfway through the game I couldn’t stand it anymore. People from both teams were telling me to ignore them which just made me madder. I was being harassed and not one person from the other team (who were these guys sisters and mothers and girlfriends) nor my male coach (who at the very least speaks Spanish for goodness sakes!) would just go over and tell those guys off. But probably the thing that made me maddest was there were a bunch of teenagers in the group. Now, I may not be able to change an adult male that has been sexually harassing for decades, but I sure can scare the heck out of some kids and let them know it is NOT okay to be shouting these things at women.

So I marched up to them. In the sweetest, friendliest, perkiest fashion I knew, I said: “Hi guys! I want to introduce myself. My name is Marie. Im a volunteer here, teaching science. Ive been in El Salvador for about a year and it has been great. Now I would really appreciate it if you would respect me and not shout things at me while Im playing.” I turned around to take my position and realized EVERYBODY was staring at us. I heard a couple guys mumble “Okay. . .” and one guy shouted out to the whole field “Oh, she was just telling us how handsome we are!” But they stopped yelling. And after that inning over half of them left. And the ones that stayed were really cool. We actually had a normal conversation! I was shocked and amazed!!

The best part was when my team piled into the van after the game. Immediately, one of the girls turns around and says, “Marie! WHAT did you say to those guys?!” I told the truth and everyone was very disappointed. They said “Oh, we thought you yelled at them.” Evidently Im scary enough when Im smiling.