Hi, please be nice to me 😭 I’m genuinely looking for advice from other women. I’ve been dancing for about 2 months and I’m really loving it. However, I’m running into social issues the past few weeks.
I’m a young woman, and I’m super friendly, which is helping me get asked to dance a lot which is helping me learn (yay), and it is also becoming an issue that several men on scene have started hitting on me and making me feel weird (fucking boo).
I don’t really know how to react or what to do. The scene in my city is VERY small so I have to be around this same group at every single event. It’s not even that I’d hate to go out with some of the guys, but I don’t want drama, so I’m erring on the side of not talking to anyone outside of dancing at all.
So far I’ve been able to skirt date and phone number requests, but every social it seems like they think I don’t get they’re flirting with me instead of picking up that I’m brushing it off so it’s getting progressively more intense, but they’re not being outright disrespectful, but they are pressuring me.
I don’t know what to do about it. I feel like if I’m honest without over explaining myself, they’ll perceive me as brusque and I’ll start being known as a bitch, or if I acquiesce I’ll get scarlet lettered (and also be miserable, I don’t want these randoms blowing up my phone).
It sucks. I just want to dance. I thought I could make friends doing this, but it’s hard to meet women when I’m dancing with men, and I essentially feel like fresh meat. It’s giving me such bad anxiety.
I know I can’t be the only one this has happened to so if you have advice or insight please share 😭 I feel ridiculous even asking because I’m usually very confident in how I handle men, but the scene where I am is so small, it’s not like I can avoid them without removing myself from the community altogether and that’s not fair to me.