Personally, I had many experiences in my family and past that made me a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) from childhood. I never got a formal diagnosis (because I couldn't afford it), but I match with 99% of the characteristics. Over time, these experiences have changed my perspective on women.

To be clear, I completely respect women and treat them as equals. They have their own lives and choices, just like any individual. However, due to my past and my family dynamics, I’ve had negative experiences with women (mainly bullying). Some were toxic, and some still are. Since this happened at a very young and impressionable age, it has left me feeling fragile and defensive toward any informal comments made by women.

In the education learning and project work sphere, I’ve actually had better experiences with women. But I feel very disrespected if a woman makes personal comments to me, even in good faith, without my consent. I maintain a purely professional relationship with women and expect the same in return. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen, and I deeply resent it.

I don’t know, and I don’t care, if this comes across as sexist or misogynistic, but my question is simple: I’m a human being with a right to privacy, and if I don’t feel comfortable with a particular gender making personal comments or asking about my private life, what’s wrong with that? I think it would be a problem if I refused to work or collaborate with them, but I’m not doing that. In fact, I often prefer working on group projects or studying with women. My only request is that they respect my personal boundaries and maintain professionalism.

It’s not that I don’t have female friends. In fact, some of my good friends are women. But the key here is that it took a lot of time for me to trust them and consider them reliable. Once that trust was established, I felt safe and secure enough to share personal things with them, but it took time. There are also certain topics I prefer to discuss with my male counterparts, and I don’t see anything wrong with that.

I know I can’t change people’s opinions, and they have a right to their own views. However, I find it unethical and disrespectful when unsolicited opinions are forced on me.

Even if I go ahead to pursue relationships , I would like my partner to first take my consent and permission for talking on some topics that are too sensitive for me so I can mentally and emotionally prepare myself and would definitely not want that unnecessary teasing and mocking about many things. I am not against that but it should be in a more gentle way and the words/ statements which make me feel sad/bad deliberately should be avoided while messing around with me