A few more thoughts. I did a semester in China in 1990. Then three years in Honduras as a Peace Corps volunteer. In both places my European-ancestry features and USA clothes made me stick out like a sore thumb. When YL talks about the relentlessness of the male gaze I think I can begin to imagine some of what it might be like. Any time I was not with people who knew me personally I had to deal with everything that gets projected onto foreigners. I could not know if people saw me or my skin. I might have stayed in Honduras but I decided to go back to a place where nobody takes a second look at me.

I know that this comparison only catches the projection part of the others’ gaze and not the danger or potential danger.