My sixth-grade bully, Angela, thought the most hurtful name she could call me was “man hands.”
For weeks, Angela tortured me with snide remarks about my “manly” hands, how I “manhandled” everything I touched, and how I was big and clumsy, and unfeminine.
This was one of the first times my gender was policed through body shaming. I became very self-conscious of my hands and started wearing jelly bracelets, fingerless gloves, and nail polish to distract from how large and manly they were.