So last night, this happened.
At what point have I invited attention here? Or is it the case that I’ve got my head down, keys between my fingers in my pocket, ignoring my boyfriend’s text messages lest I become distracted and vulnerable, trying to simply get the fuck home? It doesn’t matter, because as a woman on the street – a public space and by default a male space – I’m fair game.
The narrative between my female friends and I is tedious and exhausting. ‘I’m sorry you had to go through that’, we say with almost weekly-regularity. ‘That’s shit’. ‘Are you okay?’ ‘At least you got home safe’. At least you got home safe. Like the entirely feasible and almost unsurprising alternative is not getting home safe, and if you’re aware of my back story you’ll know that actually, not getting home safe is a very real and possible…
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Worldly Winds 
I like that you had your keys on your fingers and were dialed in to your surroundings. Of course, it is not right that you would have to feel vulnerable at all, but in this world we’ve all lost the right to be naïve. You’ve done nothing to invite the attention, most women don’t invite it. But we live in a world full of people with no respect for themselves and that extends outward to everyone they meet. It’s awful, ridiculous, unfair and often mind blowing. I’m sorry you had to go through that, but there’s no logic in the illogical :(. Keep your head up!
This didn’t happen to me. I’m just sharing the article.
Well I appreciate the share. This conversation needs to echo until it’s unnecessary.
I agree.
World gone mad. Not all guys are like this. It disgusts me and ninety-nine percent of the others.
I agree Richard and articles like this are probably ‘preaching to the converted,’ to coin a phrase. The world seems extra mad at the moment.
Sure does.
Thanks for sharing the article Alex. It’s too easy for us to think that sort of behaviour is in the past…too sad that it continues in our ‘enlightened’ age. I’m glad that I know more people who would deplore such comments rather than make them, but as Rachel England shows, they continue unprovoked.
I agree. I think I feel a poem about male privilege stirring in my bones somewhere!
Great post! TY!
I am very sorry that this happened to whomever it happened to. This is currently the aftermath of our own American Tragedy: that is, Trump’s comments about women (in addition to all the Other People whom he has insulted). We are a few weeks away from our election, and we right-thinking (well, non-fascist, actually) folk are concerned about how America must look to our European cousins, and the world.
I teach college English, and am always discussing this with my students, most of whom are African- or Hispanic-American. I assure them that T is an aberration, and that this country (to which my Polish ancestors came in 1904) remains a place of equal opportunity for all.
Hillary Clinton is not perfect– who is?– but I note that a woman in politics must develop a tortoise shell, because men in politics (or business, medicine, or any profession– construction, architecture, perhaps even Art and Music) are horribly competitive.
I am a man, by the way, a feminist all of my life, and a minister, to boot. My blog is http://deitychaser.blogspot.com
Thank you for reading this.
Well said 🙂