Personal space

If you are a woman in today’s modern world then at one point in your life you have been harassed, to some degree, by a man.

Walking home from a night out, as we have to do in the little town of G, my girlfriends and I were approached by a group of young men clearly intoxicated. Sensing no threat at the time and recognising a few of them from our classes we let them walk with us until our paths spilt. This unfortunately, seemed to give them the wrong idea and they began flirting with us. Being tired and ready for bed (our own), we paid them no attention, but they became more and more persistent and thus we became more and more an uncomfortable. Most of them were polite, but one got very touchy with all of us. We eventually made our way across the street when he grabbed my friend’s ass. Thinking we should have said something at the time, but we were tired and scared. It disturbs me that incidents like that happen so often that we have become a little desensitised and just “deal” with them. 

I felt like I needed to tell you guys that little story to give you an indication of how uncomfortable it is for woman to be treated like this. I’ve been poked, prodded and groped by groups of men who think that they have free access to my body. I think it’s disgusting and so degrading. I promise you if you come up to me, tell me your name, ask me mine and simply speak to you I will be 90% more willing to engage with you than if you simply lunge* me.

(In this country, it’s hard to talk about this kind of stuff causally or contextually, because domestic violence and rape are such serious social and political issues. Yet if we don’t speak out against harassment then we are condoning this kind of rape culture mentality. A woman’s body is not an object that can simple be used and abused. I don’t think I’m that qualified to speak about that aspect fully, so why don’t you look up a rape survivor rights activist Michelle Solomon’s blog for a better articulated discussion. http://journoactivist.com/aboutmichelle/)

*Lunge- Rhodes slang for attempting to kiss someone randomly.