What a wonderful and thought provoking post. And on a topic I have been confronted with recently. I recently moved from a small college town to Seattle and now use public transit every day. While I have been very lucky as I am rarely confronted and have been in very few truly frightening situations with the opposite sex, I feel tense daily now when making my way to the bus stop. Tense because I hear comments made about me, particularly my ass as I walk down the street. This happens nearly every day. I know it is a little thing that probably shouldn't be a big deal, but I always puts me on guard and I hate the fact that as a woman I have never been able to walk down the street without having attention drawn to me. Like you, I tend not to dress provocatively, usually jeans or slacks and tees and make a point to appear in a hurry and stern. I hate how these cat calls feel so threatening, but also detest the cultural awareness that this is nothing to complain about or worse, that they should be taken as a compliment. I have yet to be shouted at or truly threatened, but sometimes the unwanted sexual comments are enough to make me feel insecure, unsafe in my own skin and like hiding... and often it feels a bit too much like Jr High out there. I guess that really was training for the real world in a way.
And this is an area of women's lives that should be made more public and talked about a lot more.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-06-29 08:22 am (UTC)And this is an area of women's lives that should be made more public and talked about a lot more.