In class, we talked a lot about geographies of fear, specifically women’s vulnerability of being in a public space. Sexual harassment and acts of violence in public spaces are an everyday occurrence in which affects the day-to-day lives of woman. It’s important to understand these fears and realize that this behavior is often times dismissed with no consequences. These spaces of fear are created from characteristics that invoke fear and everyone internalizes fear differently. Although, men have a significant vulnerability to violent crime victimization as we learned in Alec Brownlow’s reading.
Last March, a few of my friends and I took a trip to Fort Lauderdale for spring break and had an experience of sexual harassment in which I was genuinely scared for my life while being in a public space. We were out on the town and towards the end of the night, we were getting ready to head back to our hotel when two older men approached my friend and I and asked if we wanted to go on a “boat ride.” We kindly declined and told them that we’ve had a long night and wanted to get back. Our other friends already caught a ride back to the hotel, so it was just my friend and myself. The men kept questioning about where we were from and continued to make inappropriate comments about our bodies and how “sexy” we were. Nicely, we told them that we were college students on spring break and that we had to get back to our hotel. Trying to quickly find our Uber to get home, the men continued to shout provocative words at us and said that they’d come to our hotel and show us a good time. When the Uber arrived, the two men tried to get into the vehicle with us and we tried to push them out and had to shout that they weren’t with us until the driver yelled at them to get out. This night was incredibly traumatizing, I can still remember the fear I felt in my body. I was angry with myself for not calling the police being the situation could’ve gone way worse. There are times where I still witness sexual harassment in a public space. The difference now is that instead of reacting nicely, I speak up and defend myself against this disgusting behavior as long as I’m not alone and in a public space. I'm tired of pointing my nose at the ground and allowing others to treat me like I'm a piece of meat. It's absolutely mortifying and degrading.
From a young age, we are taught to never walk alone because it is not safe. You never know what someone’s intentions are, which makes it almost impossible to stand up for yourself without becoming feared for your safety. In Kristen Days article on being feared, the study instead was on men’s experiences of being feared. It is too simple to portray all women as victims in this equation and all men as aggressors. We must work instead to increase women's real and perceived safety while acknowledging that women and men occupy a range of positions in these relationships. (Day, 2006.) I thought this study was extremely insightful and explained how gender discourses are increasingly challenged.
https://youtu.be/sdn15-t7kg0
Hi Angelina,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing – you’re definitely not alone. I, and I’m sure a lot of other people in our class, too, have had similar experiences.
I think it’s useful to look at this from a slightly less gendered angle as well. The man/ woman dichotomy serves to reduce or make the experiences of non-binary and gender non-conforming folks invisible regarding sexual harassment and acts of violence. Those who have intersectional identities, as we explored in class, are at an even higher risk in public spaces. Even when you look at it from an angle of men/ non-men, similar to what you said, this doesn’t fully encompass the discourse. Not only are non-men perceived as an “other”, but also non-men who aren’t white, aren’t straight, aren’t cisgender, etc. Even men who aren’t cisgender experience this. It’s more like, patriarchy vs. anyone who it perceives to not hold power in that social and structural hierarchy. Anyone the system feels entitled to oppress. It seems like a binary is created no matter how this conversation is portrayed (which is sort of frustrating for me). Understanding perceived safety in public spaces relies highly on individual and collective identities. Some folks might not feel comfortable in public spaces due to collective trauma experienced within one (or many) identities.
I didn’t use any resources to write on de-gendering, so here’s a fun link.
Gender podcast that I like: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ZCIi4ztWZyl9DjYMgsNRy?si=b60f11172bca40a7