As a woman, I have been taught to always
be alert to my surroundings. I am 5’2” and have a small build. Being in public
spaces can be dangerous for a smaller woman, or any woman, especially at night.
I am also diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and often feel
uncontrollable worry and anxiety regarding everyday situations. It is hard for
me to distinguish if my fear comes from my anxiety or my identity as a woman.
Perhaps it is a combination of the two. I have common fears such as walking
alone at night in secluded and poorly lit areas, much like the women from the
Cobbs Creek Park study (Brownlow, 2005). I have less common fears such as going
to the grocery store alone, or for that matter, going anywhere alone. I have
fears of saying or doing the wrong thing and ending up in dangerous situations.
It is difficult for me to trace these fears back to their origin; whether that
be my anxiety or my identity as a woman.
According to the Office on Women’s
Health, “Women are more than twice as likely as men to get an anxiety disorder
in their lifetime”. I often find myself wondering if my anxiety is a product of
the society we have constructed. Where public spaces are gendered and fear is
embodied differently by different genders. Where growing up as a little girl to
a woman, we were taught to be afraid. I have often been dismissed by being told
that my fears are irrational or that I am overreacting. For instance, I was cat-called
on a walk home alone by a group of middle-aged seemingly drunk men and called a
friend to tell them I was scared; I was told that I needed to calm down and
that I was overreacting to the situation. Comparing fear directly to instances
of crime leads to the conclusion that “high levels of fear amongst women are
irrational” and fear is such a complex emotion that “to label it with
polarities such as ‘rational’ or ‘irrational’ has little meaning” (Pain, 1997).
Fear is an embodied experience that women and people with anxiety
Avoidance and alertness are strategies
that I use myself. I avoid more dangerous ways to where I am going, such as
dimly lit areas or areas with no lighting at all. I carry my keys between my
fingers to provide an advantage if needed. I stay on the phone with a friend;
not looking at my phone, not wearing headphones. I turn on my location for my
friends to see. I make sure to look men in the eyes to let them know, that I
know, they are there. Taking these precautions makes me less of a target. Being
alert and prepared is something that has been instilled in me since I was a
little girl. I was instructed to yell “fire” not “help” when I am in trouble. I
was told to dress conservatively so as not to attract the male gaze and
unsolicited advances. I was told to never let my drinks out of my sight and to
watch how much I drank. All of these precautions I take are much like those
described in this video AContinuous Quest for Balance: Experiences of Women in the Public Space | AlizéeSourbé | TEDxIHEID about women’s experiences in public spaces. Once again,
is this fear a result of my anxiety or my identity as a woman?
References
Anxiety disorders: Office on women’s health. OASH |
Office on Women’s Health. (n.d.).
https://www.womenshealth.gov/mental-health/mental-health-conditions/anxiety-disorders
Brownlow, A. (2005). A geography of men’s fear. Geoforum,
36(5), 581–592.
https://doi-org.proxy.library.ohio.edu/10.1016/j.geoforum.2004.11.005
Pain, R. H. (1997). Social Geographies of Women’s Fear of
Crime. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 22(2),
231–244.
Sourbé, A. (2022, April 15). A Continuous Quest for
Balance: Experiences of Women in the Public Space. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pliH5suoibE
I relate to this so much. Honestly, there’s no such thing as overreacting in situations like this because no one else can fully understand what it feels like to be in that moment. That fear is so personal and so real. It limits what you feel you can do. At the same time, it gives certain people, often men, freedoms they shouldn’t have, like catcalling or behaving in ways that make others feel unsafe and powerless.
ReplyDeleteThe connection between fear and freedom is so real. For women, fear takes away so much of our ability to move freely, to feel confident in public spaces, and to exist without constant worry. It’s heartbreaking how much mental energy, time, and effort go into staying safe when the burden should never have been ours to bear in the first place. It makes me think about Whitson’s discussion of gendering the right to the city and how public spaces are shaped by power and inequality. Whitson (2017) highlights how cities are not neutral spaces, they are gendered in ways that often exclude or marginalize women. I believe fear in public spaces is part of this exclusion.
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ReplyDeleteYour post captures the intersections of gender, fear, and anxiety in navigating public spaces. I think Garnette Cadogan’s reflections in “Walking While Black” provide a parallel to your experiences, as he also describes navigating spaces with constant vigilance, shaped by his identity as a Black man. Both your post and Cadogan’s story reveal how deeply identity influences the ways we interact with and move through the world, with fear often serving as a guide for survival rather than an irrational reaction. Your reflection on societal constructs that gender public spaces also resonates with Cadogan’s commentary on how identity shapes access to freedom. Just as his experience of walking while Black restricts his ability to enjoy the streets without fear, your experience as a woman navigating public spaces is marked by a heightened awareness of potential threats. Both cases highlight how fear, while deeply embodied and personal, is also shaped by systemic inequalities.
ReplyDeleteHi Baileigh!
ReplyDeleteI relate heavily to your post about anxiety as a woman, especially when you wrote, “It is hard for me to distinguish if my fear comes from my anxiety or my identity as a woman. Perhaps it is a combination of the two.” Fears and anxieties often occur along with other, specifically gendered, ways of thinking. Generalized anxiety exacerbates fear as a woman, and fear as a woman exacerbates generalized anxiety.
For example, while surveillance is a behavior often associated with anxiety, it is also commonly associated with womanhood. A fear of going to the store is a common form of anxiety, but socialization as a woman can fuel this fear. A woman may be overwhelmed by the number of people in a store, the lights, the sounds, the prices, being judged by other shoppers, etc. but her identity and socialization as a woman may spark specific fears regarding being disturbed, assaulted, etc. from men who institutionally hold power over her.
I think that it may be hard to separate generalized anxiety and the fear that comes with being a woman, as they invoke similar feelings and are often disregarded or dismissed in similar ways.
Hi Baileigh,
ReplyDeleteI first would thank you for your courageous post, as someone that suffers from anxiety. It is very difficult to verbalize it especially in writing. With that being said, I think that sometimes we forget that our identities can trigger certain fears and catastrophic thought processes when we are faced with the public world. As the public represents everything that can happen in society whether that be through the good or the bad. I also believe your blog post addresses something that I have issue with myself, which is the fact that we are taught in marginalized identity groups. That the vulnerabilities of being a certain identity is something that we have to address on our own. It is not something that society should think about in terms of reframing the situation.
I also think when we discuss reframing of the situation at hand, it requires broader discussion. In the sense that the people of the world need to all be responsible for any of the threats that are posed in society. Regardless of their own identities, people need to create a better world by making the world safer for everyone and being active defenders against the plights of different groups from themselves.
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