The main reason I’m having another go with this blog is something that happened to me earlier on today, I’d like to have somewhere a bit more structured to write about things I feel passionately about and I think this may be the place to do that.
Today on my walk home there were two guys walking behind me, they looked about my age maybe a bit older(19/20 at most) and for a good 5 minutes they just shouted things at me from behind. The longer I went on ignoring them, the more persistent they became until eventually I stopped, turned around and told them to leave me alone only to be told “fuck off you stuck up sket I wasn’t even talking to you *idiotic laugh at insulting a female when there’s not a single other person on the street*”.
I was absolutely appalled, not only at what they had been shouting at me in the first place but at the fact that when I responded, I was aggressively insulted. THAT IS NOT OKAY WITH ME. I didn’t keep my head down and keep walking, allowing them to continue with the stream of objectifying harassment, I stuck up for myself and so they became aggressive. It made me think back to the other occasions where this has happened to me as well as plenty of other stories that I’ve heard/read of similar things happening to other girls and women and I ended up completely full of rage realising that too often the response is “oh well boys will be boys”. I’m sorry, i wasn’t aware that harassing women on the streets was a quality that all males are born with? Oh wait, that’s because it isn’t. It’s a disgusting product of today’s society that allows so many men to act disrespectfully and aggressively towards the girls and women in society.
It isn’t a matter of boys will be boys, neither is it a matter of “picking the wrong girl”. So many times i’ve heard things like “oh, picked the wrong one there!” in reference to a woman standing up for herself against blatant misogynist bullshit, or “one day you’ll pick the wrong girl and get yourself into some real trouble”. No. There is no “right girl” to target with this awful objectifying behaviour, and the trouble already exists in the fact that the majority of men in today’s society feel that it is both necessary and acceptable to act so badly and often aggressively towards women, through derogatory and offensive behaviour.
There will never be a right time, place, or girl, to target this way. Ever.
Veronica Bombshells 