It was recently on the news that a woman
walked for 10 hours through Manhattan - New York, in a plain black t-shirt and
jeans on and had over 100 men verbally and physically harassing her.
"Somebody is acknowledging you
for being beautiful - you should say thank you."
"Damn"
"Hey baby"
"God bless you
mami."
One man even walked close by her for 5
whole minutes.
I heard about this on
BBC Newsbeat, a 15 minute news update that comes on Radio 1xtra throughout
the day. On the radio there was a news reporter asking other males in the UK
whether they found this behaviour from fellow males to be normal. One of
the men asked the reporter, how the woman was presenting herself, the
reporter told him what she was wearing and whether that mattered, "it
can draw attention, can't it" he said.
Another builder stated "you know
what men are like" and when told to elaborate, he put it down to "bad
manners".
I find this disgusting. I find the
whole on-going situation disgusting.
I am an 18 year old female, living in
London. And I get approached by men mainly in the evening however,
they don't physically harass me, but they will approach me. They try
to find out why I'm in London, the University I attend, my age just
personal information about me. Luckily, it's easy to lie, and I'm able to
handle myself. That doesn't mean every female can. And
females shouldn't have to deal with those situations when
all they're trying to do is mind their own business.
I don't like the fact that some men
feel that they have authority over females. This can be down to a lot of
things; up bringing, culture or simply taking after someone. Not that any of
these reasons make this behaviour right, in the slightest. I
personally believe that when males are brought up a certain manner whether
it be by a man or a woman, they're brought up to believe that they're
higher than women - authority wise, this will then lead them to always
believe that they have power over females. This is wrong. I'm sure I'm not
the only person who thinks that everyone should be treated equally,
atleast to an extent. This links in with culture, for example, I'm a Hindu, and
in my culture women are often presented inferior to men. "A girl is
governed by her father, a married woman by her husband, a widow by her
sons." I agree with this statement to an extent. I agree that women are
suppose to be looked after by their father, husband and sons, not because she
needs to be looked after by them, but it's a nice sense of security.
I don't agree with this statement if it was meant to mean that women are
suppose to tend to the needs of their fathers, husbands and sons. Of course,
when both of your parents are of an old age, you look after them, and if
your husband and/or sons weren't well then you'd tend to their needs
as much as you can.
All of the above is easily
changed. And is all dependant on what your personal morals are. Some women
do believe they are there to tend for the men in their life, and
if they're happy with this then that's fine, that's up to them. What I
think is wrong, is when men think that they should be seen to by the women in
their life.
Back to the 10 hour walk
through New York by the woman and the responses the BBC
reporter received. I understand sometimes when someone wears something eye
catching, you're going to stare, I do it too. But I don't think it
should be interpreted as an invitation to be approached. I believe you
should be allowed to dress however you want to dress, people use the way they
dress to express themselves, and I think they should be allowed to do this
without unwanted verbal and physical attention. I can't seem
to understand why people pass verbal judgement to others when it has
nothing to do with them. It's just unnecessary and rude.
Another matter I recently
read up on was the "Melton
dad who repeatedly raped his five-year-old daughter". Reading this made my stomach churn. You know those moments
when you're reading or watching something and it has you shouting at your
screen out of frustration? That's what I was doing. In the report I read
on the Leicester Mercury website, "the paedophile callously blamed his
wife for his offending – claiming her disregard for his needs made him commit
atrocities with his little daughter" It makes me physically sick
that he ended up blaming his wife for not tending to his needs,
again, women/wives are not there to solely tend to the needs of their
husbands/partners. But the fact that he thought the conclusion to
his problem was to sexually abuse his daughter, is baffling. I can't
seem to wrap my head around how he could even go through with doing this to a
little girl, despite it being his own child. Horrible.
I could go on and on ranting about how
much I despise men like this, but I physically cannot type anymore, I'm
feeling too angry.
Links below if you want to read up on
situations discussed above. Thanks for reading.
NKB
Sources:
http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Melton-dad-repeatedly-raped-year-old-daughter/story-23102167-detail/story.html
http://www.patheos.com/Library/Hinduism/Ethics-Morality-Community/Gender-and-Sexuality.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lpsk9
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/29/woman-records-10-hours-of-harassment-walking-through-new-york
