Hollerin
That City Paper article about how street harassment of women in DC is so out of control started me thinking (again) about how the harassment directed at me personally has abated so much since I’ve been living here. Compared to other cities I’ve lived in, DC feels like safe harbor. This clearly is not the case for the majority of women who live here. And I have yet to figure out what it is about me (if anything?) that makes catcallers and hollerers think twice before targeting me with their unpleasant verbalizations of their basest desires. When I first moved here, I thought it was the temperament of the city itself, a nice, polite Southern town (I’ve mentioned this here before, in Ally’s journal), but that theory was shot further and further down as I got to know women who’d been living here for a while who assured me that it indeed was a problem here. My next theory was that I just looked oh-so-tough because I walk around with a scowl on my face most of the time, but this theory doesn’t hold much water either, because I’ve pretty much walked with a scowl on my face since I took my first baby steps, and before I came to DC I heard “Hey, show me a smile, princess!” daily, if not several times a day.
So, I have no idea what it is that serves to avert this sort of unwanted attention. All I know is if it's something I'm subconsciously doing, I really, really want to get it figured out so I can teach it to other women. How will I go about “figuring it out”? I have absolutely no idea. Every time I pass a construction site, should I turn around and demand “Why did you not catcall me?!” from the workers?
So, I have no idea what it is that serves to avert this sort of unwanted attention. All I know is if it's something I'm subconsciously doing, I really, really want to get it figured out so I can teach it to other women. How will I go about “figuring it out”? I have absolutely no idea. Every time I pass a construction site, should I turn around and demand “Why did you not catcall me?!” from the workers?