Musings on Being Followed Home

ayabug:

I watched this video yesterday by Alybongo and it really made me think. Unfortunately, her experiences of being followed home and cat-called are not rare. Women in my circle of family and friends have been raped, molested and assaulted, and those are only the incidents I know…

The really sad thing here is your view of the situation. (And I am not saying you are wrong, just that it’s sad).

You, an attractive female, were out on a run; a car with two males passed you and one smiled at you; when you ran past the car they greeted you with a friendly beep.

You see, there was nothing bad happening per se; yet you felt uncomfortable. Why? Because we have created a society where women have to assume the worst in any situation. When they a confronted by any communication from a male, how ever non-threatening and friendly, a woman is wise to assume the worst because chances are, it is in fact agressive.

Why can we not live in a world where two males passing a woman running and smiling at her can make her feel glorious for triggering a smile them?

Why can we not live in a world where a group if Nigerian soccer fans following a woman are surely just walking the same direction by coincident?

It’s a sad state of affairs we live in.