From carrying pepper sprays, to shrugs or scarves to cover ourselves up – all us women can relate to this need to be always prepared, ‘just in case’. And for the longest time, women have been subjected to problematic statements to counter this very real problem – i.e. to confine women at home at night, to instate curfews. And if she’s out despite that, then it is automatically her fault, right? Phew! Let’s dust our hands off of all responsibility then.
But what would happen if the tables were turned? Almost an utopian scenario, posed by civil rights activist, Danielle Muscato, asking women,
“What would you do if all men had a 9pm curfew?”
The replies on this thread encapsulate how women are deprived of getting to enjoy the simplest of things, because of this constant fear and anxiety bound to their own safety.
Danielle implores men to actually listen to the replies so that they understand, how being alert all the time almost becomes a draining second job.
Limiting men from the public sphere at night seems just as ‘sensible’ a response as confining women to the private sphere to ‘avoid’ assaults. Isn’t it?
The replies captured the scary reality of being a woman – from the fear of getting our drinks spiked, to the fear of being followed home. Ensnared by this crippling fear, some of us women actually end up confining ourselves.
How we get to act in public accounts for a sort of privilege subject to our class, caste and gender. The effect of this post was that men actually listened.
Some of the men replied to the thread claiming that they never realised that their freedom accounts for a certain privilege bound to their gender.
The viral post opened a channel for a conversation to negotiate the space politics of the public sphere, that all the genders equally share.
It starts with a conversation and acknowledgement of each other’s struggles. And we are glad about posts like these that end up working towards peaceful negotiations.
Read the full thread here.
Feature Image source.