Had my first experience legitimately being scared and alone walking around my house in Seattle. I generally consider myself to be a tough chick and more than capable of taking care of myself. On top of that, Seattle is a fairly tame city as far as these things go, even living in the bad part of town. I was walking to Pike Place to pick up a reserve roast for my markout this week so I can pull a late night to write a paper and I was walking home when this group of four guys start upon me, yelling and rushing to catch up. Theyre obviously drunk and kick a buskers guitar case on the way. Now, I walk fast and at an uncomfortable pace for most people when Im alone, thank god. It was apparently too much work for them and they resorted to shouting at me, though one rushed to catch up and got very close. They were shouting for me to slow down and that they werent going to hurt me, they just wanted to talk. I will never understand how drunk guys think that shouting and saying Im not gonna hurt you baby while following you is supposed to instill comfort. Honestly, Its not like a woman in the world is going to suddenly stop and be like Oh, Youre not going to hurt me? Okay! Youre drunk, shouting at me, and following me and there are four of you. I took out my phone to text my best friend Casper that I was being followed and he knew where I was going, because honestly, that shit is scary. They started shouting things along the lines of Oh Youre texting your boyfriend? Its okay baby, he doesnt need to know whats going on with us, You can go confess in church. The shouting quickly devolved into shout at me how I was a prude and other miscellaneous things because I refused to turn around. Normally, when people assume Im texting my boyfriend I flat out tell them Im a lesbian and to leave me alone, because heteronormativity pisses me off, but I was legitimately terrified that if I engaged these men they were going to hurt me as they were being verbally aggressive. I think this is very important and something that we, as a culture need to address because all I could think as I made my way up the hill to my apartment was that, if anything happened, and I was assaulted or worse, they were drunk, and weve seen over and over in the world that drunkenness in men means that all is forgiven and they cant be held accountable for their actions. This is something that /has/ to change. I should be aloud to walk down a hill two blocks and over a block to get coffee without fearing for my safety and knowing that it would somehow be my fault for leaving my house alone.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 04:02:22 +0000
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