I was twelve years old and had just started secondary school. My friend and I had decided to go for a walk to get something to eat. Walking about with friends, unburdened by parents, was a new and exciting thing for me. Looking back on it now, I am appalled by the kinds of things people said to me that day… does it seem so awful because I am looking back as an adult? Men… grown men, men old enough to be my father… commented on my breasts, my stomach, my shape. The security guard of the restaurant we went to even told me that he likes blue (the colour I was wearing) and that i must have worn it just for him.
At the time, that short walk felt like I was stumbling through some kind of jungle. I felt threatened and objectified at every turn… like prey. I always look back on that day as the day I realized how men could see me… not as a child, the way I saw myself.
More than ten years later, I have come to see that men on the streets harass young girls in a much more aggressive, more overtly sexual way than they do adult women. Furthermore, I notice that when I am dressed in work clothes, the comments I get are far more respectful and polite than those I receive when I am in jeans and a t-shirt. Is it because I look younger then, more vulnerable and attainable? What does this say about men, about society?
Danielle