Keys in My Hand

I'm a huge fan of the blog, It Just Gets Stranger (fellow Strangites unites!), because the posts are hi-la-ri-ous. However, in the post "Falling in Amsterdam," the blog's writer, Eli McCann, had attached three videos of him wondering the streets of Dubrovnik and Sarajevo late at night alone. He also mentioned, even recommended, in a later post, "10 Tips for Traveling on a Budget" that travelers should meet locals and get them to show you the sights since locals know their country better and can help you avoid expensive tourists traps. True that.

But as I watched the video, I couldn't help but think that I, a single young woman, will not be able to do what he did. Wonder the streets late at night alone in a foreign country? The thought makes my hair stand. And don't even mention making friends with locals. I have a difficult time trusting those around me, much less strangers in a foreign land (male or female).

As safe as these cities are, the reality is that male privilege does exist in subtle ways. McCann had the freedom to travel so freely, and even share it with his blog readers, an experience I can only envy and observe, but never replicate.

Photograph by Taylor Yocum
I so relate to this subject.

The reality is that women have to be on guard much more than men do in public spaces. A few months ago, BuzzFeed published an article about Taylor Yocum's Guarded project. (More details found on Yocum's website.) Yocum had photographed women holding items they carry with them in case of an attack-- keys, pepper sprays, rape whistles, etc. I was RELIEVED to learn that I wasn't neurotic after all, for I wasn't the only one who held her keys/ cellphone in her hand when walking home alone at night. The feeling of always having to be on guard is common among many women.  As Yocum wrote about her project,

"In the wake of the taxicab sexual assaults in the Iowa City community last year, my female classmates and I discussed how we keep ourselves safe on walks home at night. We pulled our mace and rape whistles out of our pockets and showed them off---not one of us was fazed. The men in the room were taken aback that we even needed to think about this. This discrepancy between men and women's vulnerability hit me on a deep level... They were the physical manifestation of the realities that women have to face every day: the necessity to be 'on guard' in a society plagued by rape culture and victim blaming."

And this is in the United States. Imagine how much harder it is for women visiting another country.

How do we know we have become a more gender-equal (and safer) society? When men and women can wonder the streets late at night alone, be it at home or in a foreign country, without fear of being assaulted. The fight continues.