- Border security may ask you questions and assume things about your travel that they probably wouldn’t of your male counterparts. These officers generally have some sort of clearance to ask practically anything that they want, and though there is certainly a generalized intimidation tactic used on all incoming travelers, my gender often seemed to play a role in the subject and severity of the questions. Questions that I was asked varied from irrelevant but tolerable, “Is the person that you are meeting here a man or a woman?” to totally offensive and blatantly inappropriate, “Have you ever been in sexual contact with any person that you’re intending to meet?” Standing there alone at that security booth, alone in that country, it took me a few moments to completely steel myself and answer the question with all the docility and innocence that this gross man wanted. As aware and informed and enraged of a feminist I am and was at the time, I still really needed to gain access to the country within a timely manner, and I knew, with all the uneasiness in my gut, that this vile and unimportant man would hold me in a security office until my return flight arrived two weeks later if I didn't behave exactly as he wanted me to.
- Making eye contact with certain men really can be dangerous. I’d heard this one before and dismissed it almost entirely. I’ve traveled to many US cities and certainly had not encountered an issue with this before greater than common cat calling, so it perplexed me that a Central European city so similar in political progression and attitude could really have a problem this regressive. The first negative experience that I had with this totally shocked me, and though it was mild, it set a tone of slight discomfort for the remainder of my trip. My tip? The same one I heard before I left: wear dark sunglasses if you want to stare, and apparently not just in Mediterranean countries.
- Periods and their respective services can be much harder to manage in a foreign place. As I’m sure any other person who carries a uterus with them knows, the moment that one begins travel is the moment that one’s internal linings will shed hard and red, for absolutely no reason other than unlucky cosmic inconvenience. Periods away from home are uncomfortable enough, between the locating of the tampons in the tiny, random pharmacy and the painful uterine contractions, but being in a city that is a bit alien to you makes the whole process even more of a maze. Firstly, many public bathrooms, including those in airports, aren’t equipped with in-stall garbage, and none that I encountered had any form of feminine product vending or distribution. Secondly, the attitude towards purchasing these products at a store can be strange and inconsistent. Sure, an eye roll or a weird comment here and there is ultimately inconsequential, but so is the purchase of the product itself. This articular set of behaviors is just one of the many, many dumb and unnecessary mannerisms that women may have to deal with for having the bodily functions that they do, anywhere in the world, but it certainly feels worse when you’re nowhere near home or familiarity.
Politics and ActivismAug 17, 2015
3 Things I Learned As A Woman Traveling Abroad
Observations and Experiences While Away From Home
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