To society, I am young, I’m 19 years old. I’m treated the same as any regular adult, except when traveling by myself. In a maximum coverage tank top and jeans that cover everything but my ankles, I’m still having men come up and speak to me.
Sure, speaking is barely anything, but it is also leeway to create something of nothing. The period in which women should fear for their safety because they are alone needs to come to an end. Sadly though, this will almost never be possible.
For women to feel safe traveling alone, society needs to have a character change. It needs to realize that no means no, and safety comes first. There are better, and may I say, classier places to meet someone and strike up a conversation. Public transportation is not one of those.
For someone to feel the need to dress in baggy clothes and look unapproachable in a public place because they fear for their safety is simply upsetting. For how much America has advanced in tolerance and kindness over the recent years, it is appalling that we have so much as retracted into silence about how we treat each other on a day to day basis.
How can society be so accepting of two women or two men together in an involved relationship, but can’t keep silent when they see someone pass by that wants to keep to themselves?
I rode the train for two hours today, and was approached on four separate occasions. The first one was a man who began by trying to make small talk with me and my dad. After he learned that my father was teaching me how to use the train system to get to work, he began to quiz me asking which was was north and then proceeded to spin in circles saying “oh I don’t know, oh I don’t know!”.
The second and third were people trying to casually start up a conversation, which I took to kindly and conversed with them for a little while. The final approach was outside my connecting train, as a woman came up and handed me a flier. I took the flier and smiled at her, but then she began to question how old I was and ultimately took her flier back because she told me I wasn’t old enough to read it.
Overall, whoever wants to keep to themselves and feel safe on public transportation should be entitled to do so without being heckled. Society needs to reconsider what it considers valuable and make a change.
