Last Tuesday, women began tweeting out their experiences of sexual harassment to demonstrate how girls experience sexism starting in early childhood. Women are often blamed for the sexual harassment and told to forget about it, or forced to cover it up. This hashtag, started by the Twitter account EverydaySexism, allowed women to share their stories and demonstrate how commonly women are victims of sexual harassment and violence.
Women recounted experiencing sexual harassment at the hands of strangers, relatives, teachers and peers.
Most people have some idea that women are subjected to cat-calling, but many men and women don't realize how disturbingly young girls are when it starts. Girls are sexualized from childhood, and the inappropriate treatment becomes normalized.
Furthermore, women tweeted about reporting sexual harassment and being ignored. This is a horribly common reaction when women try to call out people for being inappropriate, even worse, they are sometimes blamed for it.
The problem with not punishing the perpetrators, even if they are young children, is that it makes them think they can do it again, when they're older, sometimes escalating the harassment to sexual assault.
For the record, both men and women can be sexually harassed by anyone, but women, in particular, are subjected to sexual harassment multiples times a day, around the globe. When women do fight back against inappropriate treatment and cat-calling, it can be very dangerous, so they have to make the decision between dealing with the sexism or putting their life at risk.
While thousands of people were supportive and respectful, since it is Twitter, and since people are the worst, not everyone was as skilled at pretending to have basic human decency. Trust me, this was one of the tamer things said to women who were brave enough to come forward.
This response to an experience of sexual harassment is problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, when someone reports inappropriate sexual behavior, not believing them reinforces the idea that they deserve this disgusting treatment, that it's normal, and it discourages them from reporting in the future, sometimes for more serious incidents. Secondly, the fact that this guy thinks women are making up stories of sexual harassment is a prime example of the way society disregards these experiences, disregards the unfair treatment women are subjected to, in general.
The harsh reality is that most women probably had to pick an experience to share from the numerous times they've been sexually harassed. I wish women had to make this up. As the trending hashtag made clear, thousands upon thousands of women, have been sexually harassed, starting at a very early age. The Everyday Sexism Project's request for stories is just one step towards recognizing the severity of the rampant sexism present in today's society.
