I don’t feel delight being noticed. I feel on display. I feel fear. When a strange man leers at me, or worse, goes so far as to speak to me, to “compliment” me, to comment on my body, my clothing, my hair, my shape, my “attractiveness,” I don’t get a little surge of delight, or […]
I shouldn’t live in a world where rape is not only a reality but a likely possibility. But I do. So I need to know how to defend myself. Following the shooting spree in Isla Vista, California that killed six people in May, an international conversation emerged on Twitter signaled by the hashtag #YesAllWomen. My contribution to […]
Fifty percent of people who report harassment experienced it first before they were 17 years old. Last week, when in the wake of the Elliot Rodger’s killings more than a million tweets were shared using the hashtag #YesAllWomen, the role that fear plays in women’s daily lives was evident. One of the most common daily interactions […]
The word ‘bitch’ is so pervasive, girls no longer ask: ‘Am I a bitch?’ But instead: ‘What kind of a bitch am I?’ This weekend the hashtag #YesAllWomen trended in Twitter in the wake of the mass shooting in California. I believe, like many others, that part of the reason for this response, one that […]
Research shows that most people don’t see sexism even when it’s right in front of their noses. Sexist behavior, such as the man who parked his car and refused to pay me when I was a running a car lot because “women can’t work in parking lots,” is usually easy to spot. But, in general, sexism, so densely […]
