Women Share What They Do to Try and Feel Safe in Public, and Almost Every Woman Agrees
Enough is enough. Here are some things that women are forced to do to feel safe.
Women are once again sharing the small, exhausting habits they use to feel safer in public, and the thread has struck a nerve for a reason. From checking footsteps to texting friends when they get home, the posts capture how ordinary fear has become for so many women.
The conversation started online and quickly turned into a long list of familiar routines, each one shaped by the same uneasy calculation: stay polite, stay alert, and get home in one piece. What makes it hit so hard is how many people recognized themselves in it right away.
While men are saying #notallmen, women are responding with the fact that all women do these:
That set the tone for the whole thread.
There has never been a bigger sigh of relief than when you get home safe after noticing a scary-looking man.
The fact that so many women were able to join in the thread shows how many tactics women have developed merely to try and stay safe.
I've got a crick in my neck from checking my surroundings so intently!
Always! Wait! Until! They're! Inside!
A lot of these replies sound painfully familiar.
Also, don’t ignore your body.
Having to scream 'fire' because people are more likely to respond to it is deeply upsetting.
Being the only woman on public transport feels dystopian and terrifying.
Footsteps are a very scary sound.
The line between 'being nice so he won't attack me for being rude' and 'being rude so he goes away but might attack me for being rude' is paper-thin.
All of these actions are done 'just in case' because the alternative is so much worse.
That fear shapes even the smallest interactions.
'Text me when you get home!'
The worst part is that they are so normal that you forget they shouldn't be.
The people men are scared of, though? Probably also men.
If you are only bringing up men's problems to diminish those faced by women, maybe you should reconsider your priorities.
Shout out to women: existence shouldn't be this hard.
Do you have any tips to add? Share them in the comments below.
After reading all those “wait until they’re inside” safety moves, see which eight U.S. locations could become World War 3 flashpoints.
