Friday, 15 January 2016

How it feels to be a girl.

When I was around 14 I worked in a social club collecting glasses; it was great pocket money and most customers knew me through my family. One Sunday lunchtime an unfamiliar man put his arm around me and asked if I had a boyfriend. I was dumfounded and frozen, until a barmaid shouted at him to 'get off my daughter...she's 14!' You may wonder why I'm telling you this. Well, this is what it's it's like to be a girl, to be a woman. When I reminisce on this story, I remember realising that I looked older than my years and thinking the barmaid was a hero. Thinking about it now, it reveals something further. While, of course, grabbing an underage girl is a far worse act, would it have been acceptable if I had been older? No. Obviously, clearly and strikingly no.

Still, this is what we experience daily. At brownies I was cast as Buttons in Cinderella because of my short hair and skinny frame. This was pointed out to me. A male (ex) friend once told me, on a night out, that a guy I liked wouldn't be interested because I'm 'quirky, not pretty.' I have been verbally sexually harassed by teenage boys. When I walk alone, particularly at night, I am incredibly conscious of who is behind me and my routes or methods to safety.

This may just sound like another feminist rant about the injustice unto us, but it needs writing. Everytime  someone feels the need to write or speak these words, they must. We do not live in an equal society. Women are not treated equally. It is still not safe to be a woman. This must change. For good.

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