Please excuse this pathetic shoe shot. It was taken during my rehearsal tonight.
Today was quite an eventful day. It started out with having coffee with Ro and Adam, which was very lovely, then followed by an awful afternoon full of teenage misogynist bogans, and then topped off by an Orchestral rehearsal which left me tired and Hangry.
I was verbally assalted by 3 separate packs of teenage boys this afternoon within the space of an hour. The first event was when I was getting out of my car to take outfit photos. Two boys no older than 14 yelled out various versions of “hey sexy” and “nice ass”
The second event was at a local Mc Donalds, where I was greeted with more “hey sexy” and variations thereof by slightly older boys.
The third was when I was buying a drink from the servo. This bogan was probably about 17ish 18 ish. He was wearing shorts, and one of those racerback singlets with the huge armholes and low neckwhich shows off all the “alpha male muscles bro ha ha footy”ness of their physique.
Finally, to top off these three events, I was told that I was asking for it because of the way I had dressed that day. I can 100% guarantee had I been male, wearing shorts and nothing else , I wouldn’t have heard a peep from the young lads in woy woy.
So, After that word vomit, this is what I wore today.
This outfit may be unusual, but in no way is it provocative. I’m wearing long sleeves for goodness sake! My shorts may be short, but the length still has a good 5 cm’s on the current lengths of store bought short shorts.
I don’t even know why I’m trying to justify why my outfit shouldn’t be commented on in such an inappropriate way. I am not an object. I am human and should be treated as such. The behavior displayed by the bogans this afternoon is inappropriate and dehumanizing. Their behaviour aims to not only put me down, but to make me feel less than, and to make my gender feel less than.
I suppose I just can’t believe that such uncivilized people still exist in today’s society. I think the saddest thing is that these boys will probably have children one day, and these children will be taught that this behaviour is ok. The only way for these children to ever have a chance at not continuing the sexism cycle is for people (especially women) to come out and talk about these experiences.
The next time you experience sexist behaviour, I emplor you to speak out publicly against it. It’s the only way to create a safe an equal enviroment for ourselves, and our future generation.
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