For Your Eyes Only

As a female, there are many things you don’t think about until they actually happen or the fear is put in you from a story you are told.

There are things you will definitely never understand until you are put in the same position. Some things that happen to ladies are very peculiar to men because you are never put in the same position.

Inside the mind of a female walking around or driving around, are very many ways they have thought of to keep themselves safe.

Before you ask me how this conversation started, let me explain it from the beginning… The other day I was walking to work and was suddenly faced with three men walking with Pangas(machetes). I was there minding my merry business then I suddenly froze. I didn’t have a direct reason to be afraid but seeing them walking in my direction was an instant source of anxiety for me.

Photo by Noelle Otto on Pexels.com

When I thought about it a few days later I wondered why that was my immediate response to that situation.

So my thoughts started to vere in the direction of all the things that I have feared would happen to me when I’m out of the house alone.

Whether walking or driving or in a matatu(public transport) there is always a list of possible safety issues to consider. My friends and I (over the past few years) have realized there a few situations that make our hair stand on edge. Society and life experiences have continuously told that we are the weaker sex and that men could attack any moment.

Think about it, when a female is robbed in town the online comments ask them what they did to trigger it, what they were wearing and where they were going alone at that hour. When a lady is beaten by her boyfriend or husband society/family asks her what she did to trigger him to act so irrationally or to push him off the edge. When a woman is raped the socialmedia army play the story like it was her fault for being there in the first place.

Photo by u015eeyda Nur Uu011fur on Pexels.com

Sometimes we are forced to become our own security at events. Why do you think ladies go to the washroom together, its for gossip and SECURITY? We never get into a matatu if we are the only female in there. If we are walking somewhere always check who is in front of us and who is behind us so that we are not caught by surprise. We feel the need to be fully covered up especially when it’s a place with many men. If you’re getting home late you feel the need to carry something sharp as a makeshift weapon, thus the need for security.

The way I see it, we as a society need to work more on teaching the boy child how to treat ladies/ women with care than we do teaching girls to not ‘tempt’ men.

Society is very quick to place blame on women instead of making men take responsibility for their actions.

How can we bring the necessary changes to society? How can women feel safe at all hours of the day or night?

This is not for your eyes only.

YOUR NETWORK
IS YOUR NET WORTH!