WOMEN AT NIGHT
Since we are children we associate the ability to learn walking with a sense of freedom. Those early steps around our first year of life are the signals of independence, that power of being able to explore the world around us by ourselves. Walking gives us a sense of freedom that stay with us during our whole life.
At the beginning of our life, no matter if we are boys or girls we are encouraged to learn to walk through our homes and explore, with certain precautions, the world that opens around us. Then we carry those steps to the outdoor environments where we learn to walk in a less controlled environment, and after that to run, which we can finally do in shared spaces such as parks or squares.
With the past of the time, that sense of freedom starts to look different because of our gender. As women, we start to hear statements as “you should not walk alone at night outside” “You have to avoid wearing provocative clothing”. Those statements can be more or less extreme between countries as a result of social constructions that translate in norms and boundaries.
A SHARED STORY
Around my youth, I started to be aware of that difference between women and men. In the beginning, I was not sure if that feeling was just my own construction because of my shyness or the fact that I grow up in a catholic school where the norms were very clear about “how a lady should properly behave”, referring to not to give her opinion if this was not asked, not to speak up, not to be so noisy or demanding, and among all those “NOTs”, not to go out outside alone at night.
But, then I discovered that the fear to the night was a shared feeling. That feeling became recurrent in the comments of close friends, and other women that I met along my journey. And more recently, in the words of other women that even though I do not know in person, I could connect with their feelings when I read their stories in a pilot survey I did, trying to dig more deeply into the roots of that shared feeling. After all, most of us were raised with that fear to the night and in a culture which statements exclude women of enjoying the nighttime and which is prepared to judge us if we dare do it.
Data visualization of the answers to the question: Define in one word the first feeling that comes to your mind, when you explore a city at night
Even women which I deeply admire because of their sense of freedom and empowerment, like Michelle Obama, have spoken about that feeling. In her book Becoming, she wrote “I knew never to walk alone at night” referring to her first steps of freedom walking and finding her own space through Chicago’s city when she was a teenager. In that part of the book, she also talks about that need of avoiding groups of men and their intimidating stares. Steps like so many others that we are supposed to follow in order not to be exposed in the urban night.
AS INVISIBLE AS POSSIBLE
After a while of exploring that shared feeling of fear and my own feelings, I came to the conclusion, that as women we have been trying to be as invisible as possible in the urban night-time. We use this as a sense of self-protection; as a way to remember those behavioural norms that society has imposed upon us, in order to protect us from harassment, an also because we know if we are attacked, society is going to blame us for provoking these situations, this is something we continually see in our context.
I became aware, that the way we move, the speed of our pace, the emotions we put in the urban journeys suddenly became controlled and supervised by external eyes when we are women. And those eyes are prepared to judge us if a misfortune happens to us. With this situation, as women, we become aware that our gender, that social construction, instead of including or integrating us into society, has contributed to limit our interaction with public spaces due to those prejudices.
I became aware, that the way we move, the speed of our pace, the emotions we put in the urban journeys suddenly became controlled and supervised by external eyes when we are women.
So, what happens when that basic signal of freedom seem diminished by cultural patterns and limits the way women explore outdoor environments compared with men? Why should our possibilities of exploring the world should be affected just because we are women? It seems that if we are women we are forced to spend the time indoors when the night begins if we want to feel secure.
FINDING OUR OWN SPACE IN THE NIGHT-TIME
From my own experience, I believe we should not let society determine the way we explore our cities. As women, we belong to the urban night as much as men. We can actively participate in urban construction, not just the physical one, but the urban imaginary. We should not stop ourselves from taking that class we love just because it’s at night, and we are too afraid of walking alone at night. A woman should feel as safe as a man feels. We should not be kept from enjoying that movie, or cultural event at night, for any reason.
As women, we belong to the urban night as much as men. We can actively participate in urban construction, not just the physical one, but the urban imaginary.
I certainly believe that the experience of travelling alone and being able to enjoy the night in a city abroad when I was 19, in a place where society was not as close-minded as mine gave me the sense of freedom that allowed me to move with more confidence in my 20s. I learned that I could sign up for that creative writing workshop I really wanted to do, that I could go for those drinks out in the bar on my way home even though I was alone and did not know anyone. I was lucky enough to discover those opportunities, which completely opened my sense to new possibilities.
With this, I want to invite you to find your space in the urban night-time. Feel free to choose the night as a moment to improve your educations skills, to take that job you really enjoy or just to have fun. As a society, we should stop blaming women for being attacked or for daring to enjoy the cities at night, and in change promote more inclusive cities with fewer limitations and more opportunities. Girls and women should be encouraged to find their own way, their own place, and feel free to do it at the urban night-time guided by their own light.
Night-time traveller
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