On the 14th of October at 6:17pm, 3 teenage girls were walking together behind Tanglin mall. Beside them, a group of construction workers were sitting along the wall, completely unavoidable as the girls were heading past them. It could not have been the first time they had been in a similar situation, as their pace began to quicken and the girls moved closer together. “Do you think we can make a break for it?” one of them asked - but they knew that it would mean being more obvious and instead seemed to ignore it. The girl closest to the men ran unnervingly to the opposite side to get away, the second girl gripping a swiss army knife. The point was - there was nothing they could do to avoid it. Needless to say this is not even the worst of it, and it would not be the last time.
Why should girls have to put up with this? Especially when they know it’s not right. And it happens more often than you think. By two online studies by “Stop street harassment,” with a poll reaching 1,141 responses - over 99% reported experiencing street harassment at least once, and over 65% replied this was on a monthly basis. This is still only the least of it: Girls being followed (75%), targets of explicit comments (81%) and even being grabbed in an inappropriate way (57%).
Girls as young as 13 shouldn't have to be afraid to the point of carrying around army knives on a daily basis - shouldn’t men know better? Even out of general respect for others? Parent’s shouldn't have to worry about their daughters, where they can’t even go out with a group of friends. Instead of teaching young girls to fight for themselves, teaching them to cover up as to not be seen as a target, as to never get in anyone's way in order to be safe, which is a basic right - why not teach boys what’s generally acceptable as to respect women and not see them as objects?
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