Jonquil Park & Walking as a Woman
Gender has affected walking for centuries. Walking often has contained the connotation that a woman may be a prostitute or walking for attention. Because women are sexualized, there have been constraints and risks surrounding how they walk. Often the dangers women encounter is blamed on them by where, when, what they wear, etc. while walking. Gender has made it that women fear their surroundings and are more likely to be met with possible assault and offensive words while walking. “Two-thirds of American women are afraid to walk alone in their own neighborhoods at night.” Often the fears that arise from walking will stop a person from going out or make them more hesitant to walk. Although there is danger in the outside world, there is also a danger in removing oneself from the outside world and living in fear. “She sat on the trunk of a ’74 Chevy and accepted that this world was not hers. Even on her own block.” Walking has gotten safer for women over time, but a woman’s freedoms still do not equal a mans. As a woman, I will not let histories of fear control me, and I will always walk with awareness while trying to experience the freedoms of men.
