Street harrasment

Ay ay ay. Street harassment. Or any kind of harassment. Here we go...

I just happened to be walking the street when this gentleman who was walking by me in the opposite direction said to me "good morning!", so enthusiastically and smiley. His eyebrows didn't go up, though, you may imagine his facial expression. Something like this: }:D...

Perhaps there's nothing special about that, nothing aggressive, it was only an apparently kind greeting. What harm can come from the fact that someone tells you "good morning", right? Well, my reaction was the same as, according to me, my older brother (whom I adore and imitate and look up to since ever) would have. I stared at him with a confused/angry expression and with my palms towards up, like saying "dude... I don't know you, seriously, what the heck". Just that. And neither of us stopped walking.

Alright, needless to say that I understand that I'm not the only one who's ever been through this sort of situation before, and that this is absolutely nothing in comparison to other realities. This is just an example of the mildest of the mildest of things within all the spectrum of what happens at the street when you're a woman. Now, do I have any valid reason to be bothered? Heck, you bet I do! And I'll tell you why (I believe any of both sexes would get this):

• It is awkward and uncomfortable when a total stranger says hello to you and stares at you for no reason, even more when they have such a creepy/pshyco face. 
• Once, I approached a young guy who did it, and asked him why he was saying hello to me though we never met before. He answered "It's just that I find you cute". I asked him whether he only greeted cute people, then. He got defensive -although the talk remained civilized, and said stuff like he was just being honest to me, etc... He clearly didn't have the intention to know me, or anything. He took the liberty and the right to just talk to me out loud from some distance because, according to him, I'm cute. Period. I had to simply accept that, even though it made me uncomfortable.
• This hasn't been once, twice, or trice, in fact, I already lost track. Honestly, I'm freaking sick of it.

Now, for the record, I ain't no cutie. I'm slightly overweight, average height, I don't wear tight clothes at all, nor wear low cleavages or high heels. I stopped wearing makeup a year and a half ago. I wear these massive glasses that cover one third of my face and today, on top of it, I'm literally wearing my granny's pants. Seriously. They were hers. My hair is all messy, and I could go on and on, but the point is that I shouldn't call any attention. Then, why the flying frog do I get this unwanted attention anyway? Should I be flattered? Should I just look down and only smile/ignore/act like I didn't notice? I think the answer is no. I think that if my brother, or any man for that matter, was in my place, he'd be at least surprised in a bad way, especially if he's as introverted as I am. I think he'd even get mad, and he wouldn't even think of just ignoring the hella creepy stranger woman staring at him, with the added joy of that happening to him every day/week/month. But, I don't know, maybe I think too much. Maybe being a woman that thinks too much doesn't fit into our culture.

Just like plenty of other girls and women, I've been cat-called at the street, been yelled things I prefer not to understand, been taken pictures, while they throw kisses at me, without my consent, been stared at like I was a McCombo, been undressed figuratively with their eyes,  been intentionally pressed onto at the public transportation, have had to think a zillion times about what to wear bearing in mind the streets I'll have to walk that day, have had to walk ridiculously long alternative routes in order to avoid a certain group of workers, been talked to in a lusty way by strangers that are walking by me -who, by the way, have the nerve to get angry when confronted. Many aren't as lucky as me and they get touched inappropriately or worst, on top of it all. The fact that some  creepy stranger says hello to me at the street or just drops a stupid line, expecting me to smile or simply suck it up quietly... is just the drop that overflows the big a** dam. Oh, heck no. I don't have to suck it up, FYI. Rather, you suck up my contempt and my non-verbal (or sometimes verbal) confrontation, 'cause that is, like, the minimum price. You cannot expect to get away with treating me like a less-worthy-thing-that-a-human-being for free. 

Every time something like this happens, I can't help but recall the movie "White Chicks". There's a scene when *spoiler alert* shortly after they had to disguise themselves as girls, the main characters, both male, walk by a group of men (I don't really remember clearly, only the main idea, sorry) and one of them gets too insistent with one of the "girls". So, this "girl" gets angry and tries to confront him, but is stopped by the other "girl". The angry one says something like "but that son of a gun is treating me like I was a woman!", and the other answers "but you are a woman!", therefore, he had to just accept what was going on. Obviously, in the context of the movie, the main idea was to not raise suspicion, but still, it left me thinking. So, being "treated like a woman" like they did in this movie is something to get angry about? Is it like being treated like "less"? Is it similar to when guys tease each other, calling the other guys "ladies" or "you're a girl" as an insult? 

To wrap it all up, I'd like to share this video that was made by Kamikaze Producciones, apparently to create awareness regarding this issue. Although the ending could be better, in my opinion, sorry. And if the point was to draw a parallel with the reality that women live, I think it was a mistake to dress those harassers decently and make them beautiful, because that's not the case with male real life harassers. Anyway, even if they were, what they do is still so wrong, disgusting and humiliating 

Keep your brain from falling, love ;)