Hi There, I am an 18-year girl from Johannesburg, South Africa. Growing up, I was sheltered from the harsh reality of this world. I went to a small Christian school, never had to take public transport or walk anywhere.
When I graduated high school, I decided to take a holiday after my final exams with a few of my friends (all girls) which is commonly known as ‘matric vac’ here in South Africa. We planned to visit Umhlanga (the second most popular destination for graduates). So without a car, we walked most places and the beachfront is lined with apartment buildings which usually are rented out by students. The one day, we went to fetch dinner and as we walked past this one building there were male and female students drinking and relaxing on their balcony and a couple of the males yelled to us, “Hey, why don’t you come up here, let’s see what you girls can do.”
I felt disgusted. And I felt even more horrified that the females on the balcony hadn’t said anything. I quickly learned that this is because of that old saying ‘Boys will be boys’. From that day on I became so much aware of catcalls and any other form of everyday sexism. The more aware I became, and the more I talked to people about this issue, the more passionate I became in feminism.
A week later, my friends flew back to Johannesburg and I decided to fly to Cape Town to visit my best friend, Cass*. You see, Cass’s mom is a single mother that works very long days thus Cass takes the bus everywhere and when I visited I got a bus card and experiences public transport for the first time. She lived about a fifteen-minute walk from the bus station.
EVERY single day we got catcalled. From blue collared working men to white collared working men. When I asked Cass if she experiences this every day, she said yes and she’ll often call her boyfriend to walk with her because she felt uncomfortable. I was triggered. Men will easily catcall and harass woman when they are alone but when there’s another man there with the woman it automatically humanizes her?
I also know what it is like to be told that I am making a ‘fuss’ out of nothing and it does make one feel like they’re being ‘dramatic’ but I feel that wanting to be treated like a human being and respected the way a man is respected isn’t being ‘dramatic’.
*Pseudonym