I was disappointed with Jessica Jimenez’s approach in Wednesday’s column, “Halloween: Beware of the sketchily-clad,” which was uncritical and perpetuated victim-blaming. Sexual assault is the result of power imbalances, institutional tolerance and structural violence — not clothing. Girls have been the victims of sexual assault while wearing jeans and T-shirts, military uniforms and burkas — there is not necessarily a strong correlation between dress and rate of assault.
Even if there were a strong connection, it wouldn’t mean girls shouldn’t have the freedom to dress how they please. It means that “scantily clad” girls are scapegoats who allow us to justify the behavior of misogynists. Instead of focusing on what girls are wearing, why not ask why guys are harassing and assaulting them? Participants in the recent anti-rape protests, called Slutwalks, asked, “Why are we teaching ‘don’t get raped’ rather than ‘don’t rape?'”
Jimenez’s column would have been more powerful if, instead of lecturing girls on how to alter their dress to avoid assaults by “sketchy people,” she called out those same “sketchy people” for objectifying, dehumanizing and violating girls, or noted how tragic it is that girls have to modify their dress in order to feel safer. Regardless of what girls wear, where they go and what they do, they are not to blame for sexual assault. They certainly should not shoulder the burden for preventing it.
MEGAN BAILEY
GRADUATE STUDENT
ANTHROPOLOGY
I am writing in response to Sam Spiegelman’s article “Pedestrians: Saving pace” in Tuesday’s issue of The Diamondback. I too used to be enraged, annoyed, inconvenienced and generally stressed out by slow-walkers. In my undergrad years, I think I was even in a Facebook group with a title something to the effect of “I want to punch slow-walkers in the back of the head.” So I get it, I really do.
But today, just before reading Spiegelman’s article, I noticed while walking to McKeldin Library that I had become a slow-walker myself. I watched, horrified, as harried students came up quickly behind me, then passed if they could. Since becoming pregnant, I have developed Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD), which basically means walking hurts, taking the stairs hurts — heck, even sitting still hurts.
If you saw me on the campus, you might not notice I’m pregnant, especially if I am wearing a bulky sweater or coat. You might assume I am a dreaded slow-walker, put in front of you just to make your life difficult. But instead, just like other people with “invisible” diseases, disorders, injuries or disabilities, I have a reason to walk slowly.
You really have no way of knowing if that slow-walker in front of you is suffering from SPD, a broken coccyx, a sprained lumbar, severe asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, neuropathy or any of a host of conditions that can and do affect those around you.
Yes, even young, fit-looking college students. Not all physical ailments are visible. While our physical discomforts surely don’t make us any less annoying if you are stuck following, hopefully keeping this point in mind can help alleviate some of the discomfort caused by the “slow but steady death sentence” we condemn you to.
MEGHAN SOMMERS
GRADUATE STUDENT
MUSICOLOGY
