Tonight, eight of my female friends and I are going to the park to play basketball. This is why........
" It is important to appreciate that women's fear of crime in public places does not spoil public places for women alone, but that it also spoils, in some larger sense, men for women and women for men and public places for everyone." -Carol Brooks Gardner
Photo by Ruth Orkin
Public space is supposed to be the stuff a democratic community is built on. Citizens go out into public space to communicate with one another, to exercise their freedom of expression and participate in discourse. Leaving aside, for a moment, the death of discourse in general, I would like to examine the position of women in public space.
In Western culture, women have not long been full citizens, and in that respect it is no surprise that they have been historically excluded from public space. The world outside the home was once considered unsafe for the "fair" sex; women who did venture into that world without a male chaperone were thought to be of the worst kind, and asking for trouble. With the advent of the mall, women were for the first time allowed out of the house alone, but the rest of the public domain, including streets, restaurants, bars, coffee houses, and all other areas where anything exciting or political ever happens, remained in the hands of men.
After much struggle, women are now guaranteed the right to vote, but they do not have full access to public space, and thus do not have full access to democratic citizenship. The park, for instance, is a place of fear; any woman who enters that public space after dark opens herself up to attack, robbery, rape. Even during daylight hours, a woman wary of her surroundings will be unlikely to join a pickup basketball game, a friendly conversation, or a political debate. How could any woman enjoy this "public" space when every conversation is suspect, when every man is a potential attacker?
As Carol Brooks Gardner points out, this (perfectly justified) fear on women's part often spurs a lot of resentment from the majority of men who are not looking to attack. Some of these men fill the protector role, accompanying women in public places, ostensibly diverting would-be attackers with their mere presence. Women in turn can harbor a lot of bitterness toward their protectors, considering these men as infringements on their personal space, necessary safety precautions rather than fellow human beings (Gardner 1990: 319).
If a woman can't find a man to escort her through public space, she is advised to walk softly and carry a can of mace. In order to avoid any sort of conflict or confrontation, she should not call attention to herself unless attacked. She should wear quiet, dark clothing and noiseless shoes, and not speak to anyone unless she needs help escaping someone else. (Since many women are accustomed to being painfully quiet, experts recommend practicing screaming before the need arises--into a pillow at home (Barthol in Gardner 1990: 322). In order to be safe on her own, a woman is not heard, seen, or felt; she tries her best to attain nonentity status, a condition most retrograde to any kind of democratic participation.