by I hadnt heard of Red Car Syndrome until a couple of weeks ago, and then I came across it twice in two days. It is so called because apparently there are people who think they will stand out if they buy a red car because they see so few of them on the road, only to buy one and then start seeing them everywhere. Its basically that thing that happens when you suddenly become aware of something you didnt know about before and now you cant not see it.
The prompt was a Twitter thread started by an English writer and lecturer called Dr Rachel Hewitt. Right, Ive been doing some reading (and writing) about young womens experiences in public space, she began, and its made me so angry and upset that I have to share a digest with you all. From there, she went on to detail the findings of studies from around the world that laid bare the barriers to women of all ages being able to exercise in confidence and peace.
Not to put too fine a point on it, the main barrier is men. Being among men in open spaces generates what can kindly be termed a spectrum of unwanted feelings among women exercising, from mild discomfort to outright fear. It comes in a multitude of ways, some glaringly obvious, some not entirely so. Some that most of us most of us men at any rate wouldnt ever think of as being an issue.
The three young lads in your local park hanging out on their bikes would appear, to the vast majority of us, to be not a particularly big deal. Plenty of us, indeed, have been those young lads on those bikes. But study after study in country after country has shown that teenage girls are reluctant to go running in parks because of young lads hanging out, on their bikes or off them.
Some of it is rooted in bad experience, the catcalling and mindless braying that gangs of teenage boys have been known to do since time began. But some of it is simple self-consciousness on the part of the girls the three lads on their bikes could be award-winning boy scouts for all anyone knows but, to a solitary teenage girl running in a park, they are not to be trusted.
According to Dr Hewitt, Australian teenage girls describe parks as the least safe public space. In South Africa, 58 per cent of girls find public exercising spaces either unsafe or very unsafe. Sixty per cent of teenage girls in Stockholm wouldnt run in their own neighbourhood. And so on and on and on.
Right, Ive been doing some reading (and writing) about young womens experiences in public space, and its made me so angry and upset that I have to share a digest with you all.
Rachel Hewitt (@drrachelhewitt)
November 3, 2020
