Transplanted Life
Saturday, January 03, 2004
 
Not safe for a woman to be out so late?
I suppose I've got to start thinking in those terms. I suppose I should have for the past few months, but even when feeling sorry for oneself, or lamenting all the things that I don't like about being a girl, it's tough for me to make the leap and think of myself as a "potential victim".

And I don't know if last night's a good example; I went to see the midnight kung fu movie at the Coolidge in Brookline (since the Weekly Wednesday Ass-Kickings are probably kaput), mostly enjoyed it - there was, thankfully, more actual people punching and kicking each other than the last few things from the WWAK - and then, when it got out at one-thirty, saw that the "Night Owl" bus didn't even start its route until one-fifty, and would take at least fifteen minutes to get to where I was. So I figure, hell with it, I'll just start walking.

Truth is, I didn't really have much reason to feel threatened until I got close to my own neighborhood. Heading north on Harvard Street out of Coolidge Corner is, quite frankly, one of the cleanest, most well-lit areas I've seen in and around Boston. By the time I got to my apartment, I just dropped, and didn't really consider until I woke up this morning (OK, afternoon) that I hadn't gotten in until two AM, and had walked past a bunch of bars and stuff like that. Guys had probably been whistling at me and I'd just assumed it was someone else.

I'd have freaked out if Mags had told me she'd done the same thing eight months ago, and she lives in one of the nicer parts of Cambridge. Does that make me a hypocrite, just ignorant, or friggin' lucky? I don't know. I can't think of any specific place along my route home where a guy could have pulled me into an alley and voilated me, but the thing about criminals is that they aren't particularly concerned about propriety; there's been stories about girls attacked right on the Harvard campus. Compared to that, where I was...

But I don't want to be a victim, either. I don't want to plan my every action based on risk, or what's safe/proper/what-have-you For A Woman. I don't want how I'll get home to be such an important consideration in whether or not I go some place.

Guess I'll have to think on this some.

-Marti
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Note: This blog is a work of fantasy; all characters are either ficticious or used ficticiously. The author may be contacted at JaySeaver@comcast.net