When you get to college you learn that some things actually are like the movies. You’re bound to see someone doing a 30 second keg stand, you’ll probably struggle with the freshman 15, someone at the door of a frat party will say “who do you know here” and you may, on more than one occasion, experience the infamous “walk of shame.”
You might go home with someone one night and wake up in the morning dreading the walk home that awaits you. You’ll feel dirty in your clothes from the night before with your unwashed hair and you’ll feel like everyone that passes you by on the street knows. You might joke about it with your friends when you get back and share with each other your most embarrassing walk of shame stories. That’s all fine and normal but remember one thing—you do not have to feel ashamed.
The stigma around walks of shame is unfair and completely unnecessary. The bottom line is that you get to decide if you feel ashamed or not. If you willingly went home with someone because you thoroughly wanted to, don’t feel ashamed. If you did so but didn’t have a good time and somewhat regret it, still don’t feel ashamed. Your walk home from someone’s house the next morning should be nothing more than that, a walk home.
Odds are the person you spent the night with is laying comfortably in their bed while you hit that morning after walk so why can’t you feel as carefree and content as them? Hollywood portrays the girl in a mini dress making her way home with her heels in her hands in a light that makes this action shameful but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, it shouldn’t be.
The term “walk of shame” is just another concept that was created to discourage a woman’s openness about her sexuality. It wasn’t that long ago that women speaking about their sexuality was completely frowned upon. I still don’t believe that it’s widely accepted for a woman to be open about her sexuality and the concept of a “walk of shame” is just one thing that factors into the inability for women to talk about sex.
We should not be led to believe that our actions are shameful when what we’re doing is completely normal and natural. The phrase “walk of shame” should be retired along with the different ways we treat sexuality between genders. So if you ever find yourself slipping back into your clothes from the night before, wear that outfit with pride and enjoy your walk home.