Happy Sunday morning! You know what that means, the walks of shame and strides of pride are parading around campus. So grab your cup of coffee and open your blinds because the parade is about to begin!
Scratch that.
It’s Sunday morning. You should be sound asleep, in the caf grabbing breakfast, at the library or, dare I say it, at the gym. Or perhaps you are in the parade itself. And if you happen to be in the parade, simply grin and bear it. Seriously, don’t worry about it, it happens to most of us at some point. Don’t be self-conscious because even less people see it happening than you think. But why is it that this one infamous walk, the walk back to your room after spending the night elsewhere, has two different names implying two very separate things?
According to www.urbanditionary.com, there are about 38 definitions for “walk of shame”. The first definition is as follows: “The walk across campus in the same clothes as yesterday after you slept with someone and spent the night in their dorm room.” Yet, when you search, “stride of pride”, the definition reads: “The stroll across campus after a one night stand. Usually slower and with more gusto than the walk of shame. Typically reserved for men as one night stands garner respect and bragging rights with your buddies.”
But wait a minute: Aren’t both these definitions supposed to be describing the exact same walk? It is amazing how the phrase we choose can imply different things. It appears to be that girls are the ones who “walk of shame,” but guys are the ones who take a “stride of pride.”
For girls, being seen walking home in the same outfit as last night is embarrassing. It implies they slept in another person’s room, presumably a boy. Therefore, they must have had sex. Wrong. Also, it must have been a one-night stand. Wrong again. Everything is not always what it seems. For starters, the girl could have been too tired and decided to crash in a friend’s room, which disputes the first point. Secondly, the girl could have been walking home from her boyfriend’s, which disputes the second point. When a girl is walking home in the clothes she went out in last night or in a boy’s sweatshirt, doesn’t mean she had sex and it was a one-time thing. So don’t judge her. Girls see her walk back to her room as a negative “walk of shame.” Meanwhile, there might not even be anything shameful about it.
Guys on the other hand are proud. If they are walking home from a girl’s room, there is no shame. They are happy to take a stride of pride. Why? It goes along with the assumption that the guy had sex. But what if his fell asleep on his buddy’s couch or he was with a girl, but they didn’t have sex? It doesn’t matter; the guy won’t correct you because for him, the “stride of pride” is a positive. Same walk. Two different names. Double standard.
Yet, sometimes a “walk of shame” is exactly reflective of the definition above and that’s okay. One collegiette states, “Girls shouldn’t justify doing the walk of shame by conforming to the way boys think. We should accept ourselves as women who can make their own decisions about their actions.” In other words, we don’t have to view walking home in the morning as either a “walk of shame” or “stride of pride”. We should accept that we did what we did that night and the following morning we will have to make the trek back to our rooms. We should not focus on labeling it, but rather standing by the decisions we made. It doesn’t have to be embarrassing or something you are exceptionally proud of. It is something you chose. Support your decisions, stand by your actions and hold your head high; you have nothing to be ashamed of. Simply, own it.
Sources:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=stride+of+pride
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=walk%20of%20shame