I’m sure most of us have received an unwelcome catcall, glance or grope at Tokyo Bar at some point in our time at McGill, but it begs the question, why is this unwelcome handling of women still so prominent?
Gigi Hadid’s latest encounter with self-claimed ‘prankster’ Vitalii Sediuk only further exposes the gap between the behaviours of men and women, and the poised stance we, as women, are supposed to assume in society whilst men freely touch our bodies, verbally harass us and believe they have the right to do so. Gigi rightly whacked Sediuk, a stranger to her, in the face with her elbow when he picked her up after the Max Mara fashion show. Yet, despite rightly defending herself, Gigi was met with backlash with one article claiming she lashed out on a fan. Gigi was evidently assaulted, and she was in her rights to act the way she did in the situation.
If a girl grabbed a guy’s ass in a club, people would label her a slut or an attention seeker. Why is there always such a dichotomy between the two sexes? Women can never seem to win. If she defends herself, she’s acting in an unruly manner. If she flirts with a guy, she’s a slut. If she ignores them, she’s a prude. These labels should not exist, and whilst there is still a growing amount of discourse on the subject of gender equality, we truly need to work towards eradicating these vast, often subliminal and accepted gaps of difference.
Later this week, another bigheaded male incident occurred, as British newspaper ‘The Sun’ attempted to belittle Emma Watson’s speech at the UN where she advocated for gender equality and the diminishing of sexual assaults on university campuses. This is a key issue, one that needs to be circulated widely amongst societies, and Emma gave an incredibly well versed speech on this problem. However, the tabloid had this to say:
I’m not here trying to preach, but these women are merely forging their hard earned careers and these attention seeking men are trying to bring them down… who are the petty ones now? Harassment happens to everyone, men and women, but the way that some men degrade women’s accomplishments by referencing their bodies, looks and roles as actresses and models is a very particular and sexist form of bullying.
Images obtained from:
https://twitter.com/LouiseRidley/status/779242408458461184/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
http://site.people.com/style/gigi-hadid-attacked-by-fan-milan-fashion-we…