Fed Up

There is one thing I will definitely not miss about Guatemala once I am done here. And that is the disgusting, ridiculous, offensive behavior of men on the street. I have absolutely had it with all of the leering, offensive comments, and general disrespect towards me and other women. Some days it's not so bad and I can brush it off; but today was not one of those days. By the time I arrived at the office today, I was ready to punch someone in the face, declare every male in this country a big fat asshole, and hop a plane back to the States.

The anger that surges within me is scary and also sort of baffling. Anger is a secondary emotion, but I cannot be sure as to what underlies the anger and rage that I feel when these dickheads speak to me the way that they do. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's hurt or embarrassment. Whatever it is, I shouldn't be made to feel this way.

While on the surface, this "machismo" or whatever-the-hell-you-want-to-call-it is simply annoying and offensive, I strongly believe that it is a symptom of a much deeper problem. I believe with everything in me that this piece of this culture has got to change if we are ever going to win this fight against sexual violence/abuse. Sometimes a certain oddity that we see in another culture is simply that: culture. It is just different and neither right nor wrong. But disrespect towards women is not a culturally-bound phenomenon. It is intrinsically wrong, and at no point is it acceptable for a man to objectify a woman or to say demeaning, violating things towards her.

If boys grow up seeing men speak disrespectfully towards women without consequence, what reason will they ever have to behave differently? And how can anyone truly, effectively work against such behavior? Verbal abuse is not punishable by law, but perhaps it should be. Honestly, I don't have any answers as to how anyone can effectively address this issue. I wish that I did. I suppose I could start by making a concerted effort towards treating my fellow women with more respect.

I have joked before that it would be awesome to carry around a squirt gun and any time a man says something offensive to then shoot him with it. But in all seriousness, this is a vital issue. Oppression of women may take many forms (female genital mutilation, sexual violence, CSE, domestic abuse, forbidding women to vote, oppressive dress codes, forbidding girls to go to school, etc.), but whatever form it takes, it is wrong. I would not seek to say that the verbal abuse I endure here is on par with what other women around the world deal with, but I now have had a glimpse into how entrenched are sexism and the cultural norms that underlie these issues. And I've had it!