Harassment of women by Nikita Mischa Bhula

I have witnessed at campus that security guards would flirt with campus girls and whistle at them as they enter the campus gates. The broader issue is that men look at women as if they are some type of object. This happens mainly because women are taught to be submissive and men are brought up believing that they are dominant. This, as well as the idea that women need to impress men to gain their attention, leads men to believe that females dress to impress them or they dress because of the attention they receive from the men. This creates the problem of women believing they are inferior to men due to their decisions 'appearing' to be based around the men in their lives. However, this is also implied because of how small women are in comparison to men, in the physical sense. This leaves women 'superficially' defenseless, I believe this instills fear in the women that they cannot fight back or stand up to these men, because of their much smaller build. Another universal factor which invokes such actions is social media. Social media creates images of women which lead men to believe that if a women is dressed in a certain manner, she is looking for attention and it's 'okay' to harass her. If behaviour like this continues to go unnoticed or even unpunished, I fear this behaviour will become a social norm and many more girls will face situations like this. Women should resist by informing their friends about what has happened, educating themselves about similar situations and how the women in those situations have dealt with it, and informing those around them through social media, campaigns and many other platforms. Resistance can bring about change with a loud enough voice.

Nikita Mischa Bhula
Age 20
University of Johannesburg 

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