Use your common sense. Travel in groups. Be aware of how much you’ve had to drink and make sure people know where you are. Be accounted for.
Anyone, male or female, who has experienced adolescence, could repeat these exact phrases from memory, mimicking their parents’ voices, quirks and intonations, all with absolute perfection. The checklist is nothing new and all that advice is worthwhile. But as we exit our teens and enter our twenties, it seems somewhat childish at times. The fear governing these mantras, however, remains well grounded in the reality that personal safety is not to be taken for granted—particularly for women.
A fellow student I was entertaining at home recently turned casually to me around 8 pm and said something along the lines of: “I better head home before it gets too dark and I get myself in trouble.” Clinging to her words and their assumption of blame for any “trouble” that might ensue, I was struck by her thinking that were something to happen, it would be her fault.
Such perception of guilt by females is a culturally-shaped and promoted idea, one that effectively voids women’s—and some men’s—figurative Safety Vouchers, or right to walk the streets, after a certain time of night.
The opinion of Trinity’s female students sheds light on the dilemmas facing them on a night out: “You have to weigh the situation”, says one, “is staying at a party and feeling uncomfortable more dangerous than walking home alone?” It appears that the decision she makes often hinges on the question of which is the lesser evil. “As a woman, you have to be smart about it and you can’t think it’s not going to happen to you… it’s not fair,” she continued.
Another female student highlights the disadvantages that accompany womanhood in social situations, explaining that while the issue of leaving a party or pub without company calls into question one’s independence, there are also advantages that arise while negotiating one’s way into a club or when buying drinks, as a cheerful “please” goes far further for women than men. For her, the bottom line is that “You [women] have to be careful all the time. I do the things I want to do and never think ‘Oh no, I can’t because I am a girl…’ until a certain point at night.”
I am left with the question: At what time of night exactly are women reduced to children? I can’t but hold on to the sentiment that gender still factors into many aspects of University life, from socializing, to self-consciousness in class to interaction with professors. Though the extent to which it affects the individual varies considerably, the fact remains, university, as life outside is a distinctly gendered experience.
