USA: Shorts Are Not a Welcome Mat for Harassment

By Natasha Vianna, SSH Correspondent

I was just 12 years old when I first experienced street harassment. While on a 2-month trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, I was walking down the street in shorts, a tank top, and flip-flops when I passed by an outdoor bar. The group of men, drinking in the hot sun, all put their beers down and started making comments about my cousins and me.

As a young girl, I knew this was wrong and it made me feel so unsafe and scared. It was as if we were walking by purely for their viewing pleasure. We were simply players on their field and the sport was walking. Like commentators, they began narrating our walk and highlighting every detail. “Look at how sexy she walks.” “Oh my God, what a nice ass.”

And as my heart raced in nervousness, my cousins seemed unbothered. When we turned the corner and could no longer hear the men, I asked her what the hell that was about. My oldest cousin (only 14) looked over and I repeated what those men said to us. She giggled and asked me if that was the first time I heard men catcall. I blushed thinking that I now made myself look immature and said yes. “Oh hunny. That’s normal! Men will say things to you and you just have to stare straight forward and pretend you don’t hear anything. Men like that anyway.”

They all laughed at me and I never talked brought it up again.

When I came back to America, I brought an album of pictures into school from my trip to Rio. As the girls and boys in my class flipped through the album, they began to ask me about the trip. I told them it was great, it was hot, and that the guys were creeps. I remember telling them about the constant comments the older guys would shout at girls and one of the girls looked at me and said, “Well what do you expect? If you’re gonna wear shorts that short, expect to be treated like a slut.”

And so it began.

I got so angry. I tried to explain that people in Brasil dress differently than people in America because it’s extremely hot all year round and having a tan is a universal want. The less clothes you wear, the cooler you feel and the better the tan you will have. Yet, here I was defending the way we dressed instead of talking about the real issue – street harassment. I was being driven into a rant about why I wear what I wear instead of getting closer to feeling sympathy from my peers.

Some girls rolled their eyes and told me that I wore short shorts in Rio for attention and that if I was upset because of the attention, than I should wear pants. It was a frustrating and a very nonsensical conversation that ended sourly.

It didn’t occur to me until a few years ago that the people really don’t understand street harassment and the effect it has on women and on young girls, as I was a very young girl in no way looking for attention from men.

Today, I know that whenever I am harassed, it can quickly escalate into something much worse than just “hey baby”. If I don’t respond in a way that my harasser respects, my face could be the next one to have to defend the stigma of rape and harassment. Why were you dressed that way? Why were you out at that time? Why were you alone?

And as I spend my time defending my choice of clothes, another young girl becomes a victim because she was too hot to wear pants.

Natasha Vianna, a fearless activist and young feminist, is a freelance writer and blogger based out of Boston, MA. Follow her on twitter!