For young women on college campuses across America, female empowerment is nothing more than a rumor. Female independence is a joke. Women’s safety lasts only until the sun goes down. After that, female bodies are open game for male predators left and right. It’s 2017, and young women are still being targeted for the simple fact that they walk outside alone.
Case in point: two female students at Iowa State University recently went public after being victimized while walking on campus alone after dark. According to a news report by The Des Moines Register, both students experienced predatory, aggressive behavior from carloads of men who were driving around campus in dark vehicles. The report says that local and campus police forces haven’t yet determined the men’s motives for pursuing the students, but I think it’s fair to assume that they were malignant. After all, a man in one carload apparently commanded one of his peers to "get her" after he had located the female student and determined she was easy enough to attack.
As a young woman myself, it’s incredibly unfair that my pursuit of a fulfilling life halts itself every night at dusk. It is ridiculous that I can only stay safe at night if I stay indoors—or, worse, if I ask a male friend or boyfriend to “protect” me from the perverts, rapists, or kidnappers who might be waiting for me in dark alleys.
It’s time for us to eradicate the fear that accompanies thousands of female college students across America. Furthermore, it’s time for us to rethink the idea that we can stop rape and misconduct simply by sending our daughters, sisters, friends, mothers, and cousins outside with defensive keychains, pepper spray, rape underwear, and 911 on speed dial. It’s time for us to bring shame to the men who believe they are entitled to our bodies. It’s time for us to change the reality that there is no neighborhood safe enough for young women to pass through.
There is no need for the extreme safety precautions that we’ve pressured onto women simply on the basis of their gender. I have a young female friend on campus at ISU this year, and both she and her mother have asked me to give her a ride to and from youth group each week. I agreed to help her because she is afraid of walking a few blocks down the road to her car at night. Even though I am two years older than her, I can’t say that I blame her. College campuses are terrifying at night. In some neighborhoods, there aren’t many streetlights. In some neighborhoods, there are buildings, dumpsters, and cars that cast dark shadows over the sidewalks. In some neighborhoods, I take out my phone and punch in the numbers ‘9-1-1’ just to be extra safe.
This school year, let’s protect our young women by changing campus culture for the better. Let’s #keeptheboysinside until they can learn how to keep their hands to themselves. And then let’s watch and see how America’s college campuses change for the better.
