Walking in public: does sexism still exist?
By Carolyn Gevinski ’22, Opinion Contributor
In the 21st century, the word “Feminism” has evolved into an enmity — a trigger word for some, while for others, it is effectively worshipped. The claims of everyday sexism and the equal number of retorts have coiled themselves into a convoluted hairball of strange terms such as “misogyny,” “bropropriating,” “feminazi,” “woke,” “mansplain,” and “manspread.” Fortunately, these never-ending arguments can be quickly summarized into one seemingly unanswerable question: Does sexism still truly exist in the United States? Various responses to the query have spawned an increasingly divisive debate.
In order to satisfy my growing curiosities and find a valid answer to this question, I decided to construct an experiment. Although there are many severe forms of sexism to examine (i.e. the wage gap or sexual assault in the workplace), I chose to test a more lighthearted everyday form of discrimination: walking in public. Where better to do an experiment based on walking in public than a college campus? Bumping into people while rushing to class, not knowing whether you should wave at that person you vaguely know, juggling a hill card, phone, room key, water bottle, and backpack as you run to catch a door — all cringe worthy reminders of the daily bustle here on College Hill.
According to Refinery29, women walking in public are more likely to step aside for men than men are for women, leaving them at a disadvantage. Many women have taken their experience to the internet, claiming that they made a conscious effort to walk in the direction of men without moving aside. These women insist that their experiences consisted of countless collisions with relentlessly unmoving male bodies. However, as we all (hopefully) know, the internet is not always the most trustworthy source of information. In order to discover if there is truth behind these claims, I took part in a small investigation of my own. Unlike the alleged claims I had seen online, I wanted my experiment to exhibit scientific accuracy. In this sense, I needed a control group, something the women who had tested their hypothesis by merely walking straight into a gaggle of guys and counting “hits” did not use. In order to do this, I would need to test my ideas on both men and women.
My goal was to walk straight at 40 people (20 male, 20 female) without yielding. I would then record how many members of each gender were cordial enough to step aside, and how many I ran straight into.
In the culmination of my observations, the numbers did not favor the men. Four out of twenty men moved to the side for me to pass while sixteen did not budge, generating a collision. Out of the women, fourteen moved aside, and the other six did not. Although women have overcome endless social and political barriers that inhibit our progress, there is still this evident discrepancy between male and female actions. This can be attributed to the societal expectations and gender roles imposed upon us as women. In completing this experiment, I recognized my own inherent urge to move aside for others for the first time, and was forced to fight it. I accredit these behaviors to the idea that society teaches women that we must follow certain rules and exhibit specific characteristics in order to become “ladies.”
A clear example of this is the idea that women are created for the purpose of having children. Women are also taught to identify ourselves with the male figures in our lives. Even accomplished women are often recognized as primarily mothers, sisters, and daughters before being recognized for their work. These examples suggest that women are conditioned to comply with “ladylike” standards in order to be accepted in society. We are both figuratively and literally taught to step aside and let men do the work.
Although my study may seem trivial, I see it as a small insight that becomes magnified when considered among a plethora of everyday injustices. Women are not outraged to the point of organizing marches and protests because walking in public is a tiny bit more difficult for us. It is the collective discrimination from hundreds of examples, some more critical than others, that exasperate us. Perhaps women are irritated because a woman is considered a “slut” under the same terms that a man would be called a “stud.” Our animosity could also be rooted in the fact that our own president has made statements such as, “You know, it doesn’t really matter what [they] write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.” The list of grievances is endless.
While the issue of women walking with less ease in public may seem inconsequential compared to the other difficulties we face, it is a small step towards answering my original question. If ever asked, “Does sexism still truly exist in the United States?”, I would answer with a confident, wholehearted “Yes.”
