In your everyday life, how do some of the identities you bear shape your experiences of public spaces as accessible or inaccessible, enabling or restrictive, during various times of the day and night?
(Public spaces could include spaces such as streets, markets, parks, courts, gyms, shopping malls, public transport, educational institutions, police stations, hospitals, clubs, social media, and places of worship, among others)
My identity as a woman definitely shapes my experiences of public spaces: particularly with respect to which spaces are accessible in which manner, and at what times of day. Even for the smallest of obligations that needs me to step outside, I find myself covering my face with a scarf, and carrying supportive implements in my bag with me. I also always make it a point to identify safety routes, nearest help / support access… I think this comes largely from lived experiences as well as from experiences that I have heard about.
My identity as a brown woman/savarna woman continues to define how I conduct my self in a public space. As someone who studied at a central government university, while I had to always be on guard as a woman, I did not have to think about my caste identity. No one questioned or asked how I sought admission into this university. As a savarna woman, the norms established by family patriarchs restricted my access to public spaces. I was not allowed to leave my house as a teenager and was often held accountable for my own safety and well being. I experienced fear both in public and private space. When I moved to Japan, it took me almost a year to let me guard down. I live alone but I can sometimes leave my main door unlocked, I don’t strap my bag pack in front to protect myself from being groped, and I don’t experience fear while walking home at night to my house from the train station, despite the fact that the path is dimly lit and there are not many people on the streets. However, some of my Japanese female friends tell me that as an Asian woman I should be more careful. Many Japanese women, young girls have experienced chikan or street sexual harassment on the train. I remain vigilant, at the same time acknowledge that I have the privilege of experiencing Japan (specifically, Nagoya city) as a ‘foreign’ or ‘gaijin’ woman.
The short-cut route from my college to the nearest metro station is quite unsafe. Multiple incidents have been reported of men in parked cars touching themselves inappropriately at the sight of college girls in broad daylight. As I have to take this route often, I am wary of parked cars in general, and make it a point to check if there’s somebody inside. I walk faster when I hear footsteps behind. I make sure I have one earphone in, so that I look unapproachable while not losing my bearings.
When I’m taking the metro, I have to think of what I’m wearing, and use the women’s compartment, unless I’m travelling with a male friend, because I feel safer there. When I’m travelling alone in an auto, I sit on the side closer to the road. I imagine myself jumping off in case the driver turns predatory, and I have my Maps on because auto drivers sometimes take by-lanes. It sounds absurd and irrational, but the fear is very real. Auto drivers also charge us extra at night, especially late at night or early in the morning, and this is not even for their sacrifice of sleep, but for “letting us reach safely” which is quite enraging, honestly.
My identity as a woman from the North-East (although this classification is problematic) requires me to take extra measures, because I have personally experienced disturbing things, especially at night. And there is this burden of (perceived) responsibility that I carry, which is very difficult to shake off, that whatever I do, whatever happens to me, has a bearing on the “honour” of my people.
It is definitely restrictive, even with my own advancing age. I need to be extra cautious about the time of the day, about how desolate my surroundings are, who are around me – men or women – group of men or a suspicious looking single man (of any age) ”’ late night is avoided at all costs unless I am with a ‘safe’ group of friends.
I have traveled solo in various parts of my country and the world. Must mention that that I have never felt unsafe in Japan and Singapore at any point of day or night in any public space..
I experienced this unsafe feeling in many other places in the world – not just in India. For example I would prefer to walk back to my hotel in Paris instead of traveling alone in a cab with an unknown driver.
Somehow a tent in Rajasthan – in the middle of a desert felt safer than a crowded metro in Delhi. And I cannot explain why.
I recently moved to Japan for academic purposes, and would like to draw attention to how language influences our perceptions and experiences of public spaces. My evident ‘non-Japaneseness’ leads most people to believe that I can’t speak the language (to be honest, I can’t, but I am in the process of learning!). I sometimes find myself the subject of very interesting discussions, one of which was a conversation between what I’d say were two middle-school boys trying to figure out if I was a girl or a boy while giggling to themselves (I have short hair and dress quite androgynously). Some other instances are contemplations on my nationality, and if I can speak English. I don’t think these come from a place of contempt always, but they do sometimes create a sense of othering that can be difficult to simply shake off.
Action/Conduct take precedence over identity (markers). My experience suggests that while various aspects of my identity play an important role in deciding an individual’s acceptability/reception in various public spaces, the conduct of an individual has, in the final analysis, the last word. Good conduct very quickly overpowers stereotypes and 0rejudices just like inappropriate behaviour destroys all expected social cohesion that result from shared identities.
entity
My identity as a female definitely shapes my experiences of public spaces especially as far as travelling in public transport is concerned and also sharing personal information especially pics on social media.
Like in public transport as a female if i ever face certain undesirable gestures by any guy unfortunately if i will try to argue with him about his undesirable body gestures ,everyone sitting in bus or sumo instead of supporting me will start gazing towards me as if it was my fault .I think this becomes one main reason that we don’t slap such person in public because no one around supports at the right time .
If i talk about access to social media particularly Facebook i still feel very insecure to upload my pics as well as certain posts because of so many reasons.
In nutshel there is a dire need for change in perception towards ourselves we must start honoring ourselves first ,this is not known as egotist but this is known as self respect then only we can expect positive attitudinal change from others.
Thankyou.
As a young working woman living in a fast paced city, I have had many encounters with the public places be it metro stations, markets or walking up to the nearest bus stops. The way girls or women use public places is many a times different from how men use it. One would mostly find women using public spaces for a particular reason.They hardly just roam around especially after it gets dark unlike many of the boys. Concerns like safety in public spaces does impact women much more deeply than men.
Initiatives like safety walks for women and girls should be encouraged so that more and more women can access public spaces without fear.
My identity as an upper cast, privileged/entitled, brown cis-man in this country has a noticeable bearing on my experiences of public spaces. An honest reflection would be I was quite oblivious to it during my growing up years, till my association around this issue and the sector helped me in understanding of how deeply identity-based exclusion and violence is practiced is in India.
Apart from my sex, my cast/surname has played a very invisible yet impactful role in giving me an undue advantage in such spaces. Particularly when it comes to access and preference in institutional setups, without even me wanting, my identity has worked in my favour.
Having been living in Delhi for over 9 years, in my initial years I have extensively used different form of public transport (day & night) and not even once during those years did I experience any violation (apart from the general over-crowdedness in the city transport) of my space or dignity. On the other hand, there would hardly be any female friends/colleague who have not had one or more harrowing experiences in the same spaces.
The people/individuals who commit these violence operate from a masculine sense of entitlement. Unfortunately, people who are given the responsibility to find solutions are also operating from the same masculine sense of care and control hence what we see as corrective measures never really tackle the root cause of the issue. The spaces we see outside are created by the same people who look at cast, class, gender, religious identity, ethnicity, body image, language, (dis)ability from a very liner lens of power relations.
Someone like me talking about this issue might seem bit of a contradiction to share about the injustice and oppression people have faced since I have never experienced the same societal constructs of inequality and therefore cannot really relate to them in an anecdotal level! But again, having said that if there were more men in positions of power and privilege who start acknowledging, accepting, speaking and empathetically acting upon this issue, the world that we know of today would have seen better representation of gender across the spectrum!
I believe that there are two aspects to this question, ie, what my identity is and how I display it. Coming from an upper-class, mostly liberal family background, I have had few restrictions from my family (albeit more than those of my older brother). Studying in Delhi was, however, a whole other experience. I know I look privileged, and I am usually confident about the clothes I wear or the amount of skin I choose to show. This display of identity, I feel, often deters overt harassment.
However, there are still numerous instances where I am uncomfortable with people (almost all men) staring lewdly or obviously judging me with disgust. This is where the issue of time of the day comes in. If I am uncomfortable in the day (say, when I’m walking home from college in shorts and a sleeveless shirt because it’s HOT) because someone is staring at my chest, I am able to call them out on it (even though I’m usually met with a defensive “I wasn’t doing anything!). At night, if I am returning from dinner in the metro, sitting in the women’s compartment (which, after about 10:30 p.m. becomes quite empty) it becomes more difficult for me to make my discomfort known.
What I find most fascinating about this is how close male friends or relatives react to this information. They are aware and cautious, but they are also the first to tell you how to avoid such instances, protect yourself, or how to react should you find yourself in a sticky situation. And while I’m sure that many men in public spaces might hand out this same advice to their mothers, sisters, girlfriends or friends, they do little to make strangers more comfortable.
My identity as an Indian student studying in a primarily white state in the US has shaped my experiences to an extent. Although I live in the city of Atlanta, which itself can be described as a liberal and diverse city, as you move further away from the city and towards the suburbs, the people and surroundings get whiter and significantly more uncomfotable. Although I haven’t faced any form of blatant racism, there’s always a subtle tone of discrimination which arises form general ignorance and lack of awareness of other cutures in this part of the country. More than one person has asked me “How do you speak English so well?”, which seems ridiculous to us but are genuine questions in the minds of people here. People react and behave according to what they’ve been taught, and unfortunately in a lot of parts of the US, people are taught next to nothing about the world outside their own country.
Being a man in bangalore and fluent in most languages of south india, as enabled me to feel safe and comfortable in most public spaces at day or night.
This had resulted in a deep and absolute comfort that has been blinding in my ability to empathise or recognise the experiences of women or minorities in spaces of conflict.
In college, when active conversation was encouraged and regularly held, I was made aware of the constant and severe need for vigilance for some in public spaces.
In my position, I feel a need to understand how and where disagreement and raising a voice in support is important. And to actively notice and listen to subtle and easy-to-miss violations.