The last time I went running I passed a group of men and one shouted that I had a fat backside whilst another commented in very graphic terms on my chest.
This isn't unusual. Women get sexually harassed all the time, whenever they go out, whether just walking to work or running in the park.
But my be able to hear those men shouting things at me is my own fault. How dare I think I can go out and exercise as a woman alone without a man keeping me company? And, what was I thinking of not wearing a pair of headphones or earphones so I could listen to music on my MP3 player?
It's your fault if you don't wear earphones and your fault if you do
What the hell was I thinking of? If I had been listening to music I wouldn't have heard the comments.
Clearly this is my fault. I asked for those comments. I invited them by virtue of the fact I wasn't listening to music. I'm stupid and stupid women deserve to have those types of comments aimed at them.
But hey, wait a moment. Isn't it advised by the police not to wear earphones so you can be fully aware of your surroundings? At least that's the spiel women and girls hear all the time.
It's just another form of victim blaming or shaming the female of the sexes has to constantly put up with.
Maybe instead of blaming women and girls for lewd comments, sexual harassment and unwanted touching and worse in the case of Sarah Everard, it's time that some men (not every man behaves like this) looked at how they behave.
Bite back those comments you have no right to make and tell your sons to do the same.
Women and girls should have the right to leave their homes for exercise, enjoyment or work, or any damn reason without having to to wrestle with the dilemma of whether to to wear earphones and then being blamed no matter what they decide to do.
