Take Back the Bar
This past weekend friends of mine ventured out to the suburbs to enjoy drinks and marshmallow roasting on my back porch. The conversation turned, as it often does when a gathering includes more than one feminist, to feeling safe and secure in a public space. As nice as it is to feel solidarity, I wish that uncomfortable feeling that often accompanies daring to be female in public wasn’t so common.
It’s one thing to swap stories (the guy who didn’t understand personal space on the subway, the guy who wouldn’t stop talking to you despite the headphones in your ears and your nose in the book, the guy who shouted something about what you were wearing) and, well, it’s another thing to take action. While great resources exist online—like hollaback, an app that exists in 64 cities across 22 countries—support can feel hard to come by. Harassment can feel isolating.
Women of Boston, however, are mobilizing and taking action. A group called “Take Back the Bar” is planning to flood a local Boston establishment known for attracting a less than enlightened clientele. The Facebook group reads,
Are you sick of feeling unsafe when you go out at night? Have you been harassed, groped, bothered, or otherwise made to feel like you don’t belong somewhere? Then help us take back the bars!
For those of you in Boston, join us on August 16th and have a beer or two in peace.
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