It is winter once again in the frozen north, which means a whole lot less sunlight (I’ve got my vitamin D on hand). This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for me, because I love to go for walks after dark and listen to my iPod and just chill for a while. I’ve been taking advantage of the early sunset lately, because it’s not yet dropping below zero degrees.

It reminds me a lot of a mini-debate I once was a part of in Kelowna, where I also enjoyed walking at night, although we didn’t really live in a nice neighbourhood.

The general feeling from the female side of the debate was this:

Should a male, or group of males, be walking at night and notice a solitary female walking ahead of him/them, the polite thing to do is to cross to the opposite side of the road.

A few of the guys agreed, saying that the inconvenience of having to cross the street was worth it to perhaps ease the mind of the female walking ahead (not to say that all females walking alone are afraid of encountering men, just that some might be).

Others found the suggestion to be insulting, as if just being male was enough to warrant being considered dangerous to women.

As it was a mini-debate, we never really went into it further, and I’m not sure if anyone would even remember having such a discussion, since I had forgotten about it until last night when I was walking and a familiar song from my days of wandering near Lake Okanagan came on.

So, ladies: if you were out walking after dark, would you prefer a man to cross to the other side of the street to give you peace of mind?

And gentlemen: would you be willing to do such a thing, or would you prefer to stand your ground and show that you’re just not a creepy guy, no matter where you walk?

Sunday October 24th 2010 — 23 Comments
✯ Posted under { Society }