It's 6:30 in the morning, I put on my running shoes and go out. We go out, rather, me and fear. Yes, we girls, women, children carry a hand luggage called fear. And we don't want it, I assure you we don't want it, but events, machismo, patriarchy, history and data have confirmed that we are assaulted, raped and killed. When I comment with my training colleagues that I carry fear incorporated, that lonely streets at night or dawn alter my heart rate, that they make me feel insecure and that I live with that, because otherwise, we wouldn't do anything... they try to empathize with me, but they tell me it's hard for them. They, men, go out to train and their senses are in that enjoyment or suffering, but never in fear.
And that has made me actively occupy myself and worry about how fear is lived much more and with more nuances from the female body, from the female sex and from the vital experience predominantly of women. A 52% of women who play sports outdoors have felt attacked at some point. According to the WHO, one in 3 women in the world has suffered physical or sexual violence, 60% of women in Spain have experienced sexual harassment at some point in their lives. 83% of women feel afraid walking alone at night, and so we could continue filling the sheet with data that configure a picture of frightened, insecure women with fear walking alone at night and dawn in big cities and remote towns. You know what I'm talking about, you can feel that sensation.
As a communication strategist and expert in building brands with a gender perspective, I wanted to face fear head-on and not hide it under the rug. I don't like that when my teenage daughter goes out, it keeps me on edge until she returns, and if my son, younger than her, goes out, I don't feel the danger so acutely. I hate feeling and living it this way, but while we educate sons, men and friends in these new masculinities and that a woman's body is ---only--- hers, we must provide safe spaces and create a community of codes, gadgets and networks where we feel protected.
And from communication, we can do a lot. Let's not use euphemisms to talk about fear, aggression, insecurity. Let's challenge society, governments, so that good actions can outweigh bad ones, let's invest in public spaces with more light, more connectivity, more security forces. Let's rethink cities and bring back the figure of the night watchman. Let's invest in education on feminism and sex-affective relationships. Let's encourage active reporting that intimidates bad intentions.
Let's challenge society, governments, so that good actions can outweigh bad ones, let's invest in public spaces with more light, more connectivity, more security forcesYes, good communication works with good values, does things differently, and empowers us with its positioning. These brands are our allies. Brands that sponsor violet spaces, that illuminate dark streets and squares, that mark outdoor sports routes with explicit surveillance, that invest in maps of the black zones of cities and thus be able to reduce them. This way we can move from #metoo in aggressions in public spaces to #it'sover fear.