Recently on Twitter, I stumbled upon a CNN article titled “A startling number of women say they have been harassed while running.” It was a response to the recent Mollie Tibbetts case; the article explored the ways in which female runners feel unsafe. While it may have good intentions, like educating others on the dangers runners face, the truth is this isn’t a new issue. The “startling number of women” the article references have been voicing their concerns for years. And not to mention this is the second piece I wrote on the subject.
What’s truly startling is not the amount of women who feel unsafe when running; it’s those who are now shocked at those numbers and finally listening. The fact that it took as much as the disappearance and death of one women for people to start paying attention is unnerving. Mollie Tibbetts’s case isn’t a unique one either. There are several incidents of assaults on female runners, some which date back as far as 1980, and others as recent as one week ago. It’s the same cycle every time: a runner gets assaulted, people respond with worry and fear, then eventually they forget about that concern until it happens again. I’m tired of hearing from people who express that worry, yet remain passive on the issue. Mollie’s case exemplifies the little progress we made to resolve it. No woman should ever have to suffer to prove the point that female runners constantly face danger.
As a runner of ten years, I continue to carry the fear of being attacked or abducted. Whether I’m visiting my home back in the Chicago suburbs or running with my pals through the Quad Cities, I always need to keep my guard up when passing by a male figure. Or when I cross the street anticipating some honks or a catcall. The fear is especially there when my mom constantly texts me to remind me to carry pepper spray every time I go run. I’m reminded of it when my fellow female runner friends share their experiences of being harassed during runs. Not once in these past ten years have I ventured out for a run and thought nothing can happen to me. Because I certainly have been harassed on runs, verbally and physically.
You can tell women not to run alone or not to run at night. Or to bring mace when they go out. And not listen to music too loud. While doing that can protect us, it doesn’t address the core of the problem: the culture that fails to hold men accountable for their actions and directs blame onto women. Do not tell me how to protect myself on a run if you are not actively doing anything to call out men on their problematic behavior. Because that clearly hasn’t worked for the past 40 years, incidents like Mollie Tibbetts’s occurred.