Nicole Blanchard
Editor-in-Chief
In the year and a half that I’ve spent writing this column, I have tried my best to avoid recycling the same ideas and articles over and over again. Nobody likes a broken record, but it’s hard for me to get certain tracks out of my head, especially when they’re complicated issues that can be tackled from just about every angle.
At the beginning of the semester, I touched on the topic of catcalling. Recently, ISU experienced a rash of sexually explicit phone calls targeted at women affiliated with clubs and other on-campus activities. While I can’t be sure, I have a feeling I was one of those women.
The day before ISU officials sent out a warning email, I received a phone call promising a story idea about hazing for the newspaper. It was an extremely strange interaction, but not one I would have necessarily categorized as sexual harassment. However, after hearing from others who were targeted, it’s impossible to say whether I was dealing with an anonymous tipster or a perverted trickster.
I was lucky to have gotten through that encounter without feeling personally violated. Others were not. The amount of disgust and contempt I have for the person intentionally violating women is probably beyond measure, but the worst part is that incidents like these aren’t isolated.
It’s certainly not unusual for men to say things to women that make us uncomfortable, as referenced in my previous columns on street harassment. What’s pressing on my mind lately is how few places are becoming safe from this discomfort, at least for myself and the people I know.
Earlier in the year I wrote about how, for me, Idaho State was a safe place, one free from intimidation by people who felt like they were hurling necessary compliments my way. The same day that column was published, I was catcalled for the first time on campus. That same night, I watched a girl be followed across campus by an aggressively persistent man whose advances she had repeatedly rejected.
I started to feel like maybe ISU wasn’t such a safe place anymore, at least not the public parts. But of course things couldn’t just stop there. Instead, someone felt like they had to make my office an unsafe place, too.
And it’s not just my office, or public sidewalks, or down the street from my house where people feel the need to make inappropriate, threatening comments. It’s in the parking lot of my favorite coffee shop, or in the grocery store, or, for my best friend, in the lobby of a crowded restaurant where some creep felt compelled to comment on and touch her chest.
I don’t know how else to say that this behavior has to stop. If it’s you, cut it out. If it’s someone you know, take a stand.
Just remember, these aren’t rare events perpetrated by weirdos lurking in the shadows. Inappropriate comments can come from the kid who sits next to you in English, or your roommate, or even your best friend. And it won’t just go away if we ignore it, or let it go to voicemail.
Nicole Blanchard is a senior majoring in Mass Communcations.
