Am quoted in this reaction piece to the Advertising Standards Authority clearing Samsung over their ill advised jogging while female WITH SAMSUNG HEADPHONES in at 2 am ad. I didn't lodge any complaints with the ASA, instead thought it was tasteless to run the ad given the circumstances of Ashling Murphy's murder as well as the fact that 2 am running isn't an option for me. And actually, the most enraging part of the ad, was actually that a man comes up behind her on a bike and she turns around, not in horror at being angry at being harrassed while exercising, but to have a little flirt with a man on a bike on a deserted bridge.
I am not exercising for male consumption, I am doing it for mental and physical health. And in the 18 months I have been running in Camden, I have been physically blocked or touched or stopped by men trying to engage 6 times. It's not appropriate or okay. And it is not a rarity. I stopped running on Sunday morning after my therapist said I was doing more harm than good at being worked up at the drunks from the night before that might do something while on my (granted) very early runs.
I changed my behaviour rather than deal with the fear of those men. I resent this. I hate it. I hate that I campaign daily for women’s safety yet I cannot run whenever I want.
I wish I could run any time day or night, I wish I didn't have a curfew, but could you imagine the newspapers if I was killed running around Regent's Park at two am. Was I really in running gear, was I really exercising, why the hell would I be doing that. Did I not understand the dangers? Why would I do something so risky?
Those headlines run through my head when I wait for it to be dawn. A friend sent me a headlamp for my early morning runs, I had to explain that I was not scared of tripping in the dark; I was scared of men that could hurt me. I wish I wasn’t.