...and don't panic! The Know brings you advice during housing
A true friend is always there for you, especially when you're drunk.
Miss Quit regresses to her childhood this week as the prospect of beginning the "University of Life" looms.
That’s right, Miss Quit went to Amsterdam. Tulips and hookers and drugs! Oh my!
Yes, it truly was an eye-opening experience. Ironically though, by the last day I was wishing I’d kept my eyes blinkered. And I definitely regretted bringing so many outfits. For, alas, my heels would not get to see the bright neon lights that signalled just what I was not prepared to.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for diversity, culture, and experiencing different ways of life. Yet, sadly, most of my energy was expended on staying alert in case any pervert might jump out of the next alley to fully enjoy the wonders of a new city.
You may think I’m being dramatic or prudish, but I assure you that being in a group of six females over the age of 18 attracts all kinds of unwanted attention. Heck, we couldn’t even go through security at a museum (yes, a museum) without getting overtly eyed-up.
Do these clowns really think that smiling like a serial-killer and slurring ‘Hello ladies, you want c*ck?’ will ingratiate them with the opposite sex? We certainly weren’t in Kansas anymore, Toto.
Our coats couldn’t have been thicker or more tightly belted around us, or our expressions less welcoming, and yet all kinds of unsavoury characters persisted in this way. The only subtler way of refusing would have been to start kicking the owner of each roaming eye in their sensitive area, but then they would probably enjoy that.
Even a train journey to another town brought an equal amount of cringe along with it: an Alan Carr look-alike sat ogling my friend, who was unfortunate enough to sit facing him, with one hand over his groin and another rubbing his mouth in a particularly lascivious fashion.
Then there was the glorious Dutch weather: part-drizzle, part-biting-wind. Think York, only greyer. And colder. And funkier-smelling.
As if the sub-zero weather weren’t enough to put one off dressing up, offensively gawking strangers and almost naked (usually mature and on-the-larger-side) women in every window certainly swayed it for me. If I had looked at them whilst walking swiftly past, instead of politely averting my eyes, they would have made me feel even colder.
Like many females I take pride in my appearance, but in this strange land there was nothing for it but to look as inconspicuous as possible. For the entirety of the trip I stuck firmly to a uniform composed of thermals, multiple layering of tops, jeans, warm boots, and minimal makeup.
The idea was to look as unappealing as possible. The concept could not have been more alien.
It is a girl’s prerogative to dress provocatively, if she so wishes. This should not give others free licence to stare at her, proposition her, or (as one friend unhappily experienced) stick a hand up her skirt. Needless to say, I resented feeling inhibited in my own, excessively covered, skin.
Certainly perversion is an international phenomenon, but in a foreign place it is doubly perceptible. It seems oxymoronical that in a liberal society where prostitution is legal, a girl is not so free to wear her glad rags without fear of lechery.
You know what Dorothy, you were right. When it comes to wearing sparkly red shoes with confidence in public, there really is no place like home.
No offence, but if you're going to dress provocatively then you're going to draw attention to yourself wherever you are. It seems to me that there is no purpose for this article other than to elevate your own (ahem, rather large) ego.
It is not "a girl's prerogative to dress provocatively" without giving others free license to look at her. Do you know what 'provocatively' means?
Girls should be allowed to dress up how they like but if they dress 'provocatively' then they should expect that sort of thing, especially in Amsterdam. Propositions and groping are well out of order but the point of dressing 'provocatively' is to draw attention from men, is it not?
And the point of prostitution is to keep women safer but will probably also cause more eyes to wander. The fact that people can't just dress up nicely in the UK without being touched up in bars is much more disconcerting and problematic than dressing like a slut and wandering in the red-light district (disclaimer: obviously you weren't, that was an exaggeration).
Clearly the two posts above came from a male perspective. Ask most girls why they dress up, 'provocatively' (which, by the way, is entirely subjective) or not, or who they dress up for and the most common answer will be for themselves. The point is, I think, that its a choice each person should be free to make without fear of being labeled 'a slut'. Whether thats in a country where prostitution is legal or not shouldn't matter. Thats the point.
I think the purpose of this article was to throw the issue into question, not to come up with solutions or ways to 'elevate ego'. Why get personal? Whenever anyone starts a sentence 'No offence, but...', its quite clear that offence is exactly what they intend on.
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