My husband wore marijuana printed underwear at the Kigamboni ferry
and got away with it!
I have a very funny story to share. A few years ago, me and my partner went travelling and realised we had no swimwear on us. We walked into the local market, and bought two pairs of very colourful shorts and went off swimming with them! The next time, we went to Kigamboni and took the same to swim there. We stayed the night and for some reason the shorts he went with, stayed wet (I don’t remember, whether it rained or just the place was wet). And so, he nicely walks out with those shorts and we head to the ferry. Being the only brown people on the ferry, I thought people were staring because of just that… being brown! Only to realise that many men inside their pants, were wearing similar kinds of shorts - they were no swimming shorts! They were boxers! Now I realised this because of course some guy’s boxers were showing from under their t-shirt with their pants half down. We laughed through it and back home. Those ‘shorts’ have not seen the daylight from the cupboard now!
Why am I sharing this story today? after all these years? That’s because my partner has many such wardrobe mishaps, but he is so confident that he can wear that funny marijuana flowery underwear on a local ferry and be able to laugh about it. While I may or may not have mishaps, sometimes even choose clothes particularly to dress up during travel, but the kind of comments, cat-calling, or looks I get quickly put me in an uncomfortable position. Today, while walking down the street in Masaki, in decent pants and a short top was enough to bring unsolicited remarks from people. A few days earlier, a very baggy t-shirt and gym tights for a walk also induced the cat-calling. I fail to understand how much we women have to fight to just ‘be’ in this world. Just exist.
Are you guys tired of my complaining about this? Because I am. I feel so tired still thinking why we have to think about what we have to wear, how we have to ignore the cat-calling, where we can go and when is it safe to, and how much safer it is only when a male is accompanying us. Like I am genuinely tired. So if you are tired of hearing this complaint of mine, how do we think we can change it? Can you as a male stop staring at women? Can you as parents tell your children how uncomfortable it is for women to be gawked at? Can you as members of society help me complain more so it is not ignored and enabled? Because for years women have been ignored, but there is no change. What else do you think we can do?