By Victoria D’Andrea

Valentine’s day wolf

I am going to use this SCAB as a chance to complain.

So, yesterday was Valentine’s day. I generally don’t care much for the day as I believe that it’s mostly a commercial holiday. Why would anyone buy a generic card for 2 pounds when you could actually do something meaningful? Or just go eat nice food out. Mah.

Anyway, as it usually happens on a Thursday, the SCA group had a deadline. That meant I spent even less time than usual thinking about it. Usually one of my friends needs cheering up or has to tell me how careless their boyfriend is. This year, I was completely absorbed with the recent PB (and good thing we did).

However, walking home I noticed a change in Brixton’s atmosphere. It might have been all the couples around me, but in truth I got two catcalls in my 15-minute walk home. A record in my books. I feel this is connected to Valentine’s day as usually after school I’d rarely get any, but of course it could all be a complete coincidence.

Whatever the reason, in front of Pret I had the uncomfortable experience of a man actually turning completely round to stare at my legs (or general figure) as I walked away. Not only that, but I was aware he was actually trying to say something to me. I mean, this is 2019. Most people wear ear-phones. So I only heard a few words over my music. Something to do with sexy and legs. At this point you get the lovely choice to either ignore the man completely or say something.

I was feeling quite annoyed as I sensed him turning around, and thus unexpectedly decided to do something for once. A loud ‘fuck you’ left my lips before I could actually think twice about it. Now, he quickly turned indignant. In his mind, he was trying to compliment me. Who cares how uncomfortable it would make me feel. The craziest thing is I spent the next 10 minutes feeling bad for my rash reaction, even though I still felt justified for my reaction. In no universe would I feel please for such a random comment. I know it was positive, but his over the top reaction did mean I felt uncomfortable in my dress. This might actually make me think twice about wearing a skirt next time, as I really don’t have the wish of being commentated on by random strangers.

I do wonder if the man will ever understand my reaction. By his confuse words, I know he was completely taken aback by my response. But even less do I feel I would want to stop and explain to him why his ‘complement’ is not actually such a positive thing as he so obviously thought.

I still feel guilty though. How is this fair?

The copy scores 72.1 in the Flesch Reading Ease test