Dear Source:
I wanted to write about an incident I experienced in St. Thomas, where a young male, attempting to ‘cat call’ a young woman, became extremely agitated and violent when his attempt to ‘holler’ was rebuked.
Dear young men of the Virgin Islands,
As one of you, I must say that I am ashamed at the current state of affairs in the Virgin Islands and our rampant disrespect for women in the Territory. Every day, women in the Virgin Islands are heckled, whistled at, and cat called in the most grotesque fashion. The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that if a woman were to spurn your advances, you lash out at them with a fury reserved for the most heinous of crimes. Men of the Virgin Islands, my question to you is this: Why? Why do you feel that women in the Virgin Islands were put on this earth to serve you, pleasure you, and cook your food? Why, when a disproportionate amount of Virgin Islands men are raised by women, do you feel the need to disrespect someone’s mother, daughter, sister, and cousin? Women in the Virgin Islands should not dread performing the most menial of tasks due to your harassment and disrespect. They deserve to be treated as equals, which they are. They deserve to be respected as mothers, which they are. Not only do you disrespect your own mothers, daughters, and sisters, but your disrespect the very place you claim to represent ‘Till I die’.
Although it is easy to place the blame solely on the young men of the Virgin Islands, the community at large is also at fault. We have permitted the creation of a society that has fostered anger in our most disenfranchised. Our young men and women, who are children of other young men and women, have been denied proper education for generations. Without education, large sections of the Virgin Islands are not able to be upwardly mobile. Their bills, groceries, and expenses are just as expensive as everyone else’s but they lack the ability to succeed by merely relying on the simple fact that the government has a duty to provide basic services such as education to its population. This has created a cycle that will take generations to correct. The saying is, ‘Ignorance is bliss’ but in fact, ignorance can be one of the most harmful factors to national prosperity and social wellbeing. Simply put, through ignoring the problem, we have allowed it to grow uninhibited and now are dealing with the consequences. The cat calling and whistling, although repugnant and reprehensible, are symptoms of a much larger disease.
If we want to know who is part of the problem, we need only look into a mirror. Every time one of us remains silent when our mothers, sisters, and daughters are being disrespected, we further bolster the position of the perpetrator. Our apathy is the weapon of the curb side heckler. If said heckler feels that he can operate without any semblance of backlash from the community, then not only did we fail our women, we failed ourselves. So, next time you see such injustices occurring, say something, educate, and remember, we all deserve to be safe and treated with respect.
Whitney McFarlane
St. Thomas