It was an out-of-the-ordinary night: go to an off-campus party, watch over my friends in case they decide to drink, get out within an hour and dress up to feel confident. 

Within 10 minutes of leaving my dorm with my friend for the off-campus house, I had gone from feeling beautiful and confident to feeling like a “slut” and didn’t want to be out and about anymore. Ten minutes on City Avenue will do that to you. Ten minutes out in public on a dark night as a woman in the United States will do that to you. 

This is a taboo subject in the United States. We should feel “safe” in our country, but we can’t wear a cute crop top and high-rise jeans at night without a blaring horn behind us or someone whistling as they drive past. 

Traveling in a pack doesn’t do much when your confidence takes hit after hit. It shouldn’t have to be this way, but this is how we learn. We learn through the experience of hit after hit, annoyance after annoyance. There are days we look in the mirror at our outfits and have to think to ourselves: “Am I going to be safe?” or “Will I be catcalled tonight?” 

With Halloween, our worries are only amplified. It’s a screaming noise in our heads that won’t go away after we hear that whistle from a car going by. A woman’s appearance should not be something to which men feel entitled. Instead, it should be a woman’s pride, with her shoulders thrown back, her chin raised and a smile on her face that should be front and center. When asked about the American Dream, that is what I will say. 

I will say, “I wish the American Dream wasn’t about the men.” Instead, it should be about my friends and I being able to wear what we want without feeling like “sluts.”