Time to stop normalising sexism

It hits women every day, everywhere. It hit my friend when she travelled on the MTR and was groped by a man in a carriage full of people. It hit me when I went shopping in Mong Kok and a group of men began a loud and graphic discussion about my legs.

Just last month it hit me when I stopped a man for a street interview in Causeway Bay, and instead of answering my questions, he licked his lips and winked at me.

"It" is the deep-rooted culture of misogyny and sexual harassment that surrounds Hong Kong society - and it makes me feel unsafe and scared.

The Equal Opportunities Commission found that one in five women had experienced sexual harassment at work. So had more than a quarter of flight attendants, a separate poll showed. A Hong Kong investment firm recently attempted to DNA-test its female staff members to investigate menstrual bloodstains left in a restroom, while this month, the Legislative Council and other venues were added to the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong's list of public locations where women are vulnerable to peeping Toms.

These statistics and cases serve to highlight a fact that all women internalise at a young age: we are vulnerable to sexual abuse and misogyny, not necessarily because we put ourselves in high-risk situations, but because this culture of sexism exists everywhere in society, forcing us to be on guard in every aspect of our daily lives.

Yet despite the ubiquity of such uncomfortable scenarios and the damaging consequences of this relentless culture, why is the conversation about misogyny and sexual harassment near non-existent in daily discussions, and why are we not making a conscious effort to alter this reality?