In a recent discussion, my sister and I were comparing our stories in being whistled at, yelled at, and having our bodies commented on in various ways when we're walking alone. One suggestion as to the disparity of our experiences was that we differed in how conventionally attractive we were.
See, the more I thought about this, the more I realised that while my body probably naturally falls more into the realm of conventional attractiveness in this society, her face does more so than mine, and she does all the right things. She plays an American woman way better than I ever could or want to. So now I'm very, very curious as to which of these factors is more important, and why.
Now, admittedly, I think most of the differences in our experiences are due to the fact that a) she never gallivanted about Shanghai past 10:00 PM, when all of the exchange students were drunk but not drunk enough to forget their English, and the Chinese men were tired or drunk enough to forget that you're a foreigner and therefore generally worthy of respect, and b) that she never walks around a certain part of town where the high school kids who skip class go to smoke and skateboard during the day.
But hey, it still makes for an interesting question, and now this inquiring mind wants to know. Now, how to go about testing this? Hmmm.
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