On June 10th, in a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan, China, a drunk male flirted and sexually harassed a female, and when the female rejected him, he gathered his friends and beat the girl almost to death. She was not scantily dressed; she was not by herself walking in the dark at night; the female didn't do anything. She was just dining together with her female friends. And by saying no to sexual assault, she got hit by stools and wine bottles. These guys pulled her hair out, kicked her in the head and put their feet on her head to stop her from moving. Other customers saw what happened but most of them chose to act as bystanders. Ones who stood up for the girl were females. 

Only because there was a surveillance camera, what happened gets to be known, and the social media raised the social awareness of this incident. What would happen if there were no surveillance and no witnesses? May this incident just have ended up as a quarrel and fight? There are only a few cases that are reported and exposed to us. Somewhere we cannot see, there must be similar cases and innocents who got through similar things. If women have no guarantee for basic safety needs, women's social status will never be equivalent to men. There's an unstated social norm that when a man causes trouble, people tend to find excuses because "he's drunk"; however when a woman goes through something unfortunate, people tend to say "because she's drunk." The double standard is making people sick.

I saw a comment saying, "She could've protected herself better, and not mess around with men." But the woman did protect herself by bravely saying no to the man when he was trying to chat her up. And what is the outcome? Why is society having higher expectations for women than men? Why do women need to behave better? Why can't men control their impulses? Naomi Wolf, a feminist writer, wrote in the Beauty Myth, “Beauty provokes harassment, the law says, but it looks through men’s eyes when deciding what provokes it.” It’s pitiful to see every time when an attack against women happens, there are always people who accuse women being the cause, even though they are the victim. 

 It's great to see women's improvement through time. A hundred years ago, the 19th amendment was passed, granting women the right to vote. Women are gaining more rights by receiving salaries equal based on their performances. But 100 years later, what happened in Tangshan showed us that there are still big steps to realize social equity. Women and men are physically different, and men are "generally stronger." However, this is not why they abuse their strengths and bully minorities. 

The investigation for the case has not come out yet, but I truly wish that the police can give a satisfying solution and don't let down women's beliefs on the legitimacy of laws.