#severinstrasse

[bikesofcologne]

#bikesofcologne 388. . . . #hardtail #mountainbike #mtb #kscycling #solobikeparking #vringsveedel #severinstrasse #südstadt #köln #cologne #streetlife #urbancgn #ihavethisthingwithbikes (hier: Severin)

[c-o-c]

#severinstrasse #underground #station looks like it's from a seventies #sci-fi movie #symmetry #z5compact (at Severinstraße Köln)

[dashalbrundezimmer]

severinstrasse // köln georgsviertel

post-war office block

[xex-jade]

The Pinball Machine of being Left and Right (NSFW)

[This has politics in the end.]

There are a few kinds of cat-callers, some drunk-yell Nihao or Konichiwa to me on the street and giggle when I give them the middle finger. Some whisper it to me when they pass me on the street. I bolt around and yell an insult back after enough times, and my friends think I’m crazy for making a scene. Some politely approach me with a big smile and a polite offer, “I like Asian girls, here’s my number, will you fuck me?”. Some stares and chases me all the way to the city hall from the subway station for a number, not giving up after I said “I’m on my way to meet my husband, do you want to say hi to him?” (That was a lie.) Some? ..just grab their cock in passing whisper-asking “you want this?”, while I’m walking down the streets with my husband. 

There are also a few kinds of gropers, some grind their hard cock on you in a cramped club silently from the back (Club in Bremen), some sneakily puts his fingers on top of my left hand while I was sitting by the side of a semi-lit karaoke stage on the steps with my arms extended back to support my bodyweight, like a spider suddenly decides to crawling on your skin. I never saw where he is. (This was at REPUBLICA in Berlin, the same conference where I personally spoke to Edwards Snowden.) Some extends his left arm backwards (8 o’clock direction) in broad daylight to grope my boob (Severinstrasse in Cologne), some pokes his finger at my anus, at a house party after apparently I sent the wrong signal being polite and uncomfortably smiling when he grabbed my whole left arm. (Amsterdam). 

Now here’s the pinball machine.

I’ve not lived an incredibly cautious life in Europe, quite the opposite in fact. But I’ve never been a moron anywhere, not even when I was drunk to the point of puking or high on LSD in public. This is not a belated #metoo post and I’m not traumatized to any significant degree by these incidents. If anything, I’ve learned how to intimidate back. 

When I was 17, 18 in Wuhan, I didn’t go to school, I had an almost full-time job teaching English, I had money, I went to bars and clubs, drinks with 30, 40-year-old friends, I came home at 4am in the morning, in a taxi or an audi, I had a one-night-stand, I dated a 28-year-old German guy. I led an incredibly liberal life considering the location and age. (My high school friends at the time often had to be home for dinner.) But I’ve never been groped. Not even accidentally. 

I even get the reasoning for the racism. East Asian girls and weeaboos, waifu, neckbeards, incels and anime, I get it. I also (except the one I didn’t see) remember the ethnicities (and if possible, language and accent) of all the people that groped and (creepy) catcalled me. I won’t name names, but it’s on the colorful side. 

Sexism, racisms are big glaring problems. I don’t know what the societal solution should be. I think awareness is good, propaganda is bad. Tearing down all the definitions are also bad. 

I want to wear colorful dresses with deep cleavages, and my knee high socks. Personally? I’ll be prepared to get terrifyingly angry and loud, have a pocket knife and date masculine men that most offenders would think twice before trying. (It also helps that I like them.)

At the end of the day, here’s my attempt at a dependable conclusion.

Many times I’ve told my Caucasian (guy) friends that what I mention above happened to me, (and also more innocuous things), they didn’t believe such a thing could happen in their country.

+

Having a local “looking” guy accompany me helps stave off advances, but won’t prevent creepy, quiet attempts. (Also definitely invites staring.)

=

I’m East Asian, a foreigner and a girl. So I’m near bottom of the sexual and racial AND local vs. outsider hierarchy. This extends not only to me but the guy I’m with. 

Speaking very broadly, in my eyes, the left-wingers got the big problem right but some solutions completely wrong. The right-wing doesn’t acknowledge the problem well but has some (potential) solutions right. Getting the stories (#metoo, etc) out is a good way to go, but endlessly appealing for people’s empathy and pity for the minority “experience” while promoting complete erasure of victim blaming and encouraging women to “slut it up”, “travel by yourself!”, getting rid of standards for dating and monogamy, expecting minorities to band together because we are all “minorities oppressed by colonists whites”... is infantilizing, confusing, inviting anarchy and traumatic. 

My conservative mother would tell me to stay home forever, don’t have sex, don’t flaunt, drink your water, go to bed early, and maybe learn martial arts. But at the end of the day, her “be careful” still stands. The risk and existence of the food chain of who-you-can-grope-and-runaway can’t be prayed away. The bigger the risk, the bigger the defense there needs to be. 

[ungeheuerliches]

Die Polizei hat die Personalien von sieben Tatverdächitigen aufgenommen.

[cmp-pictures-blog]

Fort IX #koellective #pickhan #welovecgn #art #artist #artwork #d7100 #nikon #welovecgn #köln #kunst #koeln #wdr #love #liebedeinestadt #instagood #instagram #instaart #picoftheday #pictureoftheday #fotografie #flickr #cologne #severinstrasse (hier: Cologne, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5AOKG7oppL/?igshid=yy8cug24pk1e

[editorianne]

#Kölnzeit #Severinstrasse #Torburg #liebedeinestadt #thisisCologne #veedel (hier: Severinstraße Köln)

[reginaboerschel]

#severinstrasse #ubahn #u_bahn #underground #subway #koeln #koelnergram #koelscheecken #365koeln #city #innenstadt #mobility #architecture #architektur #thisiscologne #livingincologne #liebedeinestadt #meinestadt #iphone6 #kvb #tube (hier: Severinstraße Köln)

[sabrinko]

#koelnerecken #severinstrasse #cologne #architekturfotografie #architecturephotography

[dashalbrundezimmer]

severinstrasse // köln severiensviertel

post-war apartment building

camera: exa 1b / tessar 2.8/50 carl zeiss jena

film: ilford hp5 plus

[thorstenfleischmann]

Geschmorte #Ochsenbaeckchen #Altes #Brauhaus #Köln #koeln #severinstrasse 👍