Week 5
One’s gender greatly affects their experience and ability to walk. If you are a woman you must keep in mind where you are walking and what time you are walking. I’d say most women don’t want to find themselves in sticky situations where no one can help them so most avoid areas with not a lot of people around to witness what could go down and if the sticky situation does end up happening they need something that can assist them in getting away such as pepper spray and mini tasers. For these reasons walking may be harder for women as they have lots of things to look out for. Which leads to a less relaxing or explorative walking experience. On the men’s side of things, I’d say things are more open. You still need to be careful of your surroundings no matter who you are, but I’d say men’s worries don’t go as deep as women’s do. So this leads to a more relaxed walking experience and allows men to be more explorative of the unknown on their walks.
Week 6
It is very important for people to consider themselves citizens especially walkers. This is true because the thought of being a citizen shows a sense of ownership towards the city. Anybody can just be a person inside a city, but if one regards themselves as being a citizen of a city shows ownership and a sense of pride. Public spaces are for everyone, especially citizens and walkers. A lot of places are deemed “locked” to some people in a city because of social status and such, but public spaces allow all citizens to gather in one place and get the same feel of a city and sense of ownership and pride because it’s something they can say they are apart of. As for walkers, the ability to access different and new parts of a city are essential for a positive experience. If one is shut out of all these different places due to their social status then there would be nothing to explore and walking would be a moot point. So the relationship between walking, citizenship, and public spaces are the senses of pride and ownership one can take in a city if they regard themselves as a citizen and being willing to walk through and explore such spaces because they belong to you the citizen and not some company or government.
