Hot Girl Walks in a Hot Girl World

 Hot Girl Walks: A walk where you listen to music, keep up the pace, and feel hot. You are also typically alone, walking around your neighborhood, staring suspiciously at every person you pass by. 

Hot Girl Walks started trending this past year on TikTok, becoming the new workout trend for the girlies. It started to become the best way to slim down. The best way to build muscle. Becoming a form of therapy is better than journaling. Self-improvement. Mindfulness. And in 8 months maybe it will be Hoppy Girl Skips instead that will slim down our calves and re-invigorate a new sense of meaning to life. 

As you can tell, I am becoming a little too cynical about each and every self-mind-body-soul-improvement trend that has come out of TikTok. 

However, I feel like the concept of a Hot Girl Walk can be great! Coining a term for getting outdoor time, listening to music or a podcast, and taking time to be with yourself while getting light exercise is great! It’s something humans have been doing for centuries in order to come to a clearer mind and generate more creativity! 

That all being said, I think our reality clashes with this goal quite often. We have all heard the horror stories from our mothers and the news. From girls being picked up right off the street on their way home to being followed by men on hikes. Women don’t get to be alone in public and let their guard down. We don’t get to mozy around the neighborhood without being alert. It is a constant feeling of impending doom that keeps us walking at an above-average pace. 

We have been told our whole lives about the dangers of being alone as women. “Don’t go to the bathroom in public alone,” or "text me the second you make it home."

We have had the buddy system ingrained in our minds since day one for one reason only: survival. 

So how do we begin these solo hot girl walks? As someone who recently broke up with her boyfriend of four years, the thought of solitude sounds exhilarating. All I want is to be alone, stare at a wall, and eat smores. Occasionally, the desire to be outside becomes overwhelming and what better way to clear your head than taking a brisk walk outside? 

Wrong. 

That is how you can get murdered. 

Well, according to every woman I tell this too. 

And I find myself living in fear of it too. Walking alone the 20 minutes to Starbucks and I began to realize that the world is male. Men take up space, they are always alone or in packs of men, and when they are in their cars they get even bolder! I was 12 years old, the first time I got cat-called. Shocker? No, it's a common story now. Probably for all of human history actually. However, put 21-year-old me out on the streets holding my Starbucks and listening to Taylor Swift and I practically want to slash the tires on the next car of a man who stares for too long. 

So what can we do about our Hot Girl Walks then? 

Half of my friends have cute pepper sprays. Some of them have the “sharp” and not-so-legal key chains. I have sharp elbows. But are we meant to live under the constant stress and hesitation of being alone, walking down a street, as a woman? 

Groups have been started in order to promote sisterhood and safety, which is fantastic! But then does that negate the mindfulness of a Hot Girl Walk? Should we keep our mindfulness constricted to our rooms where if we lock all the doors and keep our phone within eyesight we are safe?