The man stood and stared at me in a demeaning, aggressive way as I was showering. I had no way of covering my body. I felt trapped. The police recorded it as a sexual offence, but the management of the ponds did nothing.
When a man came bounding into the communal showers at the Hampstead Ladies’ Pond, I had my swimming costume folded down to my waist. I covered my breasts with my arms and waited for him to leave. When a man in a long crimped wig walked down the path and stopped where I was showering outside, I made a criminal complaint. The voyeuristic and invasive act of this man standing and intentionally letting me know that he was looking at me was demeaning, aggressive, and misogynistic. I couldn’t cover my naked body because he was blocking access to my towel.
The incident was recorded as a sexual offence. The Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association said it would share my concerns with the City of London Corporation, which manages the ponds. But it never got back to me and nothing changed.
Going to the Ladies’ Pond was crucial to me in getting through a period of severe depression. It continues to be crucial to my mental health and quality of life. Swimming in cold open water and communing with nature in a safe space away from the male gaze is healing. But I’ve felt apprehensive about going to the ponds ever since I started encountering men who are insistent on accessing spaces where women and young girls are naked, despite knowing that for many, probably most, women, this is non-consensual and experienced as a violation of their safety, privacy and dignity.
Like many women, I’ve been subjected to sexual harassment throughout much of my life, and have experienced sexual violence. To hear a man’s voice in a woman-only space registers as threatening to my nervous system. My overwhelming feeling is that my, and other women’s, privacy is being seriously violated. The healing effect of the Ladies’ Pond has been badly compromised.