For all the men out there to read and share on. Women are of course also invited to both read and share, but I especially hope that all my male friends will read it. To get a bit of an understanding what it is like to be a woman in a world which is highly unsafe for women. Even if YOU would never do anything bad to a woman - the article makes you see some options of what you can do to help, since: ...when I’m out alone at night, I rarely ever fear for my safety. Many men know exactly what I mean. Most women have no idea what that feels like—to go wherever you want in the world, at any time of day or night, and feel you won’t have a problem. In fact, many women have the exact opposite experience. Stop and think about that. Imagine always feeling like you could be at risk, like you were living with glass skin. That’s why I go out of my way to use clear body language and act in a way that helps minimize a woman’s fear and any related feelings. I recommend you do the same. Because when it comes to assessing a man, whatever one man is capable of, a woman must presume you are capable of. Unfortunately, that means all men must be judged by our worst example. If you think that sort of stereotyping is bullshit, how do you treat a snake you come across in the wild? One example of what you can do as a man: speak up! For example: Tell your friend or co-worker that rape jokes are bullshit and you won’t tolerate them. Rape jokes are not funny. Joking in a group to a woman walking home alone about how the area isnt safe; how she is safer if she stays with your group of 7 semi-drunk men; how ha ha that friend just came out of jail where he was in for rape - there is nothing funny with this situation. A situation which I found myself in when walking home alone on Friday night. Was I scared? Not really, although I was cautious using the techniques that I have learned over the years to get stupid guys to leave me alone. Was I comfortable? Hell no! Was I angry? Yes. So extremely angry that these stupid guys find it their right to aggress me, to make rape jokes to a lone girl in a mostly empty street. They were 7, I was alone. They were probably harmless, but what could I know? And what if I had been a woman less sure of herself? What made me the most angry though were two things: 1. Although it was mostly 2 guys out of 7 who were being stupid, the rest of the group either laughed along or said nothing, pretending that nothing was happening. Act! Tell your friends that they are being stupid if they do something similar. 2. That I was too scared to really confront them and tell them that what they were doing/their jokes/their harassment was really not acceptable. I did tell them off softly, but I was too scared, too much of a possible target as a woman to really tell them my mind.
Posted on: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 10:56:56 +0000
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