Being female

[celandineb]

I normally walk to and from work (it's just under a mile from my house) and on the way I pass a national pizza chain's shop, which delivers. Yesterday while going home at about 6:25 one of their delivery cars was pulling out, and I saw that it was a young woman driving.

Comments

[aome]

I'm one of those people who is wary, although I do not think for a second that it would be my "fault" somehow. I know the statistics aren't good - that, basically, if one in three women is sexually assaulted at some point in their life, the whole "look to the woman on your left, now look to your right; if it's not them, then it's you" thing freaks me out. It's one of the things I'm glad to be learning in tae kwon do - not just the traditional version of the martial art, but also self defense. I'm not intuitive/instinctive about it yet, but I really want to be, so that if someone suddenly grabs me or threatens me, I can take them down and run for it, without a second thought.

[celandineb]

It was slightly disturbing that one of the orientation week events at college talked about how to avoid being assaulted/raped. I STILL have the whistle I was given then; it lives on my work key ring.

[aome]

You went to Scripps, right? I don't have my whistle anymore, but, yeah, I remember that.

[celandineb]

I did indeed go to Scripps. I'm kind of amazed that after 26 years I still have the whistle, really. *g*

[jenny_evergreen]

I've had similar moments and realizations. I summon them up when I need to have the courage to say something about such things.

[celandineb]

Sometimes these things just have to be thought about, or said, right?

[jenny_evergreen]

Yep!

[weebleswobble]

men go out on a blind date and their biggest concern is that their date is going to be ugly.

women go out on a blind date and their biggest concern is if they're going to be raped or assaulted.

its not equal or fair or safe. women still have a long way to go to get that supposed equal treatment. i think its sad and pathetic that men STILL need to be taught not to rape, instead of teaching women to not GET raped.

[celandineb]

Yes. If/when we adopt, if we end up with a son, that is something I want to be very aware of; teaching him how to behave like a good member of society, that he doesn't get a pass because he's male. I have no brothers so I didn't get to see that process in action myself...

[enchanted_jae]

I once read/heard (paraphrasing here): The only predator of the female human is the male human.

That has haunted me ever since. How are we so fucked up as a species that the males will actively attack/assault/kill the females? It's perverse, in the literal sense of the word.

[celandineb]

In some ways, that is true. At least in the sense that any other predator animal would attack male and female humans equally. Only male humans would target specifically female humans.

[rhiannonredwulf]

I have to admit, I'm tall and was kind of raised to be a "guy" in a lot of ways. I don't get picked on by men in most circumstances the way my smaller female friends sometimes do. Actually, until I started traveling with a smaller woman and saw how men kind of "encroached" on her space-- I just didn't really understand that women get treated differently. And I agree-- that's messed up

[celandineb]

*nods* I don't think there are really any definite conclusions to be drawn, either. Just lots of things to think about and be aware of, and as you point out, to be careful about making assumptions.