Summary
Berlin lawmaker Antje Kapek of the Green Party proposed introducing women-only carriages on the city’s underground trains to enhance safety, inspired by a similar approach in Tokyo.
Kapek cited rising nighttime attacks on women and crowded evening conditions as reasons for the measure, which is still a proposal without legislative backing.
Her suggestion follows a recent rape case on the Berlin metro. The city’s BVG transport authority expressed doubts, arguing current safety measures, including 250 security staff and emergency contact points, are sufficient.
Instead of fighting rapists, let’s segregate women and men
It’s a real shame we can’t do multiple things at the same time. /s
Molest and ride the train?
Does it have to be molest? Can’t it just be publicly masturbate like on New York City subways?
Ah, so you see a lot of efforts to fight rapists? I don’t, on the contrary most celebrities are now linked to some form of sexual assault and everyone defends them.
Also, if we were to do both, please explain to me how showing gender as such a major thing that you need to discriminate based on it, would make anything better in a world where rapists would actually be fought against,
One of the many reasons Tokyo does have those train carriages is because women are systematically discouraged from speaking up about being assaulted, even as it is happening. Even in a public place surrounded by other people. The offense was and, to an extent, still is often treated as a nuisance rather than a violent sexual crime. Empowering women who speak up about being assaulted and prosecuting sexual assault offenses is how you reduce assault rates. Make it easier for victims to speak up, and show that what happened to them will be taken seriously.
Creating women’s only carriages isn’t a solution but an affirmation that men are on some inherent level sexually abusive (therefore decreasing the seriousness with which assault is treated, and decreasing the likelihood women who speak up will receive support as “that’s just how men are”). It also, you know, only does something about one very specific kind of sexual assault. It does nothing to address sexual harassment and assault committed in any other public or private space.
I can understand feeling safety in environments free from men when men are essentially given free reign to do whatever they want to with minute amounts of offenders ever facing any kind of punishment. I also feel that simply creating women only cars doesn’t go far enough and actually in some ways enables alternative lines of justification for sexual assault if a woman isn’t in a women’s car. People can and will ask why she didn’t take the women’s car, as though it is the personal initiative of women to prevent themselves from being assaulted.
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So in the future rhey can add “but in which wagon was she traveling?” to the “what was she wearing” nonsense
Maybe teach your men to respect women’s boundaries? Always treating the symptoms and not the root cause. Works the other way too.
I do, but I also refuse to instill self hatred in my little boy and treat him like he’s some monster that’s dangerous and needs to be educated into being human. I have a daughter and a son and I see both the need to keep women safe, while at the same time not demonizing men and making boys feel like they’re hated or like they need to walk on eggshells through life
That works great for regular guys. Not so great for the evil psychopaths who just don’t care what we try to teach them and will always be looking for people to victimize.
Those will always be a small part. If it’s culturally clear what is harrassment and shouldn’t be tolerated, it’s far more likely that 1) there are actual consequences to sexual harrassment because victims feel comfortable speaking up and 2) that bystanders will try to intervene. Both of which make it less likely for anyone to even try.
When speaking up is met with “you dressed wrong”, “he was just trying to get to know you”, that is the core problem. Adding “you were on the wrong train car” isn’t necessarily helpful.
Japans women-only cars are sadly necessary, but the focus should be on making them unnecessary, not adding gender segregation in more places.
The issue with psychopaths is that although they may be rare, they can have an outsized impact. It only takes one of them to victimize hundreds of people and create an atmosphere of terror.
This is brilliant! We should also teach people to not steal or murder too! OMG I think you’ve cracked it!
Do you have a book or newsletter I could subscribe to?
We need this in America, I promise you more people will use the trains
