this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
206 points (98.1% liked)

World News

49624 readers
2371 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Solumbran@lemmy.world 87 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Instead of fighting rapists, let's segregate women and men

[–] FarceOfWill 36 points 9 months ago

Yeah. The Japanese women only carriages are 100% necessary and also extremely shameful.

[–] brrt@sh.itjust.works 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

It’s a real shame we can’t do multiple things at the same time. /s

[–] Numenor@lemmy.world 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Molest and ride the train?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

Does it have to be molest? Can't it just be publicly masturbate like on New York City subways?

[–] Solumbran@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

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,

[–] Sundial@lemm.ee 5 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Its not about fighting rapists, It's about letting women have an environment where they can feel safe.

[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 36 points 9 months ago (2 children)

And why do they not feel safe? Because rapists.

This has "cover them up from head to toe so nobody gets any rapey thoughts" extremist Islam energy. That's not solving the problem. The rapists will still be there when they disembark the train.

[–] Solumbran@lemmy.world 19 points 9 months ago

No need to reach as far as islam, with every rape story you have a crowd of shits that rush screaming "she wouldn't have been raped if she wore proper clothes" and the like. The simple facts that rape victims feel ashamed to even talk about it shows that there is a big problem of defending rapists rather than victims, and the victims are instead shown as the cause of the assault.

[–] Sundial@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You don't have to be a rapist to make someone feel unsafe. Creeps and people who just keep hitting on women when they clearly don't want them to exist as well.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I never understand why someone would feel offended by something like this. I doubt many people are riding public transit to make new friends. Most seem to want to be ignored there.

I'm of bear-like physique and I assume to a lone woman on a train car that has no clue who I am, potentially intimidating. Likely, I'd expect neither of us would pay each other much mind. If she decided to get up and move to an empty car, it probably still wouldn't dawn on me right away why she moved, as I'm minding my own business. If I did realize, why should I be offended though? If anything, it's a good strategic move on her part. She's not there to get to know me, and she's darned well not there to potentially get to know me in a negative way, no matter how slim the chance of that could be.

Should they require separate cars? Of course not. But I don't see how it could be seen as ant-man. If your first thought is to be seriously angry at someone for not trusting a stranger, to me, that pretty much proves them right.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I'm mostly just sad when that happens. People do tend to consider me intimidating, but only very rarely scary, just as a roller-coaster might be intimidating but it's not going to jump at you and strap you in so there's no reason to fear it. On the contrary, I do tend to make people feel safe. Which then leads me to believe that those few people who actually are scared by my presence have completely fucked threat radars.

Then, OTOH, if you're suppressing any urges to jump at people and strapping them in and looping them around yep people are going to notice that. You might not actually be doing it, ever, but the possibility is there and you're going to be perceived differently, suppressed aggression is still visible in body language and at least their subconscious is going to pick up on it. People are going to be scared, at least a bit on edge, even if their threat radars aren't fucked.

If your first thought is to be seriously angry at someone for not trusting a stranger, to me, that pretty much proves them right.

Nah they're angry at themselves for not being at peace with themselves and projecting outwards, just as pretty much everyone else. SNAFU.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

It is unfortunate. I try and be mindful around new people to look visibly happy, or at least not in a bad mood. But I can't fault anyone for playing it safe. Especially since being harassed isn't something you can undo or something anyone should have to build a tolerance for. They may have also been in a previous incident that we don't know about.

If they're overreacting or not isn't really a strangers' business. We start to venture into egocentrism to think their behaviors have anything to do with us. It's just a live and let live thing. There's plenty of people over been nice to, and they still never liked me for one reason or another, but it's no biggie.

If it was a repeated thing, like they saw you every day and actively avoided you, that's a somewhat different story, but some person we only see once, it's not worth the mental energy to worry about it to me.

[–] Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

While making young men and boys feel like they're dangerous wolves who people fear. That's awesome for self esteem I hear

[–] Sundial@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This isn't about them. A disproportionate amount of women are victims of violence, sexual assault, and rape. Their safety should take priority over the feelings of others. If a man actually sympathizes with this they wouldn't have their self esteem take a hit and would instead understand why actions like this are necessary as we work to address this issue in our society.

[–] Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world -1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I was raped. I'm a man. Oh right, men aren't victims, ever.

[–] Sundial@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago

I never said that buddy.

[–] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

this person claims to be a lot of different kinds of victim in his comment history. however, some of them conflict with other things he has said. take his claims with a grain of salt, at least some of them are untrue.

[–] eatthecake@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

A significant number of men follow influencers who tell them exactly those things. They like being dangerous wolves that people fear, it is great for their self esteem.

[–] Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The whole alpha thing? Wasn't it found that the whole alpha wolf thing is only something that happens in captivity? They don't do that in the wild

[–] eatthecake@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago

Doesn't stop men from loving the idea. See the current adoration of rapist mike tyson on lemmy.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Another safe environment is one where the woman reflexively punches the assailant's gob, and the other men around look at him in a "what did you think would happen?" kind of way, backing her up, because self-defence is understood to be completely legitimate and justified.

Y'all need more shield maidens wherever it is that you're from.

[–] LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 70 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Siegfried@lemmy.world 45 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

So in the future rhey can add "but in which wagon was she traveling?" to the "what was she wearing" nonsense

[–] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 40 points 9 months ago (11 children)

Maybe teach your men to respect women's boundaries? Always treating the symptoms and not the root cause. Works the other way too.

[–] Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] fern@lemmy.autism.place 8 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Yeah if you instill respect of others, you dont need to teach them to walk on eggshells.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] atro_city@fedia.io 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

#AllMen but #NotAllWomen but #Equality, right?

[–] spacecadet@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

Shhhh….. don’t say the thing out loud

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] LwL@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago

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.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What keeps the evil psychopath from just entering the womens carriage?

Unless there is a conductor at every station to enforce it, this is just the same nonsense with claiming that excluding transgender people from bathrooms to somehow repel assailants.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Norms. Same thing for women’s bathrooms. Unless you are alone in there, the psychopath is going to face multiple women yelling at him to leave.

As a society of laws we like to think we can solve everything by just writing a good law. Sometimes it’s much better to create situations where strong norms can solve the problem without the need for law enforcement. Norms are like laws where everyone is an enforcer.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Or...hear me out here...maybe we could try holding men accountable for their actions? I'm just spit-balling here, but it's so crazy it just might work.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This implies all men are capable of considering the long term impact of their decisions... holding them accountable should be done. But it won't have much of a prevention effect because the perpetrators aren't forward thinking types.

[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

True. I must have typed my comment during my daily 5 seconds of optimism before crashing back down to my usual cynical reality.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Civilization has advanced, but humans fell behind. I wish I knew how to fix it... for my daughters sake. But I do not.

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 6 points 9 months ago

They have trains like this and work fine on Rio de Janeiro. They're only women only in rush hour.

[–] nifty@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

We need this in America, I promise you more people will use the trains