A friend of mine, who was until quite recently a single mother herself, had a nasty encounter in the subway. A man accosted her, exposed himself, and touched her with his [word removed for hyper-sensitive filters but it's a part of the body a man has but a woman hasn't].
Yup.
Uncle PeePee strikes again. Unfortunately this sort of thing happens more often than you might expect; the National Organization for Women quotes this frightening statistic: “According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, which includes crimes that were not reported to the police, 232,960 women in the U.S. were raped or sexually assaulted in 2006. That’s more than 600 women every day….”
As a woman, a mother, a single woman, a single mother, you must take precautions. I’m not talking about self-defense classes. I’m not talking about carrying a rape whistle or all the elaborate steps you should take when you’re on a date with a new man. I’m talking about even more basic, honest steps you should take to protect yourself.
The one thing that angers me to no end when I hear it: I didn’t want to offend him.
If you are a woman walking on your own and you see a man coming on your side of the street, and you feel in any way uncomfortable… CROSS THE STREET. Don’t stay just because you don’t want to insult him or hurt his feelings. This is about your safety.
If a man touches you inappropriately, call him out on it. Loudly. Or tell your boss, or your supervisor. A bum on the street once propositioned me and I was so angry, I grabbed the first suit who passed me by and made the bum repeat it to him. And a few weeks ago when a panhandler accosted me I wigged. I pushed him away from me, I yelled at him, I made it clear he was harassing the wrong girl.
Predators rely upon your fear.
It’s easier to apologize later for overreacting than it is to recover from sexual abuse or harassment.
[...] On personal safety from total strangers [...]
Wow thank youso much for bringing this up. Once when I was on the subway a man also tried to grab me and started showing his private parts (subway was lonely) so I pushed the emergency button inside the subway. At the next stop the police were there ready to get him. Turns out he had recently raped an elderly woman. So ladies do not worry about seeming silly or over reacting, like christina stated this is a matter of your safety. Just so you all know I do not leave the house without my pepper spray-just in case! Please notify police if this ever happens because you would not want this to happen to another female yet alone a younger more defenseless girl…