Quote:
Originally Posted by PsYcNeT
I don't think the attitude is that the "great majority" of men are like that, however if a woman finds herself in a situation where a guy she did not expect to be coercive or threatening suddenly becomes so when the situation isn't moving at the pace he expected (which, according to many women I've spoken with, is common), they have zero idea how far it can spin out of control. At that point, they are just erring on the side of caution, which unfortunately usually means appeasing him to the point that they feel they can safely leave.
|
Yes, that's what I hear too. But erring on the side of caution would be not going alone to the home of a man on short acquaintance. And I don't say that to be judgemental or a prude. It's unfair and unfortunate, and we should continue to try to find ways to make it less dangerous for women to be alone with men in sexually charged circumstances. But there will always be a risk.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
Without commenting on whether that sort of mindset is a good best practice for women to employ, all I was implying is that if that is how young women are being told to think about the men they're interacting with, this whole situation is not going to get any less tense or antagonistic in the near future.
|
No, it isn't. Even if the incidence of sexual assault and date rape go down (as they may well have in the last 30 years, depending on whose stats you look at), it will remain common enough and prominent enough that the issue isn't going to go away. I honestly believe we may see some elements of society - the educated, affluent and liberal - pull back from behaviours like drinking and casual sex, and return to the more buttoned-down norms of the pre sexual liberation era. Not that those are proof against sexual assault. But there's no question they reduce exposure to risk.
Quote:
Originally Posted by icecube
I'm not even certain CliffFletcher believes there is such a thing as institutionalized oppression against minorities of any sort. Or if he does I don't think he has a problem with any of it. The REAL problem is PC culture and attack on freedom of speech, amirite?
|
I believe some, but not most, of the disparities we see in society are the consequence of systemic injustice. My problem with PC culture is it sees ONLY systemic causes for disparities, and ignores or is hostile to the suggestion of any other causes, often in the face of strong empirical evidence. That narrow and ideologically-motivated focus handicaps our ability to understand and deal with social problems.
On the issue of sexual assault, I do not believe it is strictly, or even mainly, culturally learned behaviour. Like murder, it's found in every society we know of. Like murder, it's recognized as a crime in every society we know of. And like murder, we've managed to reduce but not remove it from our society because deep down we're violent, status-seeking primates.
With the twisted timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made.