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  • Across countries, social borders, faiths, genders, ethnicities, age groups, sexual harassment seems to crop up when the opportunity presents itself.

  • Without revealing too much, my mother was a women's rights activist for a short while when I was younger (in the mid-90s).

    She was abused by a priest within the Asian community, and was told (like many women before her) to keep quiet, since the norm was to blame the woman for being abused. My mother said fuck that, and spoke up. She was on every major TV station giving interviews, she was on Kilroy twice (was a very popular talk show here in the UK), shook hands with Princess Diana, etc.

    The reason I bring that up, is due to one time when she would go on a local radio station and provide her phone number live on air, telling women to contact her, that she would go through the pranks and spam if there was the chance of victims coming through.
    The amount of women experiencing every day harassment was something that I just cannot forget, as a young man knowing the extent of what women go through in regards to daily harassment really helped shape my understanding. It is a real issue that I believe a lot of men are simply unaware of as nothing of that sort happens to us. I've met countless women who have told me they are afraid to wear dresses that are shorter than down to their ankles, in fear of being groped. In 2024 this shouldn't be a thing but here we are.

    These signs are, unfortunately, needed to raise some awareness. It's not an issue that faces me directly, but man it definitely is an issue for a lot of women out there. Getting MUCH better, however still something that needs to be acknowledged imho.

  • I think so, yes. I had to step in when I saw a small group of men who appeared in their mid/late 20's harassing a teenage girl at Victoria fairly recently. Ads like this not only make it clear that it's unacceptable but it also empowers bystanders to get involved.

  • Probably yes, but also these "stop crime" ads make people more afraid and make the police state worse. Especially "see it, say it, sorted" gives me the creeps

    • “stop crime” ads make people more afraid and make the police state worse

      Can you explain this for me?

      • Human beings are really bad at understanding statistics. Generally crime is trending down in the long term. Statistically, the world is a much safer place when it comes to interpersonal violence.

        These facts are harder for us to grasp than the flashy, shocking "if it bleeds, it leads" news story. People's anecdotal knowledge of the world tends to beat out the statistics we read when we shape our perspective of the world. That leads to frequent mismatches between what people believe the world is like and what the world is actually like.

        A prime example of this is the "stranger danger" public awareness campaign in the US. The effort encouraged parents to be wary of strangers that may abduct their child. The problem is that the vast and overwhelming majority of child abductions are perpetrated by family members or by individuals known to the family - not strangers.

        Across the US the "anecdotal" event of being frightened by a stranger danger TV ad had a strong impact on the perceptions of many parents. A lot of those people continued to believe that the greatest risk of kidnapping came from strangers even after the (correct) contradictory statistics became widely publicized. Similarly, these "stop crime" ads can frighten people just a little bit at imagining the scenario they describe. This experience can shape perception in a large and lasting way and make people perceive the problem as being more prevalent than it is.

      • OP is pointing out. That historically police states. (IE states where law enforcement has been given to much power).

        Start by creating fear among the populace. A population with an over active idea of how common crime is. Will be more willing to support governments that control them.

    • It's also a part of "no broken windows" theatre. The story says that if there's an abandoned house in the neighborhood and hooligans break one window, it must be covered up as fast as possible, otherwise, they are going to smash all the windows because they do not fear being seen anymore.

      All of those traffic tickets, small fines for petty crime, etc. are designed to reinforce the idea of "we're watching you, obey the law" because if you can get away with small crimes, you will be more likely to commit more serious ones.

      Personally, I don't like it, but a lot of petty government functionaries subscribe to this philosophy and that's why we can't have nice things.

    • Agree fully with your examples.

      But given the long history of refusal to address both violence to and harassment of women. Seems this is the one case where ensuring people pay attention and help. Can only be a good thing.

  • I first got harassed on public transport when I was 11. For years getting on public transport involved being hyper vigilant and trying to hide. And it's fucking exhausting. I shouldn't have to be relieved that I'm too old to harass, and really it's no relief because it just means they're harassing someone else.

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