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I'm so confused by the fear women report of strangers (don't walk at night alone, have pepper spray, etc.) but how statistically they're in less danger from strangers than men are. What is going on? How did statistics get so divorced from perceived risk?

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It’s because women at are far greater risk than men *given they get assaulted*. Elderly people are also more scared than average, but statistically at very low risk. If something were to happen, it would be far worse.

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Do you happen to have stats on this? One reason it doesn't seem obviously true to me is that assault often involves a knife / gun / etc. and it's not like having some extra upper body strength is going to save you from that

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Also: just as when we talk about gender pay differences, “men” is used to mean “the highest earning men” when this topic comes up “men” means “large, aggressive men.” Even in my best shape, I was at an extreme size disadvantage relative to many men.

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An experience I’ve had many times is explaining to men larger than me that sometimes men are aggressive to me for no reason. They’ll say, “surely you did something to provoke them” because as large men they don’t ever have this experience.

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I think the important distinction here is women aren’t operating under the assumption that menacing assholes are going to beat them up; they’re worrying about rape. (Which isn’t to suggest that a terrible beating isn’t as potentially life-altering as sexual violence.)

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That seems so strange to me. Most of the things women report feeling unsafe around happen in situations where they very clearly are at no risk of being raped - e.g., on a subway when there's other people in the car.

9:13 PM · Dec 5, 2020