I’m utterly sickened by this story of a man trying to talk to a woman on a train

I am going to repeat the full details of the assaults made on this youngish woman — not for gratuitous reasons, but because I think people need to know; they need to be shocked out of their complacency, they need to face up to the enormity of the problem, no matter how traumatising that might be.

The latest incident happened when Daisy was on her way to her yoga class. A man outside the studio said to her, ‘Hello — I keep seeing you around! What’s your name?’ Yes, I know. It beggars belief that this sort of thing can still happen in this day and age. Luckily, on this occasion Daisy had her wits about her and mumbled an answer so that the man left not knowing for certain that she was called ‘Daisy’. But she was clearly numb with fright.

Worse, though, are the bastards on trains. No sooner had Daisy sunk into the seat and taken out her paperback than she felt a tap on her shoulder and a male voice saying: ‘Hello! What are you reading, then?’

I felt physically sick when I read about this transgression and I have had to break off from writing this article to vomit again. Just writing down the words upsets me more than I can adequately express. What is it about quiet coaches and station buffets that attracts perverts, Daisy asks? Well, indeed. Mercifully she didn’t tell us what horrible stuff occurred in the buffet; it is entirely possible that some menacing pig asked her for the correct time or perhaps inquired as to whether or not the 8.22 to Surbiton had already departed. The truth is we don’t know; Daisy may be holding back because she finds relating the encounter too distressing.

The appropriate response to the man on the train, of course, would have been to stab him several times in the windpipe with a knitting needle and then stand over his lifeless body saying: ‘It’s The Writing on the Wall: Why We Must Embrace China as a Partner Or Face It as an Enemy. By Will Hutton. Published by Little, Brown. 441 pages. Satisfied, you sexist piece of filth?’ However, Daisy did not have a knitting needle with her at the time. And why should she? Not all of them knit, you know. Indeed, these days, very few women knit. If you think they all knit, you are living in the wrong century.

Daisy also related a third incident, when a mentally ill man actually touched her elbow and may have had his other hand inside his trousers. Some other men nearby pointed out that the bloke was a nutter and not to worry too much.

But she was still traumatised. This incident happened when Daisy was at university in York — some ten years ago at least, by my reckoning, seeing as she is now nearly 30. But these ordeals do not diminish with time, do they? It is a mercy that she was not so psychologically scarred as to contemplate amputating the arm touched by this madman, to rid herself of the appalling memory. As it is, she is simply a survivor, a survivor of vile abuse.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that the most loathsome transgression was the man on the train — and perhaps some of those who commented on Daisy’s article by suggesting that we should have segregated train carriages, like in a very Islamic state, were absolutely correct (and yes, Jeremy Corbyn is fully behind the idea). As were the comments suggesting that all men should be sent on courses so that henceforth they would not behave like potential rapists while on a train.

Most of the other comments, incidentally, had been deleted by the Guardian for failing to ‘abide by our community standards’. I fear mine was one of those deleted, although I am not sure which of the following words in my response — narcissistic, histrionic, deluded, stupid or cow — transgressed the newspaper’s ‘community standards’. Perhaps all of them, although maybe especially ‘cow’. I think that to abide by the Guardian’s community standards, you have to agree with whatever the Guardian says.

We are deep in Lord Rennard territory here. You may remember that the Liberal Democrat peer was subjected to an investigation by his party for having, on at least one occasion, asked a female colleague if she would like a cup of coffee. The female colleague did not want a bloody cup of coffee, thank you very much. Asking a woman if she would like a cup of coffee, or asking them what book they are reading, is a precursor to rape, of course. Never ask a woman if she would like a cup of coffee, not even if you are both sitting in a coffee shop. It is presumptuous and you are plainly abusing your hegemonic power as a man.

Unless you are not a man, of course. Then you can ask a woman if she wants a cup of coffee and you can probably ask her what book she’s reading and what her name is. Hell, I could trace how the bien-pensant middle-class liberal feminist left arrived at Daisy Buchanan’s point of view — because it is a not uncommon point of view — but I fear that the will to live would desert me halfway through.

In Singapore, I read recently, there is zero legal tolerance of any sort of harrassment of women. We have a terrible state of law and order in Australia, which includes an astonishly high level of crime against women. I wish we had the Singapore model of law and order here. Or a move towards zero tolerance as happened in New York and California. Australians are safer, including Australian women, in countries like Japan than in their own country.

Booky I don't think I would be offering Japan as an ideal of women's rights..

After World War II, the legal position of women was redefined by the occupation authorities, who included an equal rights clause in the 1947 Constitution and the revised Civil Code of 1948. 

Although most colleges in Japan are open to women, a degree for them has little meaning--fewer than 30 of Japanese companies will even consider hiring a female college graduate. *in the other 70 of the companies, the jobs open to women are typically assembly line workers, secretaries, and clerks.

Good penmanship, physical attractiveness and manners are valued much more highly than knowledge or intelligence. "Office ladies," or OLs as they are called in Japan, who have a good penmanship are much in demand by senior managers who gain much face with a neat letter or report. And for serving tea or coffee to guests, it is desirable for an OL to have a polite, attractive, and charming disposition.

Many companies arrange to have teachers come in to give lessons in a wide variety of subjects including flower arrangement, the tea ceremony, and even cooking. This is one of the few fringe benefits for women. Since the company knows that the girls will leave when they get married, the company helps prepare them for this inevitable event; in addition, this ensures that girls will not delay their marriage.

http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n8/62_Womens_rights_Not_in_Ja.php

It is sad many women are fearful of going anywhere  near dark. and also many travelling alone.

It should not be this way.

Kids should also be allowed to ride bikes, and play in the park and walk to school not necessarily with an adult.

Sad really.

Glad for you Pete.

Glad for you Pete.