Summary
Berlin lawmaker Antje Kapek of the Green Party proposed introducing women-only carriages on the city’s underground trains to enhance safety, inspired by a similar approach in Tokyo.
Kapek cited rising nighttime attacks on women and crowded evening conditions as reasons for the measure, which is still a proposal without legislative backing.
Her suggestion follows a recent rape case on the Berlin metro. The city’s BVG transport authority expressed doubts, arguing current safety measures, including 250 security staff and emergency contact points, are sufficient.
I honestly think it’s ridiculous our public transportation is so unsafe to warrant this, but if it’s necessary, then so be it. But if we’re going to make women only carriages we should make an equal number of men only carriages, because not all women will use the women only carriages and i don’t want my available commute space compromised because authorities can’t keep public spaces safe for women.
I know it sounds a “but what about men” comment, but let me explain why. At my gymn, we used to have an open space for everyone. Then they decided to segregate about 1/3 of the space and make it ladies only while the remaining space was to be for everyone. The result is that, despite having machines available in the women’s area, women want to be in the everyone’s area all the time while the women’s area is usually empty. The result is that there’s no space for everyone to train in and men just have to queue to be able to train at peak times, usually in the late afternoon. We all pay the same, we all need our exercise, why are men having less ? Because we share the same gender with rapists ? How is that my fault ?
I can see the exact same thing happening with transportation. You limit men’s available commute space on account of having an unsafe space for women, then the women’s carriage goes empty while the everyone carriage forces everyone to be up against everyone. This is unacceptable. I have been sexually harassed as a man in public transportation too and while i recognize it’s not as bad for me as it is for women, because it only happened a few times, it always happened by forcing me to be smushed against a ton of people.
I would prefer if everyone respected everyone and we could live like civilized people together in an equal and safe society, where nobody was threatened, harassed or raped, but if we’re going to start sex segregation at least do it in such a manner so that everyone has equal amounts of space and opportunity to carry out their lives without being inconvenienced. If we segregate spaces, make x space for women, x space for men and x for everyone together. None of this special places just for women while everyone pays the same crap. That way if the common area is too full, i can just move to the men only area and that’s it. If we can’t be decent, at least let’s try to be fair.
I have been sexually harassed as a man in public transportation too and while i recognize it’s not as bad for me as it is for women, because it only happened a few times, it always happened by forcing me to be smushed against a ton of people.
Let me just say: I am sorry you went through that. This is awful and indeed unacceptable. Thank you for pointing out that assault is not an entirely gendered issue, and that segregation sends everyone down a slippery slope where we fail to stop it in the first place.
Oh yeah, many times. I’ve had a guy run his hands through my hair and push a boner against me. I’ve had a teenage girl lick my bicep and giggle at me with her friends. I’ve had an older woman just grab my butt and pretend she didn’t do it. There was another guy who was just petting my shoulders and leg, discreetly through the crowd.
It’s just those things like what are you gonna do as a guy ? Report it ? Hey mr officer, a teenage girl licked my arm and then her friends giggled at me, if you run you can still arrest them ? I’d just be laughed at. No point reporting it i guess. It’s just gross and annoying. I always chalked it up as problems of living in a big city.
I’ve never been at risk of being raped though. I am pretty muscular. I can see how it would be scary to be and much, much worse.
We need this in America, I promise you more people will use the trains
Instead of fighting rapists, let’s segregate women and men
It’s a real shame we can’t do multiple things at the same time. /s
Molest and ride the train?
Does it have to be molest? Can’t it just be publicly masturbate like on New York City subways?
Ah, so you see a lot of efforts to fight rapists? I don’t, on the contrary most celebrities are now linked to some form of sexual assault and everyone defends them.
Also, if we were to do both, please explain to me how showing gender as such a major thing that you need to discriminate based on it, would make anything better in a world where rapists would actually be fought against,
So in the future rhey can add “but in which wagon was she traveling?” to the “what was she wearing” nonsense
Maybe teach your men to respect women’s boundaries? Always treating the symptoms and not the root cause. Works the other way too.
That works great for regular guys. Not so great for the evil psychopaths who just don’t care what we try to teach them and will always be looking for people to victimize.
Those will always be a small part. If it’s culturally clear what is harrassment and shouldn’t be tolerated, it’s far more likely that 1) there are actual consequences to sexual harrassment because victims feel comfortable speaking up and 2) that bystanders will try to intervene. Both of which make it less likely for anyone to even try.
When speaking up is met with “you dressed wrong”, “he was just trying to get to know you”, that is the core problem. Adding “you were on the wrong train car” isn’t necessarily helpful.
Japans women-only cars are sadly necessary, but the focus should be on making them unnecessary, not adding gender segregation in more places.
The issue with psychopaths is that although they may be rare, they can have an outsized impact. It only takes one of them to victimize hundreds of people and create an atmosphere of terror.
I do, but I also refuse to instill self hatred in my little boy and treat him like he’s some monster that’s dangerous and needs to be educated into being human. I have a daughter and a son and I see both the need to keep women safe, while at the same time not demonizing men and making boys feel like they’re hated or like they need to walk on eggshells through life
This is brilliant! We should also teach people to not steal or murder too! OMG I think you’ve cracked it!
Do you have a book or newsletter I could subscribe to?
