The point of the comment is that you are grossly overreacting. He did not threaten to rape you. He made an inappropriate sexual suggestion. You need psychological help.
No, ‘many women’ don’t demand only female cabbies. You’re the only person I’ve ever heard even suggest that (if you are really being serious, that is).
It’s required in every state but (surprise) Texas.
This is very important: people do not seek treatment for assault not only because they don’t want to deal with cops, or because their boyfriends are assholes who wouldn’t understand, but also because they can’t afford medical care. I don’t know why you keep popping back into this thread to dismiss the financial aspects of this topic. unless you think its a distraction from the main issue. In which case please debate that issue.
Capitalism is a rather sturdy institution. These services (women only livery servies) would not have likely arisen (someone had to believe in the idea enough for start up money), nor remain in business were there not a market for it.
When it’s a man in at least his thirties who is physically capable of overpowering the average 16 year old young woman any inappropriate sexual suggestion carries with it the threat of rape. I don’t think a lot of men realize how much or how often women have to consider their surroundings and be on guard against physical attack. The best comparision I can think of is prison which is one of the few places the typical, middle class actually has fears of being raped. Imagine yourself as a physically small convict, The Original Bob, a heavily muscled veteran convict gets in the cell with you. No guards or cameras are in sight. He leers at you and asks, “Do you like to party?”. I highly doubt, The Original Bob, you would consider it grossly overreacting to consider the behavior threatening and raperish.
Well, it seems all those pot-dealing late night fastfood places have some competition
Seriously though, learn proper firearm safety and discipline. You’ll end up hurting yourself or an innocent cabbie.
I shudder to think how tiny and scary my world would be if I based every action I took now on what happened to me when I was a teenager, especially when nothing actually happened. Hell, if I’d’ve gone off the stuff that has, I might as well just give in to 24/7 maximum security lockup. It’s the only way to be totally sure!
How do you know Bob’s gender?
And no, it’s not the same as prison. As others have pointed out, and you have ignored, legitimate cabbies are licensed. Prisoners are dangerous criminals, which is why they are locked in prison, not driving a cab.
You had to deal with an inappropriate come-on that probably all women have had to deal with on occasion. Doesn’t make it right, but it’s reality that you’ve got to be able to handle it and get past it. Carrying a loaded gun and pointing it at innocent men is a bizarre overreaction that threatens real harm and death to them. Your harm is in your mind. You need to talk to a professional about this.
So, in other words, you’ve got nothing but snark.
Where have I said I have ever pointed a gun at a cab driver. The gun is in my purse. My hand is in my purse. Unless someone is close enough to lift aside the flaps covering the top of my purse and reached down to where my hand is (at which point they are too close and have definitely reached the point where their actions are threatening), there is no way anyone could tell I have a handgun. Furthermore, if I have to “get over” a man making an inappropriate come-on that could be rapist scouting for an easy victim, he can just “get over” the possibility that I have a firearm and it will be used on him if he makes a threatening move. A cabbie’s license is not a guarantee someone is not a criminal. It means they have not be convicted.
If you do use that gun, in response to someone asking you if you like to party, you’re going to jail.
Please. If you’d like to resume the discrimination lesson I started in your other thread, I’d be happy to. But you and I both know that you don’t actually care what the history is of how we got to this point, right? That’s why we’re no longer having that conversation in that thread.
If I spend a half hour of my life explaining how the history of equal protection law really didn’t always point in the direction of being totally blind to context, and how much of the rhetoric has only been coopted lately toward that end, you’ll say that as it turns out you don’t give a fuck about the history, you don’t think men should be discriminated against. So let’s just pretend we’re already there, and you don’t inaccurately paraphrase my arguments to anyone else.
I’m in my forties. I’ve carried a handgun since I was 16 and a knife which I am extremely skilled at using before that. I’ve been in plenty of sitations with dangerous people and I have never been raped (though I have been beaten and injured). I’ve also never been prosecuted for anything I’ve done to defend myself from being attacked and possibly raped. Women are allowed to defend themselves. Oh, the state I live in has concealed carry. I have a licensce to carry and informing the cab driver that I have a legally purchased, legally carried weapon that will be used on him if he tries to rape, mug or murder me is not a jailable offense no matter how much grown-up bullies would like to it to be.
Good grief, I get sexually propositioned a dozen times a week. I can only imagine the trail of bodies I’d leave behind me if I thought every one of them was a potential rapist. It would be like Kill Bill 3: Party Time.
If I had a choice between two cabbies, one male and one female, I’d pick the female one. Why? Just because I’d feel more comfortable. Why would I feel more comfortable? I don’t know, I just do. I’ve always been more comfortable just talking with and being around other women. I don’t hate or fear men. I dance with them, chat with them, even have made out with them. But I guess I still carry a little wariness deep inside from the sexual violence I experienced when I was young.
If all the cabbies are male do I mind? No, I get in, tell them the address, and do my usual “riding to the hotel after a full day of flying” spaceout.
I am a man and have been groped by a woman and had advances made by a man in a public bathroom. I guess I can’t take cabs anymore.
Note to self: get a gun, try not to blow things out of proportion.
Yes, I have too, and more. Many men have (but often won’t admit it).
That’s what the hand grenade is for.
Have you ever been in genuine fear of being forcibly penetrated? Without the fear of bodily harm, it’s not quite the same.
I’ve been robbed on a taxi, and I’ve had cab drivers attempt to expose themselves. That isn’t something I really want to put up with. Coming home from work shouldn’t entail decisions like “If it comes down to it, would I rather be raped, or try to throw myself out of the cab?” It’s not enough that I’d want to use a female cab service in the US, but in places with a less accountable justice system, I definitely would. Bad things do happen.
No, you’re completely wrong. Why would you even believe that? Men are more likely to be victims of violence in public or private, committed by men or women, by strangers or relatives, with weapons or without… why would the workplace be the only place where women are more likely to be victiims of violence?
In any case the BJS clearly record that men are much more likely to be victims of violence in the workplace, and have been since the figures begin in the early nineties.
It also shows that you’re much safer at work than at home, and only bartending is a comparatively dangerous job in the retail/sales sector.
Isn’t everyone in need of immediate emergency medical care deserving of sympathy? I don’t see great numbers having their debts forgiven, though.
And I think you’re deliberately misconstruing what is being said.
In areas with a high proportion of drunks, in the not so nice part of town, in areas where the bulk / a good proportion of customers are going to be the “after clubbing” set - a lady is going to be given a “tougher” time of it than a man.
Call me whatever names you like - but I know that intoxicated men act like pigs. I know that a young, college student lady is going to get the sorts of comments that a similarly aged male isn’t - some of them will be aggressively sexual, others will just be nasty. I also know that a middle aged man, all other things being equal, is largely going to “fade into the background” with a younger crowd coming home after drinking, and that he is largely going to feel more secure with the prostitutes passing by to and from work, and that he is going to have an easier time of it.
Sure, we all know that men are more likely to be assaulted in the workplace. But that is not what we are talking about. We are talking about some specific subset of situations.
For the discussion at hand - I personally don’t have a problem with a private livery service that wants to differentiate itself by having all lady drivers, and then hiring itself out to ladies only. The key distinction why I don’t care is two fold
a) It’s not a “public license” issue, where the service that is only for ladies decreases the availability in general
b) I can see it’s a genuine business area that some ladies will like
and furthermore - my experience is a bit different, and we live in a different country, but my wife has somehow managed to make it to 40 without having a cab driver (seriously) proposition her, without being flashed and without the sort of behaviour that some on this board seem to take as par for the course.