Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site wateng.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!wateng!jamcmullan
From: jamcmullan@wateng.UUCP (Judy McMullan)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Re: crossing streets
Message-ID: <1786@wateng.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 20-Dec-84 13:48:26 EST
Article-I.D.: wateng.1786
Posted: Thu Dec 20 13:48:26 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Dec-84 01:19:05 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 30

>My crossing the street will not improve any
>woman's chances of avoiding rape, since I am not a rapist. It will only put
>another barrier between men and women, and is thus counterproductive.

I have to disagree with that. I would see it as a positive indication that
you were benign. It would be behaviour clearly inconsistent with an intention
to mutter threats or lewd remarks as you go by or grab a quick "feel" or
attack more seriously.

>	I realize that my attitude does nothing for the woman who wonders if
>she is about to be grabbed. I wish I knew how to solve that problem I do
>know that expecting me to cross the street every time I encounter a woman
>will not.

Well, Julia's suggestion may not appeal to you. She was reaching over the
far gulf that seems to exist between the worlds of men and women and trying
to make a suggestion for sympathetic men. It seemed like excellent advice
to me. I'm on her side of the gulf. Only a couple of men have posted articles
saying they took the advice to heart. Some men have counter-suggested smiling
and saying "Hello" as being non-threatening. --Advice from the other side of
the gulf! Little do they seem to realize that that is exactly what the men
who make unwelcome sexual advances and crude comments often start with.
The fact that other men have done things to make women fear them, affects you
to the extent that women fear YOU, until they know you. You can regretfully
accept that. You can enjoy that. Or you can realize what women are going
through and try to show you are not one of THEM, as an act of kindness.


   --from the sssstickkky keyboard of JAM
   ...!{ihnp4|clyde|decvax}!watmath!wateng!jamcmullan