> You talk to a woman on an elevator... and
> everyone assumes you're a sexual predator
> because penis.
A woman's fear of unwanted sexual advances, assault, or rape from an unknown male when she's in a vulnerable position is entirely reasonable. Many women receive unwelcome sexual advances on a regular basis. Most men have basically no point of personal reference for this fear, but we should try to be aware of how the woman might perceive us rather than whining about being unfairly slighted.
According to the CDC, 18% of women report being raped at some point in their lives, versus 1.7% of men.[1] Given that, I think it's reasonable for women to feel a need for caution when dealing with strange men talking to them in elevators.
What's the percentage of validated rape allegations? Certainly it's non-zero. Day-after regrets, explaining pregnancy or seeking abortion approval from parents, etc. And what is the definition of rape? Groping on a subway, forced intercourse, or somewhere in between? 18% just sounds insanely high to me. That sounds like more like an epidemic.
What does this ratio work out to in terms of chances any given one man is a rapist? If we ranked this as one person per allegation, that would be claiming that nearly one in five men are rapists, and that's patently absurd. If we had ~28 million male rapists in this country, our prisons would be absolutely overrun. Even if you claimed each rapist had ~10 victims, that's still an absurd number of male rapists.
At any rate, it's still bullshit that I am treated like a sexual predator. As an asexual, I'm the last person on the planet you need to worry about. It's disgusting when people single out groups based on race, on female gender, on religion, on sexual orientation, etc. It should be just as disgusting to do it towards men with regards to sexual assault.
Even with the absolutely ridiculous ~1:5 scenario, this woman was in a room with 800+ other men. There was zero chance she was in harm's way here.
An article recently made it onto HN about how rape is seriously underreported by men, and that the real rates of rape or sexual assault are nearly equal. This of course is a controversial finding, but not obviously flawed either. According to this study, it's roughly 1:2 men to women, not 1:10 as the CDC reports.
Replace "men" and "women" with "blacks" and "whites". Is it reasonable for white people to feel a need for caution talking to black people in an elevator?
If they're using racial slurs in their conversation, yes, it is. It entirely depends on the topic being adequate for the venue or not, not on the races or genders of the participants.
A woman's fear of unwanted sexual advances, assault, or rape from an unknown male when she's in a vulnerable position is entirely reasonable. Many women receive unwelcome sexual advances on a regular basis. Most men have basically no point of personal reference for this fear, but we should try to be aware of how the woman might perceive us rather than whining about being unfairly slighted.
According to the CDC, 18% of women report being raped at some point in their lives, versus 1.7% of men.[1] Given that, I think it's reasonable for women to feel a need for caution when dealing with strange men talking to them in elevators.
[1] http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/sv-datasheet-a.pdf