You can find some really great posts on the situation, here are a few:
- http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifbadastronomy/2011/07/05/richard-dawkins-and-http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmale-privilege/
- http://skepchick.org/2011/07/the-privilege-delusion/
- http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2011/07/richard-dawkins-chewing-gum
I wanted to post about this for one reason: The issue really needs highlighting. For someone as prominent as Richard Dawkins to have such a fundamental lack of understanding and empathy is sad. That so many of the other comments are so similar is worse.
Yes, there are worse problems, and worse instances of this problem. That doesn't make this not a problem. If we can't do something to fix sexism in our own, supposedly enlightened communities, how are we going to make the whole world a safe place?
I wrote a letter to Richard Dawkins that I have sent to Skepchicks to add to their collection. In case it doesn't make the site, here it is:
Dear Professor Dawkins,
You asked (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/07/oh_no_not_againonce_more_unto.php#comment-4309418) for an explanation of what you aren’t getting (i.e. why Rebecca’s experience was bad), so I thought I would write to you to explain.
I count myself lucky, because I have never suffered serious physical injury as the result of an assault. That does not mean I have never been assaulted; it does not mean I have never feared for my safety; it does mean that I will (must) continue to conduct myself with my personal safety being a conscious priority at all times.
This may seem a bit extreme. Particularly given that you don’t see an elevator as a threatening context, I’m sure you wouldn’t see any issues with a relatively crowded train carriage in the middle of the afternoon. And yet, that was the location of my first negative experience at just 17 and newly arrived in a big city. The carriage was sufficiently crowded that when a stranger sat next to me, it was to be expected. When he struck up a conversation (asking me the time), it seemed perfectly natural. When he asked if I had a husband, that struck me as odd, but before I could react he had pinned me to the seat (using his body weight which was significantly more than) mine. While telling me he was going to marry me, he started removing my skirt. I vocally and physically resisted, of course, however, I was trapped and nobody came to my aid. I did manage to escape when he tried to drag me off the train.
You may ask how this relates to Rebecca’s experience. Firstly, was the location; in a seat on the train or in an elevator, neither location allowed for a quick or easy escape from danger. Secondly, was the time frame, it took seconds for things to go from perfectly normal to horribly wrong. If Elevator Guy had not taken the initial “no” for an answer, Rebecca would not have had time to press a button and wait for the elevator to stop. While you are right, the situation did not escalate this time, there was a situation. How bad do things need to get before they are bad? Touching? Forcibly removed clothes? Rape? Murder?
This kind of situation occurs all the time. Sometimes things escalate, sometimes they don’t. But you can never tell when they will, and when the do escalate, you don’t have time to act. So I have found it necessary to pre-empt things, to conduct myself with my personal safety being a conscious priority at all times.
Perhaps, you are dismissing my anecdote as just that, a one-off experience that is unlikely to be repeated. Unfortunately it was not a one-off experience for me (and it was by no means the worst), and I’m sure that it wasn’t a one-off experience for Rebecca. The 2006/2007 British Crime Survey, 1 in 200 women aged 16 to 59 reported that they had suffered rape or attempted rape in the previous year. That’s approximately 85,000 rapes and attempted rapes in England & Wales in only one year. Given this prevalence, and the rapidity with which a situation can escalate, it is only rational that women are cautious in potentially dangerous situations.
Rebecca’s elevator situation could have been easily avoided. That’s all she asked for. If you don’t have to regularly think about your personal safety, if you haven’t ever experienced or witnessed a situation go horribly wrong, then I’m sure it isn’t obvious when you are creating that situation which is indistinguishable from one that ends in assault. Rebecca asks, I ask, society asks that you try to notice and that you try not to create those situations in the first place.
Surely it is common decency not to put someone in a situation where they are genuinely and reasonably afraid for their safety. That is what you aren’t getting.
Sincerely yours,
Kristen
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