Trying to scare women away from traveling alone won’t keep them safe

[randomness]

From http://qz.com/636778/trying-to-scare-women-away-from-traveling-alone-wont-keep-them-safe/

When a male friend of a friend disappeared in Mexico, there were no hysterical responses. His bright shining face was not plastered all over cable news the way Natalee Holloway’s had been. He was just some white dude gone missing; it barely made the news at all. And when his body was found—he had suffered a mishap while hiking in the mountains and was unable to make it out—there was no tut-tutting by commentators about how dangerous it was for men to travel alone. His disappearance did not fit into their agenda.

I would never argue that the world is a safe place for women. Women face a disproportionate amount of physical, sexual, and political violence throughout the world. But how we choose to write about that violence matters. By sensationalizing the stories of Holloway and others, we create a narrative that distracts from the more everyday dangers that women face–and from the women who are most vulnerable to violence.

...

When the report of the Danish woman who was raped in India made the news, I remember a lot of people, particularly women in the comments section, blaming the victim for going to India at all. “What did she expect?” I read over and over. It’s convenient for Westerners to think of India as a place where rape happens. It helps us dehumanize men of color, and it helps protect our unquestioned xenophobia. It also allows us not to think about our own countries’ problems with violence against women.

Comments

[caminante]

*sigh* I feel like I don't even need to read this article in order to have read this article.

On the plus side, at least there are a lot more blogs by awesome solo female travelers these days than there were a decade ago when I set off on my first solo backpacking adventure.

Fun fact, for all the shocked gasps I get for having traveled alone in Turkey, Guatemala, etc. the most unsafe I've ever felt as a solo female traveler was on a ferry between Italy and Greece and I have 10 times as many memories of worrying over my safety/encountering disconcerting "attention" while going about my daily life in the US than while traveling abroad.

[randomness]

Definitely!

I like to say to people that danger is all microclimates. That was never more clear to me than when I lived in New Haven. And the experience of living there really informed my behavior when visiting Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*reads, making notes and nodding in agreement*

[theloriest.livejournal.com]

I was so glad that when I made the decision to go to India and travel alone for three months, nobody in my life told me it would be too dangerous or tried to talk me out of going. Even once I was there and I started feeling overwhelmed, people kept my spirits up and encouraged me to push through and enjoy what was still to come.

[gale-storm.livejournal.com]

It's so great for me to read about women other than myself who like traveling alone. Good on you for going and good on everyone who didn't tell you how dangerous it would be!

[theloriest.livejournal.com]

I love traveling alone! Been all over, and only twice have I been in situations that could have turned out pretty dire. But I said almost. I handled both situations.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Statistically, if you want to stay safer, never go home and only talk to strangers.

[gale-storm.livejournal.com]

And keep your mace spray close to hand, or perhaps in hand with your trigger finger over the button!

:-D

(Yeah, yeah, I do realize that some sh!t will happen out there, wherever 'out there' happens to be, but I shrug it off.)

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Sure. 'Out there' is way safer than 'at home' for a lot of folks.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

My most conservative friend growing up was really grated by all of the arguments about gun control and gun rights. "If you want to avoid being murdered, have no family and no friends!"

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Everything she says is right, of course. But it's hard to shake the previous 100,000 years of social reality: young men are in excess and losing one (or even an army) here or there is costless, while young women are a limiting resource (both for individual males and society as a whole) and keeping all of them around is a priority. The modern reality, of course, is that more people die from auto accidents than from crime, but it's hard to keep focused on that.