As many of you may know by now, I live in Mexico, Mexico city to be more precise. Mexico city is not without it's share of problems but one could say that it is one of the most progresive cities in the country.
Public transportation is an issue in a city of 9'000,000 people with another 15'000,000 living in the connected urban envirnoment. This means that often times there are problems in the public transportation service. One of such problems is overcrowding of public transportation. Busses usually go full to the rim as do subway cars and urban trains.
A derivative problem from such overcrowding is gropings. Gropings (I don't know if it is even a real word but I'll define it as such) mean that people touch with a sexual intent other people, this can include (though it usually doesn't go this far) ejaculating on the clothes of someone. Because of the crowding there is little the victim can do since getting away is all but impossible.
This problem has brought on some different aproaches to being solved:
First policemen were stationed randomly so that would be perpretators would be dettered. This didn't go too well since it was a rather small part of the police that was dedicated to this task leaving the inmense mayority of public transportation without a policeman (or policewoman we have both) to uphold the law.
Next came the accusation method in which any woman could point to a suspect and accuse him of groping, this would mean a jail sentence and a rather large fine. This was somewhat implemented but it was quickly abused and while it still stands, policemen have become so blassé about false acusations that it is not efective.
Next came segregation. Female exclusive transportation, this has proven to be an effective way of stoping gropings (of men groping women, other types still go on) for those lucky women that get to go on the special busses or traincars. There is however something that seems very wrong about this method.
Female only incentives are all the rage in mexico right now, special credits to start a microenterprise, special grants for research, special scholarships for study in all levels of education, Female only medical attention, etc... We have discussed this in another thread so I won't be repeating why I believe that quotas and female only incentives are both unfair and innefective.
Back to segregation; it works like this:
Women may ride on any bus, traincar, etc... they may so wish. Men on the other hand can't ride on female only busses, traincars etc... doing so will get him dettained by the policemen in the stations or refused the service by the operator of the bus.
In my city women and men represent roughly 50% of the total population respectively, so making half the busses male only and the other half female only would make sense in efectively separatiang the sexes to avoid "heterosexual" gropings. This system would not be without it´s problems but it would be fair. Fair however is not part of the equation.
Since women can ride wherever the may wish but men only where they are allowed (depending on the mode of transportation this may be from the 90% to the 50% of the vehicle(s)) this means that men are being crowded even more, they have to wait longer for a bus or train that can be used, they have to ride standing up (which is not without it's dangers and is unconfortable) etc... This happens because when women percieve their female only transportation to be full they go to the other parts where they can expect some man to give his spot so that the woman may ride seated (this doesn't allways happen but is still fairly common).
The problem for me is this: While it prevents women from being groped (a heinieus act that should be addresed by the authoriries) it does so by segregating men.
This segregation comes from the asumption that since some males can't behave themselves around women it is better to be safe than sorry and thus all males will be prohibited from riding certain parts of the public transportation system.
"Male" is then the only characteristic that is still ok to be discriminated aggainst in my "progresive" city.
Black people have stealed and murdered in my city yet, we do not have transportation that prohibits black people from riding in them. Gay people have groped other people yet we do not have transportation that prohibits them from riding. Women have kidnapped other people yet women are allowed to ride anywere they want.
It is ok that black people are not discriminated against eventhough some black people have commited crimes since this would be unfair to those black people that have done no wrong, while we have evidence that black people can be criminals we give all black people the bennefit of the doubt and allow them to ride freely.
It is ok that gay people are not discriminated against eventhough some gay people have commited crimes since this would be unfair to those gay people that have done no wrong, while we have evidence that gay people can be criminals we give all gay people the bennefit of the doubt and allow them to ride freely.
It is ok that women are not discriminated against eventhough some women have commited crimes since this would be unfair to those women that have done no wrong, while we have evidence that women can be criminals we give all women the bennefit of the doubt and allow them to ride freely.
Men however do not get the bennefit of the doubt.
In the eyes of the system I am not to be trusted I am to be segragated against, I am to be prohibited from using some parts of the transportation system. This is not because I something I may have done, this is because I am male.
This is not ok, it not ok to be discriminated against because of your sex. This hurts and insults ands rubs in my face that in my city I am not to be trusted, that I am less valuable. That I am not trust worthy.
So, now a few questions:
Do you believe that segregation against men is ok? If so, why? If not, How would you fix the groping problem?
Have a nice day.
Ed.
Public transportation is an issue in a city of 9'000,000 people with another 15'000,000 living in the connected urban envirnoment. This means that often times there are problems in the public transportation service. One of such problems is overcrowding of public transportation. Busses usually go full to the rim as do subway cars and urban trains.
A derivative problem from such overcrowding is gropings. Gropings (I don't know if it is even a real word but I'll define it as such) mean that people touch with a sexual intent other people, this can include (though it usually doesn't go this far) ejaculating on the clothes of someone. Because of the crowding there is little the victim can do since getting away is all but impossible.
This problem has brought on some different aproaches to being solved:
First policemen were stationed randomly so that would be perpretators would be dettered. This didn't go too well since it was a rather small part of the police that was dedicated to this task leaving the inmense mayority of public transportation without a policeman (or policewoman we have both) to uphold the law.
Next came the accusation method in which any woman could point to a suspect and accuse him of groping, this would mean a jail sentence and a rather large fine. This was somewhat implemented but it was quickly abused and while it still stands, policemen have become so blassé about false acusations that it is not efective.
Next came segregation. Female exclusive transportation, this has proven to be an effective way of stoping gropings (of men groping women, other types still go on) for those lucky women that get to go on the special busses or traincars. There is however something that seems very wrong about this method.
Female only incentives are all the rage in mexico right now, special credits to start a microenterprise, special grants for research, special scholarships for study in all levels of education, Female only medical attention, etc... We have discussed this in another thread so I won't be repeating why I believe that quotas and female only incentives are both unfair and innefective.
Back to segregation; it works like this:
Women may ride on any bus, traincar, etc... they may so wish. Men on the other hand can't ride on female only busses, traincars etc... doing so will get him dettained by the policemen in the stations or refused the service by the operator of the bus.
In my city women and men represent roughly 50% of the total population respectively, so making half the busses male only and the other half female only would make sense in efectively separatiang the sexes to avoid "heterosexual" gropings. This system would not be without it´s problems but it would be fair. Fair however is not part of the equation.
Since women can ride wherever the may wish but men only where they are allowed (depending on the mode of transportation this may be from the 90% to the 50% of the vehicle(s)) this means that men are being crowded even more, they have to wait longer for a bus or train that can be used, they have to ride standing up (which is not without it's dangers and is unconfortable) etc... This happens because when women percieve their female only transportation to be full they go to the other parts where they can expect some man to give his spot so that the woman may ride seated (this doesn't allways happen but is still fairly common).
The problem for me is this: While it prevents women from being groped (a heinieus act that should be addresed by the authoriries) it does so by segregating men.
This segregation comes from the asumption that since some males can't behave themselves around women it is better to be safe than sorry and thus all males will be prohibited from riding certain parts of the public transportation system.
"Male" is then the only characteristic that is still ok to be discriminated aggainst in my "progresive" city.
Black people have stealed and murdered in my city yet, we do not have transportation that prohibits black people from riding in them. Gay people have groped other people yet we do not have transportation that prohibits them from riding. Women have kidnapped other people yet women are allowed to ride anywere they want.
It is ok that black people are not discriminated against eventhough some black people have commited crimes since this would be unfair to those black people that have done no wrong, while we have evidence that black people can be criminals we give all black people the bennefit of the doubt and allow them to ride freely.
It is ok that gay people are not discriminated against eventhough some gay people have commited crimes since this would be unfair to those gay people that have done no wrong, while we have evidence that gay people can be criminals we give all gay people the bennefit of the doubt and allow them to ride freely.
It is ok that women are not discriminated against eventhough some women have commited crimes since this would be unfair to those women that have done no wrong, while we have evidence that women can be criminals we give all women the bennefit of the doubt and allow them to ride freely.
Men however do not get the bennefit of the doubt.
In the eyes of the system I am not to be trusted I am to be segragated against, I am to be prohibited from using some parts of the transportation system. This is not because I something I may have done, this is because I am male.
This is not ok, it not ok to be discriminated against because of your sex. This hurts and insults ands rubs in my face that in my city I am not to be trusted, that I am less valuable. That I am not trust worthy.
So, now a few questions:
Do you believe that segregation against men is ok? If so, why? If not, How would you fix the groping problem?
Have a nice day.
Ed.
