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Rape:'Why didn't you take a taxi?'

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How insensitive.

It's a spur of the moment thing, are you going to spend £5 on a taxi, or just walk it home and save that money for another night out.

Why should we need to take a taxi?

We should be able to walk in late nights, without worrying about what may happen.

Why should we change? Becuase of other peoples actions.

I guess you don't live in London.

Reply 61

DorianGrayism

Original post by Planar

That's a straw man argument, and you know it. Walking home is a normal thing to do, although not a necessary one(taxi, bus, etc.). Walking home, at night, alone, in a big city, whilst drunk - and let's just be frank about this - and female, is not a wise idea. You know that the chance of your getting raped in this situation is higher than if it was during the day, you were in a group in the countryside, and sober - or even if you took a taxi. It would not be the victim's fault at all, but there are some pretty evil people about, and you shouldn't give them a chance.

Yeh, it is also higher than if you went out in the first place.

Reply 62

AlmostChicGeek

To be honest, I always get a taxi home from nights out, but I always phone whoever's in the house to let them know I am in the taxi, or at least pretend to phone whoever's in the house, to try and stop anything untoward happening in the taxi. (It hasn't and I am not accusing every taxi driver, I just think it is safer that way!) However, I can see how many people may not be able to afford that. I just don't go out that much. Anyway, I think that it is sad that women can't go out alone at night without such a high risk, but as people have said it is dark at like 6/7 at night now, what are you supposed to do then? There really isn't much of a solution, as at the moment we can't stop people from turning into rapists. I guess your best bet would just always make sure you have someone there, walk in the street lights, and have your phone ready to phone the police/a friend that will get to you fast. Hopefully that would scare the b*stards off. Oh, and Holmes clearly needs to work on his people skills, that seemed very callous.

Reply 63

DontJudge

Original post by DorianGrayism

I guess you don't live in London.

And i thought THAT was a high price.

Was the average price there to get to somewhere within 2miles?

Reply 64

Planar

Original post by kirsty1988

What you're doing, and trying to deny, is called victim blaming.

See my response to kerily. It might be worth adding that if someone had left their door wide open and had subsequently been burgled, people would simply tell them to be more careful next time. It wouldn't be the victim's fault, but the victim had tempted fate.

Reply 65

AP1989

Original post by Emor

This is true but I think we should be making a greater effort to promote men not raping as opposed to promoting woman being safe at night or whatever.

Attack the actual source. The truth is if it wasn't her it'd be someone else. You can't expect >50% of the population to be subject to some curfew because a minority of men have skewed ethics.

That and it's a bit ridiculous to expect people to live in fear. It's like telling someone who got hit by a car that they obviously shouldn't have crossed the road. Well what do you expect them to do then? Never cross roads? You can't expect woman to always get a taxi on the off-chance a rapist is in the surrounding area, for solely practical reasons.

EMZ.

Yeah I completely get where you're coming from, but it's easier said than done. It's easy to tell a normal rational person to take a taxi for reasons of safety as opposed to helping a disturbed person who wants to rape women.

I'm not up to speed on recent government policy etc to tackle this issue, but I'm sure you can appreciate how difficult it is.

Reply 66

Threxy

Original post by Philbert

It's not safe for women to be walking around alone at night; shouldn't we be tackling that issue rather than berating women for not taking taxis?

Meanwhile it's perfectly okay for men and boys to be walking around alone at night. Afterall, it's not like they can get mugged, stabbed or beaten up or anything...

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 67

Emor

Original post by Jimbo1234

So it is not her responsibility to look after her own safety? :confused:

Erm, well now I am just confused....

Safety's bull**** lol. People complain to me about going out running at 4 AM at night in the city because it's apparently not 'safe'. What's not safe is the guy walking around with a dagger.

If someone stabs me I have no liability.

I don't understand why you can't understand that it's the perpetrator who's responsible. Of course the 'victim' could have avoided being the 'victim', assuming they knew a psycho was with-in a mile radius of where they were going, but that doesn't change the fact that the person who stabbed them was the person who stabbed them.

It's like when I see a group of guys, I don't know why I'm the one expected to keep my distance from them, what society should expect in this situation is for them not to beat the **** out of me, and any rational, not brainwashed by the media person would expect them not to.

Seriously I don't think people even want to acknowledge the extent of victim-blaming that goes on.

EMZ.

Reply 68

concubine

Original post by TurboCretin

It is easier for men not to rape than women not to be raped.

You just don't rape.

Only it's not as simple as that, because the kinda people that do rape really don't give a **** what you think.

Original post by ironandwine

Should we also wear a suit of armour in case an axe murderer appears out of nowhere too?

Yes. Because 'axe murderers' are definitely as common as rapists taking advantage of vulnerable women. Comparing the two is ridiculous.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 69

ironandwine

Should we also wear a suit of armour in case an axe murderer appears out of nowhere too?

Reply 70

Xenopain

Original post by I<3LAMP

Hindsight is a wonderful thing eh? :rolleyes:

Women should be informed about how to reduce their chances of rape but there's not really we can do much on the mans side. Raping isn't something that everybody does just randomly like walking left and you can tell them to not walk left but instead walk right. When a man's a rapists his going to rape regardless. The campagins won't help the vast majority of women but it will help some and any women it can help is a good thing.

Reply 71

Threxy

Original post by concubine

Only it's not as simple as that, because the kinda people that do rape really don't give a **** what you think.

Yes. Because 'axe murderers' are definitely as common as rapists taking advantage of vulnerable women. Comparing the two is ridiculous.

Well, if a man is gonna rape a woman, he's gonna do it regardless of whether she's half-dressed and drunk after a night-out or if she's dressed like a grandma..

Usually, they go for people they know, rather than total strangers too.

Reply 72

kirsty1988

Original post by Planar

I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that by owning vaginas women were leaving them wide open for men to shove their penises into, my mistake.

Reply 73

Jelephant

So it's a brilliant idea for her to get in a car with a strange man instead. Because obviously there has never, ever been a case where a taxi driver has taken advantage of the girl locked in the back of the vehicle.

Infact, why didn't she just barricade herself in her house all day instead of going out into the dangerous world, silly girl. Rape can happen in the middle of the day in busy areas as well after all. It's her own fault for ever leaving the house at all.

On second thoughts, many rapes are committed by fathers, brothers and boyfriends. Ergo, she should've locked herself away in a tiny room by herself somewhere, stupid, otherwise she'll get raped and it'll be her own fault for not being careful enough.

Reply 74

Emor

Original post by AP1989

I still think it's grossly impractical to expect people to get a taxi, I mean statistically speaking I think the odds of a rapist being around outweigh the impracticality of having to get a taxi etc. but then people often disagree with me on this, but often I think people have a skewed perception of the safety of going out at night etc. due to the media's biased coverage.

I do agree that it's easier to promote paranoia(which is what it is imo, not leaving the house after 11 PM is paranoia to me) as a society.

I suppose it's just a matter of practicality over principle and to what extent you want to go, we're probably on the same page though.

EMZ=]

Reply 75

Alenda

She said in the article she was walking with friends. She only walked 2 streets on her own. Who calls a taxi to take them 2 streets?

Well at least he didn't ask her what she was wearing or say he hopes she dresses less provocatively in future. Also it's pretty amazing that she had the presence of mine to pull out a few strands of hair and spit in the car to leave DNA.

Reply 76

ironandwine

Original post by concubine

Telling girls to always take taxis at night is ridiculous too. You can just as easily get raped in broad daylight as you can at night, as you can in your own house or in the woods.

Taxi drivers can be rapists, the man or woman you consider a best friend can be a rapist... there isn't any certain criteria you have to possess to be a rapist.

I walk home for forty minutes in pitch black after working evening shifts at a bar, I've never been raped. My best friend walked for five minutes in daylight walking her dog before she got attacked and raped. What does that tell you?

Reply 77

TurboCretin

Original post by concubine

Only it's not as simple as that, because the kinda people that do rape really don't give a **** what you think.

I have now edited my original post, please see above.

Reply 78

WelshBluebird

Apart from the fact that women can still be raped by taxi drivers.

Reply 79

Xenopain

Original post by WelshBluebird

Apart from the fact that women can still be raped by taxi drivers.

Original post by Mujeriego

Because taxi drivers don't ever rape women. :rolleyes:

No one is saying she can't still get raped but her chances are still less (assuming it's a licensed taxi) and it's much safer. It's good advice. Rapists don't/won't listen thus we should be appealing to the women.