An informal poll about attitudes - REVISED

[unixronin]

Caution:  May be inflammatory.

Just for the sake of possibly-morbid curiosity:  I direct you to this article that perspicuity pointed out to me elsewhere.  Please go and read it.  Particularly the beginning.

Now, please answer only one poll.  First up, asking my readers of the feminine persuasion here:

[Poll #1472271]

For my chromosomally heterogeneous readers, I offer the following alternate poll with your own seven eight choices:

[Poll #1472272]

My personal feeling is that if you regard every male as a probable rapist lacking only the opportunity, I want some way to know in advance, because if the very first thought that goes through a woman's head is, "Is that man going to try to rape me?", I don't even want to start a conversation.  I find the whole attitude insulting, to say the least.  It's way too high a disadvantage to start out having to first of all convince someone that you're not planning to rape or murder them, and if I knew in advance that I was going to be up against that, I'd move on immediately to talk to someone saner.  I don't know how people who approach the world with that kind of level of fear every day can even function, but I do believe that it's not my responsibility to walk on eggshells everywhere I go, just to avoid triggering someone else's paranoia.

(Heh.  I just discovered I have to answer both polls to be able to see the results of my own poll.  Pretty obviously, so does everyone else.  Please note I am RESUBMITTING to add a "Just show me the results" entry to each poll.  If you already voted, this means your vote will be lost.  Feel free to vote again.  We apologize for the confusion.)

Comments

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

There are a great deal of different attitudes to this. What follows is mine. It works for me and has a good track record of working for me. Your mileage will probably vary.

Scanning for a potential threat is just like scanning for anything else. You first learn what traits tend to accompany what you’re looking for. You look for those traits. When you find things that hit those traits, you pay close attention to them and don’t allow them near you unless you’ve proven they’re not actually this thing you’re afraid of.

Consider, for instance, a soldier walking a patrol in Iraq or Afghanistan. They know suicide bombers exist. They also know the suicide bombers are typically young men from outside Iraq who are wearing unusually baggy clothing. If a young man with a Saudi accent wearing baggy clothes comes near to the soldier, the soldier will probably tell him to stand his ground and start disrobing. But if a young girl with a Sadr City accent approaches, the soldier will probably let her approach. After all, if he treats her like she's a threat, she might run off. If he treats her nicely, she might tell him where an ied is planted and thus save his life.

The same logic applies to scanning a crowd for threats. You need to know the clear warning signs, and you need to react quickly to them. You also need to be approachable by others, because 97% of people aren't sociopaths, and they're your best early warning system for when things are going wrong.

[databeast.livejournal.com]

hear hear on the 'other people are your best early warning system'.

I long ago realized that I just don't have the mental multitasking ability to process every last detail in my environment for meaning, but the people around me will pull a different subset of it, and pre-process it for me.