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

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

i take a lot of that stuff into consideration in my basic situational threat monitoring. i assume my gut will ping off of whether or not a person is likely to be a threat, and some of the markers she mentions are telltales. though not grasping when someone is trying to be left alone is common enough to not be such a big deal to me.
i mean, sometimes i'm not very good at figuring that out. particularly with women who think they're obligated to be nice.

doesn't mean i assume guilt until innocence is proven, i just suspend judgement until i think i have enough data. which can take less than a second based on body language and vocal cues. for the basic immediate threat or possible support impression.

i've done pretty well at picking up pretty fast what men i would want to have standing near me if something stupid started happening.
(reminding me for some reason of any of the men in my father's family is a good cue, so maybe i'm luckier than women who don't have those sorts of subconscious models of protective figures in their lives.)
but it's not primarily a conscious process- i think it's high level subconscious information digestion/intuition.

thus, having a ongoing threat assessment level doesn't make me paranoid. i think.
but i'm also pretty confident in my ability to stay out of dead ends and think on my feet. and, if necessary, my ability to smash things with steel toed boots. (martial arts training as a teenager. a bit rusty, but i keep discovering how imprinted those reflexes are.)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Nothing wrong with ongoing threat assessment. That's called "being in condition yellow." :)