There’s a lot of discussion on UK Twitter right now about women’s safety in public spaces. And of course, I’ve been afraid to walk after dark, and sometimes even during the daytime, in most places that I’ve lived and visited.
If we are talking about which gender should feel the most unsafe at night, it’s trans women. There has already been so many of them murdered this year. But the reality is that everyone is at risk because our world is an incredibly violent place nowadays. But the world tells us that women have to be scared for their lives because they are weak and vulnerable and the main target of violence. Even if this is not statistically true, that doesn’t change the worldview.
Yes, agreed the trans community faces a disproportional amount of violence directed towards them. But most statistics show that violent crime in general has been declining for decades in many countries and the world overall is probably much safer than it was in the recent past.
Of course there is still an incredible amount of injustice and economic exploitation (and also still too much violence), but we really need to work on this factually incorrect and overly anxious worldview.
Edit: making people afraid of irrational things and painting a rosy picture of a fake past is the quintessential fascist move to rally support behind them…
You’re right, we do need to work to remove the anxieties around safety, but also acknowledge that violence often happens to those members who would not be in a position of power to effectively use fascism i.e. migrants, trans women, black and indigenous people, and disabled folks.
The world is safe for those who it’s made for and we need to work to make them realize it, but also work to make the world safer for those pushed to the side.
Has there been a huge spike in violence that hasn’t shown in statistics yet?
I know that crimes get attention and the news is full of that, but it seems that the world is safer now than it was in the 1990s (at least the United States).
That’s what I mean, my point was that even if the world is safer statistically, that doesn’t make people automatically feel safer because of the biases and experiences people had growing up
I dislike the idea that we have to make the world feel safer to everybody.
The reason is that feelings are subjective and some people would feel safer in a world that is actually more dangerous (look at all the people who reflect positively about the safety of previous decades).
If we are talking about which gender should feel the most unsafe at night, it’s trans women. There has already been so many of them murdered this year. But the reality is that everyone is at risk because our world is an incredibly violent place nowadays. But the world tells us that women have to be scared for their lives because they are weak and vulnerable and the main target of violence. Even if this is not statistically true, that doesn’t change the worldview.
Yes, agreed the trans community faces a disproportional amount of violence directed towards them. But most statistics show that violent crime in general has been declining for decades in many countries and the world overall is probably much safer than it was in the recent past.
Of course there is still an incredible amount of injustice and economic exploitation (and also still too much violence), but we really need to work on this factually incorrect and overly anxious worldview.
Edit: making people afraid of irrational things and painting a rosy picture of a fake past is the quintessential fascist move to rally support behind them…
You’re right, we do need to work to remove the anxieties around safety, but also acknowledge that violence often happens to those members who would not be in a position of power to effectively use fascism i.e. migrants, trans women, black and indigenous people, and disabled folks.
The world is safe for those who it’s made for and we need to work to make them realize it, but also work to make the world safer for those pushed to the side.
Could you please provide some statistics about violence? I don’t know where you get the idea that the world ia so very violent- maybe you live somewhere more violent than I do though. https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2019-crime-statistics
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/fbi-report-crime-shows-decline-violent-crime-rate-third-consecutive-year
Has there been a huge spike in violence that hasn’t shown in statistics yet?
I know that crimes get attention and the news is full of that, but it seems that the world is safer now than it was in the 1990s (at least the United States).
That’s what I mean, my point was that even if the world is safer statistically, that doesn’t make people automatically feel safer because of the biases and experiences people had growing up
I dislike the idea that we have to make the world feel safer to everybody. The reason is that feelings are subjective and some people would feel safer in a world that is actually more dangerous (look at all the people who reflect positively about the safety of previous decades).