Some Men In Japan Want Men-Only Train Cars So We Evil Temptresses Can’t Accuse Them of the Sexual Assault They Definitely Commit
Oh look, something wasn't about men for a minute.
Women-only cars have been placed on a number of Japanese commuter trains over the years, due to the epidemic of sexual assault plaguing the trains. Much of the assault and harassment, which has been a problem for decades, is targeted at teenage (and younger) girls. Women-only cars aim to protect women and girls from having to share crowded rush hour trains with potential assaulters.
But now some men are saying that doesn’t go far enough. According to them, they’re the ones that should get their own cars, as they’re the ones who need protection from all the women and girls getting off on falsely accusing men of assault. Yup, it’s not sexual violence that’s the issue; it’s those lying women. Of course.
Recently, a man died while trying to flee a train where a woman accused him of assault. Attempting to avoid questioning, he ran into an oncoming train. Now, that’s horrifying, and it’s not even the first time this has happened. But to blame women for this, or for the assault epidemic in general, is ridiculous.
In recent years, women’s experiences on these trains has begun to shed at least some of the stigma typically attached to issues of sexual violence. For far too long, victims of these attacks were kept silent, through societal shame as well as a lack of cooperation and support from police. But as women’s voices gained amplification, men took this as an opportunity to yell over them about the real plight as they see it: false accusations. Since Japan’s mainstream media, as well as social media, are male-dominated, many anti-assault activists see the subject of false accusations being over-reported and constantly validated, to the point where men think this is as big and as common a risk as the violence women face.
We’ve seen this in the U.S. as well, with the conversation around sexual assault, the college rape crisis, and rape culture. When so many women finally begin talking about their shared experiences, a lot of men simply have trouble believing them, and assume many or most must be lying. These men have a fundamental problem with valuing women’s voices, choosing instead to reconfigure their stories to be about themselves and their own manufactured, fictitious victimization.
More women-only cars are clearly necessary. (As of now, they’re not on all trains or at all times.) But honestly, even though their reasoning is both laughable and infuriating, getting those men out of shared cars sounds like a perfectly fine idea to me. Just call it a designated Asshole Car, and let them whine about the evil females devoting their lives to plotting men’s downfall where no one else has to be subjected to their bullcrap.
(via BuzzFeed, image: Shutterstock)
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