"Fear" of men

Given the majority of women have experienced sexual assault and harrassment, either there.s a few very prolofic men or the majority of men aresexual harrassers?

Dittany - at your horse comments. Are you a Horseenist too?
Actually, a horse will sometimes deliberately throw you but you still go back out there and get back on, you don;t have a fear of all horses forever more and get scared if you see a horse in a field you might be walking across.

The fear thing I'm not sure makes sense.
I ride horses. I fall off, sometimes quite badly and then I get back on. Again and again.
I am not wary of riding because I have fallen, I do not fear horses because some have thrown me off.

Unfortunately it isn't news to say x million women walked about today completely unharmed and unmolested and x million DC had a completely normal day at nursery -and so the odd case of either gets completely blown out of proportion.

I will just add that I am astounded at the amount of animated posts that have been devoted to one person, with a couple of supporters, expressing hypothetical fear of a man in a childcare setting when the posting of a real life killing of a woman by her ex partner and a link to the Victims of Violence (real, actual killings) thread has elicited a call for a new MN campaign with far fewer supporters.

OMFG!!!!!

I don't really agree Ditanny to be honest, whilst it is indisputable that some men do attack women, it it is still a minority of men who do this so to be fearful of a particular individual man attacking you is irrational as the probabilities would suggest that he is less likely to attack you then he is to attack you so it is an irrational position as the empirical analysis is against your position.

Of course! I am not arguing against that. I am just saying that it is understandable. I am not saying that it is necessarily healthy. Is that where we are coming unstuck?

Although, in the case of violence against women by men, the stats are flawed because so many incidents go unreported, so how can any woman rationally weigh the risk? They can only go by personal experience.

Even if you have had a traumatic experience in the past, it makes it no more likely for it to occur in the future though so to believe that your past experience will affect the future is to abandon rationality and to live in a world of paranoia though.

In the hypothetical scenario, it would have a rational basis, though. At least more than those who haven't had a traumatic experience at that hands of a man. Oh, I forget. We should all just "snap out of it". No time allowed to work through stuff that has happened.

If a dog bit you, it's not rational to be scared of dogs.
If you were in a plane crash, it's not rational to be scared of flying.
If you were in a house fire, not rational to be scared of fires.

Maybe not, but entirely undertandable.

ayerobot- Yes I could because the fact of the matter is her predujice regardless of its historical foundation is affecting the present and is having a detrimental impact on the present ie her discrimination against male nursery workers which has no rational basis.

likale, I know that and you know that. But could you discount her own feelings so readily? I am creating a hypothetical here, but perhaps, in time, she will come around to the viewpoint of the statistical likelihood. But if she were the n of 1 and the outcome was 1, then why would she not be worried?

overthemill
I don't know (or know of) anyone who's been attacked by 'gangs' of young people. I do know women who have been raped by men. I know men (including my P) who have been attacked by men (mugged at knifepoint twice). My P is very wary when out at night in the city - irrationally(?), as statistically he is unlikely to be mugged again (and was of course statistically unlikely to be mugged in the first place).

As I said before, I don't know anyone who is frightened of men. I do know an (elderly) woman who was frightened by by a 'gang' of young people who hung around outside her house drinking and vandalising her garden. Not all 'gangs' are as nice as others. Some areas have higher levels of crime than others. That effects how people perceive the risk.

The immigrant argument just doesn't make any sense at all.

Basically, the viewpoint that women are irrational is the dominate cultural view of women. Good to have it confirmed by you that men, who are luckily for them statistically even less less likely to be the victims of sexual assualt/rape than women, are the unfortunate victims of female irrationality. It must keep them all in at night. Poor men. What are womwn doing to them. It's like womens' lib gone mad.

"Just like you think the world dislikes boys based on your experiences, perhaps she dislikes men having intimate access to her daughter based on her experiences."

Her experiences make it no more or less likely that her daughter will be abused by a nursery worker so they are irrelevant. Her daughter at nursey and her past history are independent events and have no effect on each other.

it's such an ignorant attitude, in the same way that I used be fearful of 'gangs' of young people wandering around all together, now I have teens of my own I am not in the slightest bit off put. I know them and am no longer fearful generically. ' Like i hate immigrants but the one that work with me is alright'

Sorry-spelling gone wonky! Time for bed!

Tongue in cheek-annoyed with mothers who descriminate against perfectly nice young men doing their job!
(Although someone on the toilet thread said her mother had screwed her up as an adult with her suspicious attitude.)

But why do you think her mother caused it? Maybe her father did? Maybe she had reason for her fear.

Just like you think the world dislikes boys based on your experiences, perhaps she dislikes men having intimate access to her daughter based on her experiences. And me being wary of certain people and situations, based on mine.

Or maybe all are just beliefs that can't be extrapolated. Or maybe they can. It's all real.

No I was picking up on your comment about fears being caused by mothers.

As opposed to life experiences....