To find this poster in a train station wrong?

[megadude]

Hi Mumsnetters,

I'd be interested to read your opinions about this poster. I don't want to say right now what I think about it, as I'd like to know how you'd interpret it.

TIA,
Megadude

I'm pleased Cambridge Station have displayed it, if it saves one woman from anything untoward happening its a great job done.

I'd love to see a whole series of this type of poster; I dropped DS aged 15 off at our local towns train station to meet a girl he had never met before, just knew her through the internet. I again reiterated to him, as with my other DSes, that 'Molly' may well not be a 15 year old girl but a hairy arsed peodophile. And I made him text me as soon as he met her to verify. I'd love posters issuing warnings along this line directed towards Young/mid teens to make sure they know the person they are meeting are who they say they are.

And then maybe another series of posters aimed towards men 'you could be victims of rape and violence too, look out for your friends' etc.

So rather than think about bollocking an organisation for this poster, I'd rather see the whole message expanded.

It's the vagueness that gets me. Whatever you're saying, just say it!

Oh, I always say train station.

I'm not going to RTFT, because I've already caught sight of a few vacuous "Doh, I don't know what's wrong with it!" posts and I'll just get the rage.

OP, YANBU. Women don't need reminding that there are weirdos and rapists out there. It's not our responsibility to be on the lookout for assholes. The responsibility is on the assholes not to be assholes and the rapists not to rape. I would have less of a problem with this poster if there were also ones for men saying "Rape is a crime, don't do it, you shitty asshole". Rape and sexual assault has the highest rates of victim blaming compared to other crimes like car crime, handbag theft, etc. We don't need another message implying that women are to blame if anything happens because they didn't "take care" enough.

Go on then... what would a poster about consent look like?

The thing with posters is they have to be easy to digest with a passing glance. Anything else becomes a Public Information Poster - long since abandoned as they don't work!

It may not be, as you have assumed, part of a sexual assault campaign. It might just be part of a Safety Campaign, they may have others, they may not.

But if the alternative is to remove it or replace it with a reprimanding tract I suspect they will go with a bright poster advising positive action, every time.

I think Lumpy makes a significant point. What of the potential or existing perpetrators of sexual assault who see this, and have their internalised views reinforced about it being women's faults for being out in the first place?

If it was part of a series and there was a similar one featuring men it would be fine. But I'd be very surprised if there was one with men.

I always say train station.

Don't get the rage goodnight just read the thread.

No TJ I doubt there is, but it'd be a bloody good idea.

Women of course need the poster about taking because they do this all the time after a night out….

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3447562/Transport-bosses-slam-dangerous-prankster-filmed-sliding-London-Tube-escalator-heavy-crash.html

The very fact they have stumbled into this area with this poster shows they are not sensitive to the issues we have discussed. A good poster would not allude to victim blaming (even if you don't see it, others do).

I don't like the poster. I would rather there was something there about men needing to consider their night-time behaviour and the impact it has on other people such as women.

A bloke walked and behaved exactly as though he was following me with nefarious intent while I was walking through a deserted station car park to my car last week. Walking too near me, speeding up when I did, slowing down when I did, crossing pavements when I did. Seriously creepy. Bad vibes,

The car park was well-lit and many other cars were parked there, but we happened to be the only two people getting off the train at that point and it is unmanned after about 2pm. So he could have attacked me and there would have been very little I could have done.

All my pre-rape senses were on red alert because of the odd way he was behaving. However I realised at the time the odds of something happening were low, so I decided he was just a twat who did not realise that behaving like that genuinely frightened women and that it was deeply inconsiderate. Luckily my instincts proved correct, but it reminded me quite how vulnerable it is possible to feel.

I wish they would put up posters about that kind of thing rather than potentially blaming women for being the victims of crime.

It's the vagueness that gets me. Whatever you're saying, just say it!

It has to be 'vague'. If it listed all the commonsense things you should be doing but might forget when your're out on the town when you've have a few drinks, there would be a sheet of small print that no-one would read.

The picture itself sums up its message pretty clearly, to my mind. But then I'm not trying to read all sorts of subliminal messages that some are apparently looking for.

There's a huge difference between victim blaming and victim awareness.

What over sensitivity! It's just asking you to keep an eye out for your mates in case they've had one too many - just happens to be women in the pic?

I'd be interested to see one that said "if you dress like a tart, don't be surprised if you're treated like one"

Now that I'd find offensive, but ultimately realistic (or not?).

What about a poster aimed at men, saying that if one of your friends looks as if he's likely to rape somebody after a night out, stop him?

Treats But BackforGood - what is the poster suggesting that women should DO? What does 'taking extra care' mean in this context?

Lots of pretty basic advice has already been given on this thread - stay with your friends, don't leave your drink unattended, etc..... to my mind that is 'taking care'

Supposing a vulnerable young woman should stray into the path of an aggressor, what "extra care" should she take to avoid becoming a victim of crime?

Well, on seeing this poster if I were on a station platform or sitting on the train with my dd, ds, or ds's girlfriend, or my nieces or any of my Godchildren (I think that cover's any young people who are likely to be out in town at night that I might be sitting on a train with ) it might well prompt me to have that conversation with them..... "What would you do if......?".
Now, personally, I've been asking the "What would you do if...." question since I first ever left them anywhere without me - school / parties / Brownies / cubs ..... then on their own at home for 10 mins, etc.,etc. , but not all parents do. Maybe, just maybe, the poster might just catch the eye of someone on their way in to town, or even on their way home from work or the shops, and, just maybe, it might start a discussion with someone who has never really thought about it before. It could save a life, or at least save a person from an awful experience.

Appalling misogynist, victim blaming, reinforcing the 'she wants it really' mentality of most rapists!

It's also badly designed and vague and intellectually insulting (are only women too stupid to not know to not take risks?!)

If its about the risks of being drunk in a train station, getting mugged, getting lost, falling on tracks etc that's just as likely to be men for starters but I think anyone with an ounce of intelligence knows that was not the aim of this 'campaign'.

Anyone with any awareness of how female rape victims are treated within our society, in our justice system (now there's a joke!) Should know how unacceptable such posters or even ideas are!

Raising a child in a society that still thinks this is acceptable, even (in fact especially) by other women is terrifying!

If there's a campaign we DO need its regarding consent. The tea analogy is a great one as is the 'don't rape' memes and posters.

Did any of you saying 'I don't see the problem with it' see the programme 'is this rape?' Horrifying that young women not only don't understand consent but can be worse for victim blaming than men!

I don't think it's wrong to tell people to take care when they've been drinking. You could wander out into a road, into a river (there was a student this tragically happened to last year or the year before, if I remember rightly), onto train tracks, you could fall down stairs / onto train tracks and hurt yourself, get lost, drop possessions like keys / phone / wallet.

I think people are making rather large assumptions that it's about sexual assault. A general "watch out for your mates" when they're in an impaired state is fine.

so why no men on that poster? if it's a general 'take care' message - why just women?

I agree Lockheart.

Yes, why not a mixed group?

Be careful of what exactly

A man in a dirty mack, a man wearing a balaclava, a foreign looking man, a man with rapist stamped on his forehead

Why no just say those men can't help themselves

It's pretty much exactly the advice I'd give my kids when they get to the age that they start going out drinking with their friends. Don't see it as victim blaming in anyway.