SoupDragon "If a person's default stance is to be suspicious of men, I hope to God they don't have sons."
I am not sure if you were referring to my comment or not, maybe not.
But I said " ... it is a case of being initially trusting of all men or initially suspicious of all people then I guess I will go with the later but only when there is something to be suspicious of."
By that i meant as soon as I am not sure if something is right I would feel suspicious and that would extend to women and men. I guess for me it is also about setting, I don't walk past people in the day thinking they are up to no good but in some situations I feel wary. I don't extend trust to everyone automatically. Not because of any personal experience, it is just who I am.
I have a son too. I am not fearful for him. I am much more fearful for my daughter. I am not automatically suspicious of men but I am not automatically trusting either. I guess I quite quickly made a decision on people and usually trust but I reserve the right not to be, I just don't let it show.
If anyone treats my son that way (or my daughter) that is fine by me, I am polite to everyone face to face.
ClaryIsTheBest "...through the church/media/teacging etc and, the vast majority of which seems to be by men.
...I agree. However, in so many of these situations women have known and didn't do anything/covered it up/actively allowed it. Not trying to start this huge argument but I really think that some people primarily worrying about men may open a new can of worm."
You are right that many women have stood by and done nothing. I do not condone that at all.
"I for example had a bullying, objectifying and verbally abusive teacher that crossed many very persoan boundaries (like the bodily integrity of us, her pupils). She was female. And whilst I'm not saying what she did was as bad as sexual abuse... it was pretty horrible."
I completely agree, all forms of bullying are horrible, whether they are committed by males or females.