Im really concerned that in a world where men do harass women ... and I was really shocked when I was asked the other day how many times I've been made to feel physically unsafe or threatened by a woman compared to by men.... the answers ZERO compared to thousands (from the attempted rapes and gropings to catcalling and just physical intimidation).... that we seem to be about to increase the risks for our DD without really thinking about it.
That we are about to let Men self-identify as Women... whenever they want, however they want.... making it so easy for any predatory man to abuse women's trust and safe spaces.
So little thought or discussion or study has gone into this badly thought-through law..... and I for one found the recent study of Target stores in the US provided some interesting evidence.
Increasing Peeping Toms by 3 times, and "upskirts" (I don't think it takes much imagination to think what this is) by more than double....when they allowed people to "self-identify"....
And this is in a "safe space" with staff around... not in public loos or other facilities....
I really really worry for my DD and her friends growing up in a much less safe environment, having to be on their guard so much more .....
SEE BELOW....
Abstract:
Background: There is an almost complete lack of statistical data on the relationship between gender-identity policies and incidents of sexual violence in bathrooms and change rooms. Using Target stores as a case study, we analyzed 220 media-reported sexual offenses in Target stores from 2003 to August of 2017 to determine the association, if any, between their gender-identity access policy made public in April 2016 and reported sexual offenses in their stores.
Results: Sexual incidents increased over the course of the entire timeframe of the media reports. In particular, voyeurism-related offenses (Upskirt and Peeping Tom) increased significantly after the publication of Target’s gender-inclusion policy in April, 2016. The three-season forced-category measurement found a 2.3x increase in the amount of upskirt incidents after the policy, and a 2.9x increase in peeping tom incidents after the policy. In a Poisson regression, using trimesters to control for seasonal variations in offenses, the fold change in rate from the four year pre-policy period to the post-policy period was 3.03 for Upskirt and 3.14 for Peeping Tom. Using a two year pre-policy period, the rate change was 2.16 times for Upskirt and 2.34 times for Peeping Tom.
Conclusion: While media-loss remains a limitation in the analysis, the present study supports the theory that sex predators may take opportunities afforded by gender-inclusion policies to perpetrate sexual violence against women in public spaces. No other theory seems to account for the significant and precisely-timed increase seen in the Target reports. Further study would be helpful to compare police reports to media-reported crime and to geographically match Target with similar stores to investigate whether sexual offenses have increased elsewhere.