[quote jacks11]@sleeponeday
But it’s not comparing like with like, it’s not even close! OP’s suggestion is that ALL men MUST be tracked ALL the time. The BT suggestion- whilst it has it’s limitations and flaws- is to my understanding an App which a woman can chose to download (or not). It’s not mandatory or applicable to all women. To try and suggest OP is drawing a direct analogy is disingenuous, at best. It grates on me, as I said I find this discourse unhelpful.
And whilst it is not impossible to imagine that the system could be hacked or abused (same as with any app or technology because there is no 100% fail safe system in existence) I suspect it is not inevitable either. If you will only accept perfection, you will be waiting a long time.
Again- if you don’t like the idea, by all means do not use it. I don’t think the system is going to revolutionise the situation we find ourselves in, nor will it change the behaviour of dangerous or abusive men. And no, women should not have to change their behaviour or do things to keep themselves safe…. But in the real world, sometimes you have to be practical. Not to say you don’t push for change, but change is seldom quick or easy, so in the meantime I will suggest my daughter does take steps to keep herself safe.
And if this suggestion makes some women feel safer or helps even just a few women- whilst not harming anyone- why get so enraged about it? It’s not like anyone is seriously suggesting making the App available and nothing else as because the app alone is “job done”. It is a like the app is one component of a sticking plaster, it’s certainly not a cure. A bandage helps control the bleeding whilst you make your way to the hospital for stitches. You don’t just leave the wound bleeding profusely because stitches are the best treatment, do you? This is nothing like a solution, but it might help some women.[/quote]
I don't disagree that it's an unacceptable intrusion on civil liberties, and I doubt the OP is genuinely for it, either. I also agree that the compulsion aspect is relevant. But it doesn't alter the fact that reducing rape incidence is always, always couched as things women can do. And while yes, of course that's relevant on an individual basis, it does nothing to reduce overall rates. There will always be someone more vulnerable. Sarah Everard terrifies because she did literally everything right, and there was no reasonable way she could have escaped. But suppose she had at the last moment seen a friend, who came up and asked what was happening, so the gargoyle backed off. All he would have done was locate a new, more vulnerable victim. There is, always, a more vulnerable victim. And all advice to women does is shuffle the deck on who, exactly, is victimised because there will ALWAYS be someone who is more easily victimised.
Telling women what to do to avoid being raped just means someone else is. That's what the advice boils down to. And actually, we agree on the reality that what is needed is to shift the cultural conversation, and provide far better scaffolding to young men - because, by definition of the crime itself, the ONLY person in a rape with agency is the rapist.
Misogyny enables rape. Cultures that denigrate and devalue children and women have huge problems with sexual violence, and violence against women and girls generally. And challenging ideas such as this, to highlight how pointless they are because the person with agency is not the woman victimised, is part of the process of trying to force the role men play, and societal norms play, in what we do and don't think is acceptable.
And as for it helping some women - how? By allowing low paid, almost certainly male, people to know the patterns of a number of women walking around late at night - who may be shift workers, with predictable routines? Really? If the police don't perform adequate background checks, you think security staff monitoring these systems will? And how does knowing where they go, when, and why, help anyone if they are harmed? All it does is say where the women were when and if they are assaulted - and they can tell someone that, themselves. So HOW does it help?