Brutkey

David Mitchell :CApride:
@DavidM_yeg@mstdn.ca

Based on all the fear mongering, you would think that public washrooms are incredibly dangerous places for women, yet in my half century on this planet I can’t recall a single report of a sexual assault in a public washroom. Huh 🤔

In a home by someone the victim knew, yes (well over 50%)
In a workplace, yes
In a church, yes

… but in a public washroom? No.

Karen E. Lund 💙💛
@Karen5Lund@mastodon.social

@DavidM_yeg@mstdn.ca Sixty years in New York City and the only near assault I've witnessed in a public restroom was a man (actual masculine appearing man) threatening to enter the ladies' room at a transit hub, yelling "Where's my bitch? Bitch, you better not be in there!"

Those of us who were in the facility but had finished stood around. To be completely honest I was kind of scared to walk past the guy, but more scared to let him enter.

A woman outside the restroom found a police officer.

Karen E. Lund 💙💛
@Karen5Lund@mastodon.social

@DavidM_yeg@mstdn.ca To be clear, this was (I am 99.999999% certain) a cis man, not a transgender person, and he was threatening a woman he knew, not a stranger.

I'm sure assaults in restrooms happen; I just doubt that trans women are a significant proportion of the threat.

David Mitchell :CApride:
@DavidM_yeg@mstdn.ca

@Karen5Lund@mastodon.social

Your story illustrates the point quite well: women are at risk of violence from men … and men who are ready and willing to commit gendered violence don’t disguise their masculinity to do it, no: they exaggerate their masculinity, because that masculinity is the very thing they feel gives them licence for the violence. And despite all that, a women’s washroom is one of the few places such men do not have social permission to go.

Trans women are even more likely to experience gendered violence from men (as appalling as that is to contemplate) and need the safe space of a women’s washroom and trans women certainly don’t present any more likelihood of harm to others than any other woman in there.