'Groping' A Major Problem On Public Trains

[matcom]

<snip>

TOKYO -- A news report in Japan said a survey finds that 64 percent of Japanese women in their 20s and 30s say they have been groped on trains.

Groping has long been a problem on Tokyo's crowded commuter transit system.

A newspaper said the survey shows that in most cases women fled or tried to stop the groper with a rebuke, a slap, or by covering themselves. However, it said some unable to act simply endured it.

Gropers can be imprisoned for up to seven years or fined up to $485. But few victims report such crimes.

The report said women surveyed favored dividing train cars by gender to stop the attacks.

http://www.wftv.com/news/3943052/detail.html

[City of Mills]

1. That's creepy

Why are people so perverted and sick?

[Laelth]

4. Testosterone ...

... necessary for the survival of our species, I suppose, but a threat to civilization, nonetheless. If you think about it, testosterone is probably the principal culprit behind the entire BushCo Empire.

-Laelth

[skygazer]

2. Packing my bags and heading for Tokyo

Arnold won't touch me since he was elected governator - a good grope is hard to find.

[MuseRider]

5. Mexico is closer

I got groped on the subway in Mexico City. Turned around to this horrid looking man with one hand on my ass and one around on a boob. It was difficult to do much since I didn't speak Spanish well, the car was so crowded you could hardly move and I had a child in each hand. I kicked him in the shins the best I could and he humped me right before he left the car. It was disgusting and I will never get on a subway that crowded again, ever.

[skygazer]

6. Ewwwwwwww.....

It was a joke! Honest! :shiver:

[Lavender Brown]

8. happened to me my first day of work NYC

The 5 train, really scary at rush hour.

[11 Bravo]

11. Does Hugh Grant know that someone was messin' with his woman?

n/t

[Lavender Brown]

14. okaaaaay....

:shrug:

[11 Bravo]

17. Wasn't Lavender Brown the name of the LA hooker

who Hugh Grant got busted with? If not, then I'm nowhere near as clever as I think I am. :)

[Shakespeare]

12. Happened to me when I lived in DC

Whenever the metro was really packed, it was likely to happen. It's a lousy feeling to have someone grab your ass and not be able to tell who in that tangle of arms and torsos is responsible for the transgression. Creeps.

[plcdude]

16. it is cheaper

to just come to Oklahoma

[underpants]

3. In a related story-Japanese women are increasingly passing up marriage

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002098343_japansingle23.html

TOKYO — No matter how independent, fashionable or popular she may be, Japan's unwed woman has long been labeled the eternal loser: lonesome during the holidays, dreaming of the child she never had, dreading the inevitable question at family gatherings: "Aren't you married yet?"

But in unprecedented numbers, Japanese women are defying the stereotype with a firm "No" — and trying to cheer up others like them.

"Women these days aren't going to marry just anybody," says Junko Sakai, whose "Howl of the Loser Dogs," a book about single career women, has sold more than 300,000 copies.

[eleonora]

7. man, we need personal defence shields

lol....

[wicket]

9. Hello testicles, meet foot

That's what I'd do if anyone ever groped me on the T!

[realisticphish]

10. from what ive seen

(and this from someone totally ignorant of actual japanese culture) in japanese entertainment, like anime , women are pretty much regarded as heated sex toys. i may be misinterpreting it, but thats what it seems like to me


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[Unstuck In Time]

13. This is why high heels were invented.

Put such a hole in that guy's foot, he'll make a whistling sound when he walks.

:grr:

[jburton]

15. Puts the 'ass' in Mass Transit

nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. Perspective from someone who's lived there

Like a lot of the stuff you read in the U.S. about Japan, this is old news.

In fact, the groping problem is less severe now than it was in the 1970s, when I lived there. Advice columns in women's magazines told readers who complained that they shouldn't make a fuss, because that would embarrass the groper. Instead, they should move somewhere else (not really an option on a rush hour train, let me tell you.)

Interestingly, Western women rarely got groped, probably because they reacted the way I did the one time someone groped me. I turned to make sure I had the right guy in view, and then I brought my size tens down on his foot so hard that his toes probably came loose. He looked as much astonished as pained and limped off at the next stop.

However, my fellow foreign students, most of whom were from East Asian countries, complained of being groped almost daily. They were all from these male supremacist cultures and were halfway between horrified and admiring as I told them what I had done.

When I returned in the late 1980s, the women's magazines were starting to carry articles that asked why they should have to put up with gropers.

By the late 1990s, TV dramas were had scenes of bratty high school girls falsely accusing innocent men of being chikan--sort of a backlash phenomenon.

I think that the current fuss is part of an unnamed and amorphous nascent Japanese women's movement, and the symptoms include protesting about gropers, seeking new career opportunities, and refusing to marry.

[arwalden]

19. Well.... Just Let One Of Them Try To Grope ME!!

No... serioiusly... let them grope me. Come on! A little higher... around... down a little. There! :eyes:

-- Allen

P.S. I loved your response! OUCH!!

[cally]

20. I know you mean this as a joke

but it really demeans what happens when someone gropes another without consent. The salient point is it's without consent. Most of us enjoy touch from another when we want it but it is horrible when someone touches you that you do not want. This is not about sexual pleasure but about assault.

[arwalden]

22.

(I changed my mind.)

[KamaAina]

21. This probably explains why Cal. doesn't have that many trains

what with Ahh-nuld and his officially sanctioned groping firmly (sorry) in place out there...