Reply #4: This is what a number of DUers have been saying for a long time [View All]

Women in this country are harassed for being out in public, on a regular basis, and that is part of our normal culture.

Anyone who thinks that's not part of the "white middle class" culture hasn't been listening.

That's not to say that every woman that goes out gets kidnapped, but unwanted sexual attention and a feeling of threat are part of the common experience of many many women, and that transcends race and class.

I posted very recently that my daughter asked us to get her old bike from the attic while she was visiting, because she can't get from our house to the store a half mile away, in this white uppermiddle class neighborhood that is supposedly the 6th safest city in the country, without getting verbally assaulted. Not - "she got hollered at once." Every single time she has made that walk alone from middle school on up, she cannot do it without getting harassed, because she is female.