Mexico Lechery-Free Transportation Update
02/16/2008
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I've written before on the new women-only buses in Mexico City: Mexican Men Are Fenced Out… and Mexican Women Are Thrilled.

The Feb 11 piece from the New York Times (On Single-Sex Buses, Relief From Unwanted Contact) is worth your attention in particular for the 3:47-minute video where average Mexican women talk about how unpleasant it is to ride public transportation with lecherous Mexican men.

Transcribed from the video, four women speak...

"It's hard. They don't respect you. It doesn't matter whether you are young, pretty, big, or old. They don't respect you."

Woman at a window seat: "So, if you're sitting like this on this side, men might start putting their, their little instrument on your arm and start rubbing..."

"You don't even have to have short skirts or cleavage or anything. You just hear those comments all the time and it's like a common thing. As a woman you get very bad every day."

"What happens is that women here stay quiet until the few of us who will say something, the men suddenly get scared. So you have to speak. If someone touches you, say something."

Unsurprisingly, the women are very appreciative that the city has actually done something for their benefit.

One man complains that it's women's fault for wearing revealing clothes, but other men readily admit to the extent of the problem. (Again the following quotes are taken from the video, which has far more descriptive speech than the Times' written article.)

"It's good because women here are so harassed. Truly, in this society there is no culture of respect for women."

A shoeshine man says, "We men have an animal instinct that we can't contol. It's bad."

But if appropriate punishment were forthcoming from Mexico City, Mexican men's powers of self-control would likely experience an upsurge. It's worth a try.
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