General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A bit about "potential rapists". [View all]A Little Weird
(1,754 posts)Even though it's not accurate, women are taught (explicitly by parents, indirectly through news, tv, etc) to avoid strange men. We get an unrealistic perception of the threat of stranger rape. So we learn to keep up our guard against men we don't know, especially in circumstances where we are at a particular disadvantage (alone, dark street, etc). Similar unbalanced media reporting has led parents to have an unrealistic impression of stranger danger - leading them to keep their kids on a short leash and not range very far from home to play and socialize like they could in previous generations.
Even knowing that women are more likely to be raped by someone they know, I am more on guard when I find myself alone with a man I don't know. I think it is just instinctive. I wonder if a man who found himself in a dark alley with a guy nearly twice his size would feel threatened?