‘We live in the toughest places to be a girl in the UK right now – we’re terrified to even get on the bus’

23 comments

1. This is so fucking sad. I can’t imagine being scared to just go out or get public transport by myself. I’ve been in situations where I’ve had to call creeps out on public transport. Too much scum out there

2. Lots to unpack there, sad that young girls feel like this in Britain today. The rise of online misogynists like Tate is definitely a factor.

3. [removed]

4. Can’t wait for the usual flood of comments explaining how these young girls wouldn’t feel so unsafe if it weren’t for all the bloody migrants in a city that is one of the most heavily White-British parts of the country. Or maybe that lot are all too hungover after their spot of ultra-violence last night?

5. Poverty and aimlessness among men is the root cause here, but of course, no mention of it whatsoever.

6. I feel heavily unsafe leaving my house, every week i have managed to leave a man has attempted to follow me until i gave him some sort of contact information. It’s getting really bad and they are too entitled now. I had a man flash his knife at his waistband at wembley park for not wanting to give him my snapchat.

7. Did you know the same media group that publishes the daily mail also publishes the metro.

8. The exponential decay of this country and the dark reasons behind it will be studied by people in years to come.

9. Ngl even me as a guy sometimes feel unsafe to go anywhere in stoke. Road man everywhere wearing masks yelling at you on bikes, shit scary

10. Metro has to be the lowest quality publication and this Reddit loves it… bizzare.

    So to sum up, they don’t get the bus alone and they just don’t feel safe. Neither of these issues are exclusive to girls.

    They mention that they don’t feel like they are treated as intelligently as males, which is just false. To suggests schools are misogynist is just objectively false. Females have been far outperforming males in school results for years now proving this is false.

    The way you feel and the way things actually are, aren’t always the same.

11. This is a great article and I really think it highlights how we need to change how we educate and socialise young boys to the benefit of everyone. The behaviour of the school boys in the example was common enough sight growing up but the fact that it wasn’t all just shows too many have just been failed to be raised properly and it’s not some bullshit “boys will be boys” that people think is nature to them.

    The article covers a lot but when it comes to gender issues you can’t just advocate for one side imo, bringing up education and body image is great but when boys have worse education outcomes outside of STEM and are equally bombarded with body expectations on social media it’s a bit weird. Same with mental health when you factor the horrid suicide rate differences. It seems slightly tone deaf to advocate one way when the other gender is worse off in some of the examples.

12. Is the issue gender, or age? Solving the problem requires making sure the correct problem is being addressed.

    When I was a teenager it was taken as read that it wasn’t safe to walk, cycle or use public transport. I once got thumped by a drunk on a bus, and when a teacher asked what caused the injury she said it was my own fault for using a bus.

13. When my son was on the school bus (few years ago now) the other kids were egging on a younger boy to bully another younger boy. My son (a couple of years older) sat by him (potential bully) and told him he had a choice. He could also end up as no marks like the baying crowd or he could decide to be better. He stayed with my son and my son got a lot of abuse. I was proud of him though.

14. I’m sorry but I hate the “boys are harassing girls because they’ve got nowhere to go” comment. So if boys had clubs and youth centres they wouldn’t harass girls would they not? It’s ridiculous. They do it because society is sex obsessed and portrays women as objects. Music, porn, social media all push this idea. Social media basically enforces the idea that if you’re not pretty or hot as a woman you’re not worth much. Go to any popular social media run by a woman or girl that doesn’t fit those ideas. Constant abuse in the comments mostly from boys and men.

    And porn especially is a huge fucking problem. It’s just acceptable now is it that children watch that crap? Because parents seem to all give their kids iPhones at 11 and let them have at it. How many of you parents monitor your childrens phones, take them away at bedtime, put parental controls on them? Yeah exactly. They’re all watching it and it literally astounds me how it’s become acceptable. You don’t think 12/13 year old boys obsessively watching pornhub seeing constant abuse of women and girls doesn’t factor in? I read an article the other week about young boys asking their teacher how to choke a girl during sex. I cannot even imagine being a teen girl these days.

    Lack of activities is bullshit. Look at media influence.

15. People feel unsafe but in reality are they unsafe? With so much 24/7 news coverage that only reports the negative side of society, is the exposure to this making people feel more unsafe than the reality?

16. Fear is subjective. It’s important to separate fear from actual risk. One can be fixed by policy and the other can only be fixed by the individual. 

    Women’s levels of fear seem to be at an all-time high despite them being safer than ever. It might be a matter of resilience as much as crime.

17. It’s hard to take anything about this article seriously when it also includes:

    >Bridie, a 25-year-old young woman in North East Lincolnshire says that although opportunities for girls and young women are improving, it’s not fast enough.

    Does she think it’s 1974?!

    The majority of people doing medicine, law, dentistry, and psychology at university are female.

    She sounds like a brainwashed fool who blames her lack of success on “the patriarchy”.

    Edit: It gets worse.

    >Passionate about feminism and politics, the teenager hopes to one day be a political journalist. As young as 12, Ella and her best friend would make feminist zines from cut-outs of old magazines and leave them in the bathrooms at school

18. I’d be terrified to have a daughter today. Some much peer pressure on young girls to be sexually attractive. Pressure to have a social media presence. But more than anything the pressure young men are exerting on girls every day. Even getting on the bus daily you hear guys was older than some teenage girls shouting some pretty repugnant stuff, and I live in a very liberal bubble. I’d hate to be young today.

19. Blackpool has 2 problems I’m aware of.

    A series of articles in the FT covered this a few years ago – [link](https://www.ft.com/blackpool) – the B&Bs are easily converted into bedsits, you might be clogging up the housing list in a London borough but not be a priority and instead and be offered a bedsit in Blackpool or another seaside town. This has led to a disproportionate number of people in Blackpool with significant problems and at various points recently it’s been the “Heroin death”, “Antidepressant use” or “Benefit dependant” capital of the UK.

    It also has a reputation as the “swingers” or “doggers” capital of the UK [link](https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/welcome-to-lancashire-dogging-capital-of-uk-1163733) which encourages a specific type of person to travel there frequently or even move there and encourages the type of attitudes described in the article.

    Walking down the promenade over the last few years it’s always felt like a town centre an hour before a local football match, with large groups of guys heavily drunk at any time of day.

    I think the more you try to “fix” Blackpools problems the more some people will argue you’re changing Blackpool in to something it’s not.

20. No male role models either at home or at school, and no proper jobs.

21. We need to get back to a police force for a while. I feel we’ve gone too far towards police service and the criminals hve gotten out of control. You should have a deep respect of the police but its hard today when they are more interested in political crimes than keeping our streets safe.

22. This isn’t just an Andrew Tate thing . Misogyny comes from all types of sources. It’s depressing to see that we are going backwards instead of forwards attitudes to women and girls

23. Statistically men should be more afraid than women as they make up a much larger share of assault and homicide victims.