Reply #9: I think that the problem is not so much increased groping as [View All]

[Lydia Leftcoast]

increased complaints about it.

When I was a student in Japan over 25 years ago, my fellow students, most particularly the Asian ones, complained bitterly about being groped on the subways. However, the women's magazines of the time advised against complaining, saying that it would "cause a scene" and "embarrass the groper." :eyes: I was groped a couple of times, but nearly as much as the Asian women. The difference was that I and other Western women usually took revenge in some form, e.g. by stomping on the guy's foot or grabbing his hand and twisting his wrist suddenly. Word evidently got around.

Around the mid 1980s, I began seeing opinion pieces asking why women should put up with this, but people began talking about it openly in the mass media only a few years ago.

Having ridden those rush hour trains, I can attest to the fact that people are jammed up against one another, but there's a real difference between just being packed against some guy into a crowded, swaying train and having him deliberately running his hands over you.