Where's That Masculinity When You Need It?

A UK feminist who was sexually assaulted on a train is very angry -- not at her attacker, but at two men who didn't step up to help her out.
Cincik told The Daily Mail she her attacker was not to blame, but two “white middle class” men instead who allegedly failed to help her during the assault.

The fashion chief executive was attacked by a tall Muslim on a busy Underground train, but blamed two British men who moved to other seats and left her alone to defend herself....

“He was about six foot [2 metres] and around 30 to 35-years-old and he started just screaming. He was screaming and shouting at me and saying things like ‘I am going to f****** kick you’ then he did actually kick me.”

She said she did not blame the migrant but “remained more angry with those white middle class men who left me to it. As fathers, husbands and sons they should be ashamed of themselves”.

She accused them of being “cowards”.
Oh, so it's 'fathers, husbands and sons' who should be shamed as 'cowards' when they don't step up? Well, that's the sort of thing I might say. My philosophical apparatus would support that approach.

Of course, I might also have something to say about a culture that led to assaults like this -- and to a culture that unmanned itself in the face of such assaults. You have to take the bad with the good, ma'am.

12 comments:

Tom said...

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;

Douglas2 said...

The game-of-telephone style of churning articles and subtly twisting them at each step has led you astray. As reported to the police and by the MailOnline in original reporting it was a verbal and physical assault, but not a sexual assault. The perp was described to reporters as "of Southeast Asian descent" but becomes a Muslim "migrant" in the rehash.

I assure you that "of Southeast Asian Descent" is not a euphamism for Muslim in the British press:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:British_people_of_Southeast_Asian_descent

We lose the observations (albeit secondhand) that many had already twigged the perpetrator to be having psychological issues, but get the (still secondhand) observation from the victim that certain males were aware of the whole circumstance and did nothing to intervene.

I've been on that train, I've entered from that station, I've seen similar altercations. We have no way of knowing whether the ones she want to shame were really there to see the whole thing or not, or observant enough to notice if they were. If one is looking around one might make eye contact, and this is England after all.

If I thought it was a domestic dispute, I would have done the same action as those being shamed, to move my self away and then contact authorities. I would not have pulled the emergency cord because that forces a stop of the train in the tunnel not at a station, which is far from helpful.

I'm actually quite offended that the victim feels we are just supposed to know that she, a fashion designer, would not be the partner of someone with southeast asian descent.

Sam L. said...

Ya keep telling men you don't like them and don't want them, and then complain they aren't helpful when you really need them? BUM-MER!!
Made your bed, go lie in it.

Grim said...

I'm willing to accept that we can't really trust any articles -- the journalists are themselves twisters of fact, as Mr. Hines often reminds me, and those who comment on journalism only take us further away.

That said, if you get to 'husbands, sons, and fathers should be ashamed for not stepping up to protect a woman,' you're making an argument for a sort of patriarchy. "My fellow citizens" would not have the same force, nor would blame shared equally among other women on the train.

But of course, it's not quite the same thing asking a couple of guys to step in, or asking a couple of women to do so. We all know that, and so does she.

Tom said...

Southeast Asian includes things like Indonesian and Pakistani, so it could be referring to Muslims, but it's not clear. How would you know?

However, there does seem to be a habit in the British press of underplaying crimes by Muslims, e.g., the Rotherham crimes were initially reported as perpetrated by "Asians" who turned out to be Pakistanis.

See https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28939089

So, it's not too outrageous to assume here too a euphemism is being used. Again, though, how would you know just by looking?

E Hines said...

It may be, too, that the two men were being perfectly gentlemanly, giving the lady what she's been asking--even demanding--for so long: to stay away from her, to leave her alone, to accept that she doesn't need any men.

On the other hand, it just isn't that hard, physically anyway, to be completely rude and intervene. Domestic squabble? Interrupt it, at least, and force them to take their argument somewhere else. While advising the police at the next stop. The worst that could happen there would be the police arresting the Brit woman for interfering with an immigrant's [see below] speech, but even then, she'd be separated from the other.

Again, domestic squabble? It seems odd to me that a husband and wife would board the train from different stops as the original article indicates.

Migrant (as the "repeating" piece at the link calls him): couple things about that. One is the Brit piece's use of the term "migrant" vs "immigrant." There's a world of difference between the two. The larger thing is the blithe assumption by the "repeater" that the assailant necessarily wasn't "from around here." Again, the original article only quoted the woman as saying her assailant was of a particular "descent." There was no indication that he was a migrant or an immigrant.

Eric Hines

Tom said...

So, why doesn't she blame the assailant? Because he couldn't know any better? Isn't that racist?

E Hines said...

So, why doesn't she blame the assailant? Because he couldn't know any better? Isn't that racist?

Bullseye.

Eric Hines

Texan99 said...

You really have to watch that word "feminist." In the past it might have meant someone who calls for treating women as responsible human beings. Lately it's more likely to mean someone who's angry because men aren't nice enough to her, don't support her fully enough, don't feel guilty enough about bad treatment women have received in the past: in short, men who owe her something.

E Hines said...

Lately it's more likely to mean someone who's angry because...men who owe her something.

In fine because women can't function without special treatment.

Eric Hines

Assistant Village Idiot said...

I agree that feminist, like gentleman, Christian, patriot, or tolerant has taken on meanings that are not only different from, but even antagonistic to, meanings it had 10, 20, or 50 years ago.

douglas said...

"perpetrated by "Asians" who turned out to be Pakistanis."
Pretty sure in the UK, "Asian" generally means South Central Asian, and they use "East Asian" or "South East Asian" for what we would generalize as "Asian" or formerly, Oriental.