Bus Experience 2

First of all, I consider the Jerusalem bus system functional, but slightly inconvenient. For a New Yorker who has heavily criticizes both Boston and DC's transit systems, that is a high compliment.

Second of all, last night, I had the following exchange at a bus stop:

מישהו בתחנת האוטובוס: מה יש פה בארץ? אני: הם דתיים. בשבילם זה מקום קדוש. איש: אבל את לא דתייה, נכון? אני: חצי-חצי. איש: איזה בסה

By the time the bus dropped me off, it was 11:30. I did not have my cellphone. I wound up walking for five minutes along a major road with no houses or stores, and despite the low crime rate, as a woman, I was afraid. I thought about how different it is to walk at 11:30 at night in a dark empty place as a man verse as a woman - because a woman always has that unnamed fear.

Part of that is statistical: Women are at higher risk. But part of that is, as a friend pointed out, because society teaches women to be afraid of rape, it teaches women to be afraid of the power of a phallus to ruin their lives, instead of actually trying to change the rape culture we are all a part of. (I guess my feminism is showing.)

Another friend introduced me to this cool website: http://israel.ihollaback.org/
which has an English equivalent: http://www.ihollaback.org/