A 17 year old girl was attacked twice by the same attacker while waiting for the TTC train. It has been reported that on October 30th and November 12th, the same man believed to be in his late 40s early 50s attacked the same victim around 7am on the Bloor-Danforth line.
Not only did this victim have to suffer through one assault, but a second one by the same perpetrator. I think we can all agree that one incident is traumatizing enough.
We all know that young students are amongst the numerous TTC patrons daily. We see high school students commuting to and from home, school, work and various places and depend on public transportation.
It is sad that we have to call for higher security measures because of such a predator, but perhaps to keep marginalized individuals safe, it is necessary for the TTC to increase security. It is also necessary for us as the public to step out of the belief in a just world and start believing that the dark alley way after midnight isn't the only dangerous place that we should avoid.
This may be unrelated, but another incident occurred a week after the second incident mentioned above. On November 19th, a woman was assaulted and robbed at a Forest Hill pizza shop. Although the TTC incidents resulted in no image of the attacker, this particular case was able to expose an image from cameras in side the shop. The woman was trapped in a stall, sexually assaulted, robbed and threatened by the attacker.
Many of you may believe that these incidents have nothing to do with power and gender. But as underreported as it is, sexual assaults where men are the perpetrators and women are the victims are far too familiar. These are reasons why women don't take jokes about rape and assault lightly. These are the reasons why men who do not parttake in such henous crimes are forced into such categories regardless of their belief that assaulting a woman is wrong.
Do we as women keep our guards up and assume that any man is capable of being a potential attacker? Do we have a choice in assuming otherwise? It is men like these attackers that actually give the good men are difficult time in earning the trust of a woman they just met. Yet, do we as women have the courage to assume at the initial meeting that a man has good intentions when all we hear are stories of sexual assault and domestic violence?
The idea that victimization of sexual assault occurs with a known assailant is even worse. So who can we really trust? You can't even go for a pizza without the threat of being sexually assaulted and robbed. So where do we go from here?
Thanks for your insight WTG. As a young women, I am sick and tired of hearing about these assaults. Last week two women were sexually assaulted in a violent home invasion and a teen was sexually assaulted in the Broadview and Danforth area. Where do we go from here? Should I start 'packing' when traveling at night or early in the a.m. I'm tired of men who take it upon themselves to instruct me not to walk alone or at night. That is my right and I can't have an escort 24/7.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear to me that the gender/power social constructs, which enable men to maintain a large degree of social dominance over women need to be re-evaluated. Let's start by putting these perps under the microscope and scrutinize their character. Perhaps we can take it a step further and begin to dispel the rape myths that imply rape is caused by women and not sick f'kd up men. Let's take the power away from these men and stop tolerating their sickness in society. It's not 'o.k' to follow a woman into a public washroom. Hopefully this will take the focus off of the victims and help us gain insight into how these creeps have arrived at this point of sexualized violence.