the one hand vs. the other hand

[whynot]

The following might also be an interesting topic for my anthro final paper. (Oh god, I gotta choose a topic and send an outline to my prof before the week is out.)

The Sociological Images blog recently posted about the relativity of feminist liberation that touches on some of the problems with how feminism is discussed and articulated. The post is specifically about women-only taxi services that have begun popping up in Dubai, Mexico, Moscow, and, weirdly, the UK. In Manila, the MRT (our El/subway) has a women-only train car. I heard (...but can't find online confirmation) that it was women passengers themselves who requested this service because they kept getting groped on the train, especially during rush hour.

On the one hand, the pro-womanness of such a service is superficial. It's still demeaning, and it reinforces gender binaries and perpetuates an unjust system. Well, yes, ideally we would be living in a world where you don't need a women-only taxi service, but on the other hand I'm hesitant to sacrifice the security of these women for the sake of ideology. Just like you can't juxtapose one country's democracy wholesale on another country's, you can't juxtapose one country's feminism wholesale either. It has to grow organically from within (and also a little bit without). But to go back to the one hand, is more segregation really the way to promote this?

The problem with these services is that they're end-of-the-pipe solutions. They treat the symptoms of misogyny instead of the causes. They send a message to the men that they can continue to act like misogynists because we can always remove ourselves from the situation and it's our fault if we don't. But on the OTHER hand, sometimes when people talk about bringing some good ol' women's lib from countries where it's more commonplace to countries where it's less commonplace, it reminds me of the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality of economic conservatism: "You don't need special treatment, you just need to be strong!" That's all well and good, but the bootstraps of women in, say, the USA are already pretty high up compared to the bootstraps of women in the Philippines. And these boots, they smell like White Woman's Burden. Equality among women != sameness among women.

I think women should be wary of insisting on solidarity based on what we are not i.e. men. We're not just not-men. However, sometimes the rhetoric of being not-men overpowers the diversity of women's situations around the world, reducing women in quote unquote less liberated countries to the subaltern of the subaltern. And yeah, that's one of the flaws of the women-only taxi service, in that it is totally based on being not-men. If the way women protect themselves in other countries is disagreeable to us, should we take their protection away because it's bad for their feminist agenda? For WHOSE feminist agenda? Can you use 'unfeminist' means like these taxis to further feminism? Or is that too much like fighting for peace and fucking for virginity?

And, I dunno, what if the woman trying to hail a women-only taxi is escorting her ailing grandfather or something?

The Huffington Post offers a stronger stance on why these women-only taxis are questionable indeed. Interestingly, the HuffPost article was written by a man, whereas the Sociological Images post was written by a woman. I have my reservations about these taxis, but I also have my reservations about dismissing the idea outright. At the very least, it provides a safe space. It reminds me of - and I wish I have the link - how some people were trying to make an organization/support group for Hispanic gays, and a non-Hispanic gay was like, "But what for? We're ALL gay!" But what he was really saying is "We're ALL not straight", which isn't the same thing.

Comments

[lazaefair.livejournal.com]

From the HuffPost piece: But it seems to me that the way to eliminate taxi harassment is to increase penalties for lecherous drivers, install cameras or tape recorders to provide evidentiary documentation, and to encourage women to file complaints and grievances that would lead to harsher penalties for the drivers - loss of license, suspension, and the like. Hiring more women as "regular" taxi drivers wouldn't hurt either.

That seems to be missing often on discussions like these on whether women-only things are sexist or not. Sure, maybe they do reinforce gender binary and whatnot - but sometimes in severe situations, women need a safespace. In the meantime, now that we've got a safespace, instead of worrying that it's a bad thing, let's start focusing on what we can do to eliminate the need for a safespace in the first place. Like, let the pink taxis carry on (if there's a niche, the market will fill it) and instead of feeling insulted by them, why not focus on education campaigns towards men to lessen the need for that particular niche?

[animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com]

Word, I agree 100%. Women are obviously getting some use out of them so I say that's good. Obviously it's not the ideal situation, but if this gives women more energy so they can deal with the ideal situation? That would be good. And in the meantime we can work on measures to make sure that sexual harassment/assault is less acceptable/easier to prosecute.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

Yes! 'End-of-the-pipe solutions' is probably not the best way to think about it. These are intermediary, um, springboards?!

[tariq-kamal.livejournal.com]

IAWTC.

In situations like in Dubai, you need a stopgap, short-term solution. But that can't be the end of the solution -- you need to address the long-term issue.

The problem with education and cultural change is that they both take time for any effects to appear. Safe spaces give you that time.

[ladyjanelly.livejournal.com]

I was actually going to comment on the Sociological Images article in my own journal, but couldn't make my thoughts coherent enough without going into some long story, but I think you've found the point of it in "on the other hand I'm hesitant to sacrifice the security of these women for the sake of ideology"

I think two years ago, I'd have thought the women's taxis are a sort of demeaning concept. Now, after watching my god-daughter's issues of finding a safe and dependable way to get to work at 3am and dealing with several male taxi drivers, I really wish we had girl-taxis in Dallas.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when people end up too hung up on the ideology, you end up biting the hand that feeds, y'know? Women have pride about not being treated differently, but that is not the answer to everything. The way to overcome adversity is not to act like adversity doesn't exist or affect anyone.

[dhobikikutti]

Much like the ladies seats and ladies compartments on Indian busses and trains, I think gender segregation is a practical solution to a long standing problem when it is demanded by the oppressed group themselves, but it is obviously not the solution to the core problem, which requires massive education and re-brainwashing and dismantling of the patriarchy.

Also, I would love it if you could either cross-post or link this to intranationalities because its something relevant to our interests!

(HP/Leverage snippet eaten by harddrive! Will return once computer gets restored!)

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

I saw the invitation for that! I have joined it. I'm considering moving to DW permanently. Would you say there's a lot of action going on over at DW that LJ-ers aren't privy to?

Alas our computer problems! Good luck with yours.

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

coming over form internationalities: I would say yes. Some people crosspost, but not all. Personally I post some content to both journals, but there is a wide divergence between the two. SO come on over!


I really like your breakdown of the issue. I saw both articles, and you have articulated a lot of the thoughts I had about them.

[hivesofactivity.livejournal.com]

There's other women-only cab services in the UK - the one I know of is Ladycabs in North London, which has nearly all women drivers ("nearly" because the boss's husband is also a driver - but you can specify you don't want him!), but which will take both men and women, and, crucially, unsupervised children. I agree with the comments above - they aren't a solution to the core problem, but they are useful in the interim. (And here I go, being all optimistic, using words like 'interim'...)

There's also a, hrrrm, very difficult ad poster campaign all over London at the moment, by Cabwise, the government cab licencing authority, warning women not to take unlicenced cabs. Basically it's panicky text and a close up of a woman's face as she's being attacked (if anyone googles it, use caution as it could well be triggery, and there's a Cabwise video ad from a couple of years ago, which also comes up on google, which is nigh-unwatchable for the same reasons). I can see what it's trying to do, but it's very much a "don't do this or you might be raped" ad, placing the onus on women to avoid particular situatuons, when I've yet to see a Cabwise "guys - don't rape women" ad.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

Is North London a particularly shady area? Who are the people who started this service up?

I've yet to see a Cabwise "guys - don't rape women" ad.
Yeah, that's the thing. A lot of the education campaigns are aimed at woman with a 'grab your agency!' message, but what about the education campaign targeting men?

[hivesofactivity.livejournal.com]

There are bits of North London that do have fairly high levels of crime - but there's areas like that all over London, often just a street away from much posher, lower-crime bits. Unlicenced taxis are a real problem, with drunk or high people - including many lone women - falling into random, unchecked strangers' cars in the middle of the night when they come out of clubs. When I lived in a shared house in Brixton in South London about 12 years ago, one of the other people there worked illegally as an unlicenced taxi driver. The particular problem with him wasn't that he was setting out to attack women, he just wanted to earn a few quid. But he was a crack addict, who had lost his driving licence due to drunk driving, and his car was untaxed, un-MOT'd and had no insurance, so was horribly unsafe for a bunch of other reasons - and yet there he was in his car outside the clubs every weekend, neatly illustrating how easy it was for totally unsuitable people to get regular taxi work.

[allothi.livejournal.com]

I have big problems with the labelling of this kind of women-only service as sexist -- because they tend to address/respond to real problems in a way that hand-wringing over ideological implications fairly obviously doesn't. Serious cultural change takes a fucking long time and I don't think it's actively hindered by more extempore 'placeholder' solutions, so long as they're acknowledged as such. Whereas it might be by a kind of ideological rejection of those solutions which often draws the focus away from or implicitly diminishes the serious problems that were the starting point and that damn well need those patched-together, tacking-stitched, imperfect, real-world solutions.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

You hit many nails on the head. Mitigation is as necessary as changing the system, and valuable because the latter is such a bitch to deal with.

[glass-icarus.livejournal.com]

SO much this. *nods*

(Here via intranationalities, btw, and thank you for the links/discussion.)

Here via intranationalities

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

Britain has had woman-driven taxis marketed towards women for years. It's not unrelated to the fact that rapes by unlicensed minicab drivers have also been a known problem for years.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

(via intranationalities)

I can't deny the very real benefits women reap from such services - I'm referring specifically to women-only seats on Indian buses and trains, because that's all I can claim have experienced firsthand - but what you said is absolutely true. Very often, in fact, these so-called 'women friendly services' are just a means of not addressing the larger issues (which, if raised, bring about bewildered 'but we gave you the damn seats, what *else* do you women want?' responses).