Adventurous. Alone. Attacked.

[88m3]

Adventurous. Alone. Attacked.
The number of female solo travelers has skyrocketed, but amid Instagram-worthy escapades are tales of violence and death, raising questions about how the world is greeting women who travel alone.

Adventurous. Alone. Attacked.

 

[Meta Reign]

Westerners in general tend to embrace this idea of "cultural relativity" where there are no "bad" cultures or customs in the world, just "misunderstood" ones.

The bad part is when Becky decides to go biking through Iraq in a tanktop and ends up raped and murdered, political correctness doesn't even allow us to say how bad of an idea that is.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

the headline was enough for me to stop...how about people stop being idiots and acting entitled to a world detached from reality. in the same way i'm not escapading thru the nazi and skinhead hotbeds across eastern europe and russia, women traveling alone need to stop running thru cities/countries that have reps for not being the safest for women, let alone for women on their own. how hard is it to pay up for a group tour or do some research ahead of time for a verified local host, or even find someone to pair up with at the hostel/hotel you're staying at?

 

[MrRDU]

Common sense aint so common But if these women want to be Dora the Explorer, accept them risks & dont panic

 

[re'up]

I read this last month, there is really nothing to suggest that these women are being reckless or irresponsible, but I am sure many will draw that conclusion from this.

 

[Creflo ½ Dollar]

The facts are that solo women are easy targets(not trying to be offensive) and the world full of scumbags. Be safe out here because the world won’t spare you..

Sad but true.

 

[mastermind]

Westerners in general tend to embrace this idea of "cultural relativity" where there are no "bad" cultures or customs in the world, just "misunderstood" ones.

The bad part is when Becky decides to go biking through Iraq in a tanktop and ends up raped and murdered, political correctness doesn't even allow us to say how bad of an idea that is.

Do you have an example when this happened?

I read this last month, there is really nothing to suggest that these women are being reckless or irresponsible, but I am sure many will draw that conclusion from this.

People don’t read articles and don’t care for their worldview to be challenged.

 

[BoBurnz]

Do you have an example when this happened?


People don’t read articles and don’t care for their worldview to be challenged.

Quite literally the second paragraph describes how a woman got a place right next to the airport in a gated area with a security guard and was still attacked. This notion that "all of humanity is bad and evil and stupid" is why we're left without empathy for these situations occurring so often. Because we've numbed ourselves to just accepting that this is the way it is when it most certainly is not and does not have to be. Look at the progress we've made in women's rights and freedoms even just here in America to know that the world can, and should, get better for women despite the fact that we here even still have a long way to go.

Blaming the women choosing to travel because they shouldn't have to fear death for the action is the same as blaming a woman for going out alone at night and being attacked. At a point we blame the actions that have created the factors that allow these things to happen, not the victims.

 

[acri1]

Westerners in general tend to embrace this idea of "cultural relativity" where there are no "bad" cultures or customs in the world, just "misunderstood" ones.

The bad part is when Becky decides to go biking through Iraq in a tanktop and ends up raped and murdered, political correctness doesn't even allow us to say how bad of an idea that is.

You sound exactly like a racist white dude talking about black culture.

 

[re'up]

I can only imagine the bile directed at women if this was posted in TLR.

 

[Meta Reign]

You sound exactly like a racist white dude talking about black culture.

It's true though. Certain things you literally can't do in Saudi Arabia that you can do here. Simple shyt that will literally get you killed. It's a literal fact that some cultures are "bad" and some are "better". Forced female circumcision in some countries is okay. You can marry a 10yr old in others. . . These are disgusting practices. Let's just say it.

 

[Meta Reign]

Common sense aint so common But if these women want to be Dora the Explorer, accept them risks & dont panic

It's not just women though. This article purposely misses that point in my opinion because the mysogny angle sounds nice. Some cultures are literally just fukked up.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

I read this last month, there is really nothing to suggest that these women are being reckless or irresponsible, but I am sure many will draw that conclusion from this.

if you're in risky countries/areas - don't travel alone


if you went out your way to be in a safe area/country - then you were simply unfortunate enough to be a victim of wrong place/wrong moment, this shouldn't be rolled into an "adventurous traveling alone and attacked" narrative. if i'm mugged in beverly hills, i don't expect it to be reported as women increasingly attacked while walking alone, it's a one off crime where unfortunately, i was the victim

places of the crimes mentioned in the article:
High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
Costa rica
Thailand
Aukland, NZ

Aukland - does this deserve to be mentioned as a traveling alone narrative or simply an unfortunate crime?

The other 3 areas have varied reps depending on what area you're in, not victim blaming, but the reality is those countries do have various risks, even in tourist or "safe" areas. Why not just be safe and take extra precaution?

Overall, there are people who do throw sense out the window for an adventure (the couple who got killed biking thru one of those middle eastern/central asian countries, the missionary who decided to break the law and try to roll up on the uncontacted tribe off the coast of india), some places you have to be more vigilant as a woman, even if they are generally deemed safe. And for the media, there needs to be nuance between crimes that actually are connected to the status of woman traveling alone (white woman sticking out like a sore thumb in pakistan) vs. general crime (me being shot on the block i live on).

 

[Dr. Acula]

delete

 

[re'up]

if you're in risky countries/areas - don't travel alone


if you went out your way to be in a safe area/country - then you were simply unfortunate enough to be a victim of wrong place/wrong moment, this shouldn't be rolled into an "adventurous traveling alone and attacked" narrative. if i'm mugged in beverly hills, i don't expect it to be reported as women increasingly attacked while walking alone, it's a one off crime where unfortunately, i was the victim

places of the crimes mentioned in the article:
High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
Costa rica
Thailand
Aukland, NZ

Aukland - does this deserve to be mentioned as a traveling alone narrative or simply an unfortunate crime?

The other 3 areas have varied reps depending on what area you're in, not victim blaming, but the reality is those countries do have various risks, even in tourist or "safe" areas. Why not just be safe and take extra precaution?

Overall, there are people who do throw sense out the window for an adventure (the couple who got killed biking thru one of those middle eastern/central asian countries, the missionary who decided to break the law and try to roll up on the uncontacted tribe off the coast of india), some places you have to be more vigilant as a woman, even if they are generally deemed safe. And for the media, there needs to be nuance between crimes that actually are connected to the status of woman traveling alone (white woman sticking out like a sore thumb in pakistan) vs. general crime (me being shot on the block i live on).

Women are at (high) risk for attack all over the world, there was no instance in this article where what they did was egregiously putting themselves in harms way, or throwing all caution to the wind. None of those places are inherent to violence, that Costa Rican attack could, and has taken place, all over the world. The two in Morocco were not traveling alone. None of these rise to even a quarter of that missionary story. It is an interesting, sad, and hopeful story, I just do not take from it that women shouldn't travel alone, or that there is an inherent, avoidable risk in what happened to these women, besides living their lives. If they decided to drive through Tamaluipas Mexico at night, through areas that are essentially feudal states, I would say they were being negligent, needlessly reckless, or (perhaps desperate) in their conduct. I don't see that here.