Why are American women so jumpy and obsess with rape?

Question

i'm originally from the caribbean but i grew up all my life here in America. though i do frequently visit my country once a year for vacation.

anyways i was having a conversation on this on reddit the other day about how i think foreign women have more confidence, self esteem, and class compare to women in america do. you see a lot of the women in my native country love and appreciate being approached, checked out or receiving attention from the opposite sex just as long as they dont abuse it. the majority of them dont even mind making the first move. one day i even went out to go check some video game at a new mall that opened up in town. when i was on my way to the store two girls around the same age as me were walking behind me giggling, then all of the sudden out of the blue one of them dashes forward and grabs my arm and leaned into me and says to me "hi! where you going? can I be your new date for tonight?"

women here in America are the total opposite in the other hand. here it seems like you have to try really hard to convince the women that you approach that you are no threat to them. here it is hard to hit on or flirt with a woman without her freaking out, getting offended or reacting negatively in any way.

but now going the conversation i had in reddit it seem that all the males who responded to my thread responded pretty positive. here is what they've said...

 
and this is what one of the females said...

 
of course there was another one that responded a lot more negative, but unfortunately she was so butthurt that she deleted her answer an hour later. this one like most typical American women called me sexist and uncompassionate for not analyzing that maybe the women i've tried to approach have been rape victims and whatever. i was "c'mon, it can't be possible that all women here have been raped in the past." and this is obvious as the rape stastics in america are extremly low. yet in my native country rape is a lot higher than here along with the crime rate. but not even that stops our women from being humbled and friendly

BlueCoyote · Accepted Answer

Well, I'm from western Europe and so I also have an outsider-perspective. But I've lived in the US for some time and this is my take on it: your question is very interesting because I've thought about similar things many times before. In my opinion, the most important reason for this has to do with the American culture of fear. You are very right when you write that the rape numbers in America are very low (certainly lower than in the Caribbean). Yet, as you said, everyone CONSTANTLY talks about rape in America. You just need to turn on the TV and there's rape here and rape there and rape everywhere. The same goes for pedophiles and terrorism by the way. Americans are OBSESSED with these topics. If I didn't know better, a typical American news show like it is broadcasted on a normal weekday could easily make me believe that America is a post-apocalyptic society where everyone kills and rapes and screws each other over and you have to walk around with a machine gun in order to protect yourself from all the evil psychos. Obviously, this is not the case. When I lived in America, I lived in a low-income area. There was trailer park right across the street and many of the kids in my high school came from very poor families. Yet, I met tons of nice people and I can't remember having been confronted with any kind of hatred or violence or other kinds of threats. The city I lived in was a little run-down but people were still nice to each other.
Now, of course there are criminals in America (like in every country). And it is also true that my home country Switzerland is safer than America). But America is MUCH safer than most Americans believe it is. The whole pedophile-scare is another could example for this. In many countries (especially in Asia or Africa), children just run up to strangers and ask them questions (especially if you're a foreigner). In America, you can't even say "hi" to a kid without his/her mom giving you a really pissed look as though she wanted to say "piss off you fucking pedophile". Now, is this because there are so many pedophiles? No, it isn't. It's because Americans live in a culture of fear. This culture of fear has been systematically constructed by the media and (most right-wing) politicians to make people busy. In my country Switzerland, foreigners are to conservative people what pedophiles are to Americans. It's a different social group but the system is exactly the same. Swiss conservatives almost poop in their pants because they're

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

The world is filled with problems to be solved. The human brain is built to search for and solve problems and it's for the most part focused on what affects us and our immediate community. If a person lives in a comfortable situation for majority of their life they'll latch onto the few unpleasant moments or the hypotheticals that they fear the most and these will become their most important issues. Add on the desire for social inclusion and mob mentality and you've got a lot of people ganging together to fight about things that may be entirely false, hypothetical, or unlikely. Many will simply reiterate the ideals of others without ever addressing exactly how relevant or impactful what they're doing might actually be because they think they're being socially conscious and proactive. If you've never had to worry about finding clean water or a dry place to sleep or watched your kids die from lack of access to medicine you can't fully understand how distressing of a situation it is and how mild other social movements are by comparison. No one on earth thinks about maintaining gravity because we've never lived without it. Most Americans don't think about lack of water or energy that much because for the vast majority of their life these things weren't problems. Personally I think we Americans have gotten so accustomed to luxury that we no longer recognize that what we live in, although it isn't perfect, is still luxury. And in addition to that because we've gotten so accustomed to luxury we've grown into a feeling of entitlement for positive well being and any disturbance is considered intolerable including being called out on our entitlement. Just a guess but that's my reasoning.

biracialQT · Accepted Answer

Well I'm sorry for being scared, but believe it or not there really are bad bad men out there and i think in western countries you raise your children to be very cautious and trust nobody because bad people take advantage of naive people and people who trust a lot of people. We hear all these terrible stories of women getting raped and murdered and we hear them constantly!
So basically as a parent you wanna do everything in your power to protect your daughter from having to go through something horrible like rape, because it fucks up your life pretty bad, it can give you ptsd, depression, phobias and of course physical injuries that may result in permanent damage, so not only your parents but also you yourself will do everything you can to avoid being a victim and if that means keeping your distance from strangers then that's a sacrifice most people a very willing to make. We know that not every man will try to hurt us, but if u trust a stranger it might just be THAT stranger who turns out to be a serial killer or rapist. And trust me there are more sick, evil people out there than you think.
So basically the moral of this rant is;
Better safe than sorry!

ekc8295 · Accepted Answer

Media and our culture teaches us to be very cautious about it. Obviously not every woman has been raped, just like not every guy has cheated on their partner. Still, many people have. Despite all the warnings about protecting one's self from rape it is still rather taboo to discuss it openly and many people feel ashamed to admit that it has happened to them. My best friend opened up to me that she was raped. It was very difficult for her to tell me. There's probably more people I know that have been raped but I don't know them well enough for them to open up to me or feel too ashamed to tell anyone.

Minyamo9 · Accepted Answer

Nothing is wrong with American society in this regard. Rape is one of the worst things that could ever happen to you. If you look at statistics, you'd see that 1 in 4 women get assaulted in their lifetime. That's a very high percentage that isn't even taking into account the ones that aren't reported. It's also only rape, not other forms of assault like groping. I can't tell you how many times I've been felt up by strangers. So why don't you stop feeling sorry for yourself that you can't get laid and start feeling a little empathy for the fact that it women are living in constant fear.

GingerBear · Accepted Answer

I get where your coming from, but consider this: Most women in western countries are taught to fear rape, and by extension, fear men, from an early age.
Granted I don't live in America, but Australian culture is pretty similar in this way.
I remember when I started school, at 5. That was the first time I really got taught that I had to be careful of men. It continued all the way through school. A lot of us live by the knowledge that, while not every man can be a rapist, ANY man can be.
It might not be fair on men, but rape isn't fair either.

NearlyNapping · Answer

Because American media makes people paranoid by sensationalizing the heck out of crime. Not just rape but pretty much every crime. Well, not just crime, but it makes people paranoid of carcinogens, carbs, gamma rays, microwaves, blue light, hydrogenated oils, gluten, germs, sharks, pit bulls, fathers who hug daughters, Grand Theft Auto, message, X-rays, cholesterol... and I'm tired of trying to think of things, but I'm sure I could list a bunch more. We have turned into a paranoid, suspicious, uptight society that's afraid of our own shadow.

GirlScout · Answer

Don't know, never been there. They are a little regressive for a western country though.

twobitcoder · Answer

American women are stuck up. It's as simple as that. Not friendly.

Ulyss · Answer

I'm going to spit some ugly truth and nobody is going to like it but it's mostly ugly obese women or women with ugly ass personalities that think guys are going to rape them. I've approached attractive women when they're all alone they've never quickly walked away from me, ignored me and I have not been peppersprayed... yet I hope I don't haha the only way you'll find these women is in feminist rallies or never because most of them are living in their rooms blogging

RandomUsername3464 · Answer

I live in Canada. I specifically avoid women in public for this exact reason. They are paranoid and insane. They look at me when I'm not looking at them quite often, but oh well. I watch out for myself, feminism and Internet hysteria are why people think that a man is destined to rape a woman if given the opportunity. I refuse to go anywhere at night in an isolated/empty area if a woman is around; I will only do that if there is cameras around, to prove my innocence.

evenlift · Answer

American women have been taught to hate and to fear men. There is a similar situation here in the United Kingdom, though far less severe.

jacquesvol · Answer

Look at some American rape stats here:

AngryHorny · Answer

In the UK it's even worse. wOmen here are totally paranoid. Any time you are walking behind a woman they assume you are following them and you're a crazy rapist.

I don't mean to trivialize rape, but all men are tarred with the same brush and that ain't right. Personally I blame the media, they are obsessed with it.

CapitanMurica · Answer

Someone females just have issues, they're fucked in the head op. Stay safe.

Anonymous · Answer

Sorry for being afraid but believe it or not, not every man will welcome a woman in with open arms (And vice versa, because women can rape too believe it or not). There are some genuinely bad people out there, and the media and other outlets tell us to be wary of strangers from an early age. But they approach this in a wrong way. They tell us to fear EVERY man. They tell us that EVERY man has the potential to rape... That isn't right, so I see where you're coming from.

I was sexually assaulted by a stranger before. He grabbed my butt and pushed me into the wall while I was walking home from school. Luckily I escaped though.

Not all men are bad, I know, but we should be wary of strangers. Sexual assault isn't a joke and shouldn't be taken lightly, whether you're a man or woman.

Anonymous · Answer

I'm a U. S. native. Many of the guys I've seen approach girls do it in a creepy or disrespectful way that makes the girl feel uncomfortable. It would be one thing for a guy to just confidently strike up a conversation (at least for me), but staring at me, making a lewd comment, or otherwise approaching me in a really weird or awkward way is going to do nothing but make me feel embarrassed and want to escape the situation asap.

Anonymous · Answer

Because rape is a big deal and women are always blamed for it. Plus respect is important at all times

Why are American women so jumpy and obsess with rape?

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