Where are all the men? A female news anchor wonders why hordes of men didn't rush to defend a woman from harassment on the New York subway.

On May 28, Sky News Australia posted a video titled "New York bearing signs of 'societal decay.'" The video shows a man (who seems as if he is on drugs) entering a train car and sitting next to a young woman. He then touches her without consent, grabs her, drags her around a bit, and generally is an extremely unpleasant nuisance. He eventually leaves her alone and proceeds to try to kick out one of the windows.

During the video, the young woman is seen looking at other passengers, with obvious worry in her eyes, begging somebody to please "help me." Nobody tries to help her. The news anchor, Rita Panahi, asks the question, "Where are the men?"

If I had to guess, they were standing in their place, checking their male privilege, toning down their toxic masculinity, and coping with how their Time's Up. Perhaps the men wanted a demonstration of how women are actually the stronger sex. Perhaps the threat level just did not seem that high to them; New York has a duty to retreat, after all. Besides, New York has been in the habit of arresting those who defend themselves.

Most likely, the men who were on the train did not care about this woman. They did not know her and were not likely to ever get to know her. How could it be worth it for these men to possibly be killed or maimed (it is unknown if the aggressor had a knife) for the sake of someone who may as well not exist to them?

The writer of this article then muses:

Then again, let us give these men the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they probably did want to help this woman. Watching the video, you might notice something about the aggressor. My guess is that none of the men watching wanted to become the next George Zimmerman. We all saw the emotional toll Kyle Rittenhouse suffered for defending himself. (Yes, the media vilified him for having an emotional testimony.)

The anchor refers to the men on the train as cowards, but I think that might be a bit unfair. Quite simply, Western society does not trust people who defend themselves or others. In 2016, a 17-year-old Danish girl was arrested for defending herself with pepper spray from a would-be-rapist. In 2020, a Virginia store clerk was arrested for defending his store from robbers. Even an elderly U.K. pensioner was arrested for "stabbing a burglar to death." It is entirely possible that those men had such cases in mind.

In the armed defense community, there is a common phrase: "better to be judged by twelve than carried by six." In most cases, this is true; it is better to be alive to face trial than to be dead. But is it better to be condemned by society than to let a crime happen to another person? How difficult is it to imagine anyone who may have intervened being decried as racist?

Well written summation.

Golly gee, I wonder where they are. After glorifying pantywaistery and celebrating LGBT for forty years.

“Some day we’ll awake, have a reformation of the heart, teach our kids honor and kill a few sex psychologists, put boys in high schools with men teachers (not cissies), close all the girls’ finishing schools, shoot all the efficiency experts and become a nation of God’s people once more.” - Harry Truman

Excellent post. Punishing people who defend themselves certainly is a major disincentive to intervene in the defense of strangers.

I would add that feminism told men the last 60 years straight that their assistance is neither needed nor appreciated. A woman doesn't need a man to open doors, help her on with her coat, be polite, throttle back the rough language in her presence, etc.

I was a student at UW Madison forty years ago and was told all of this in no uncertain terms, placing me in some very awkward social situations. I had to quickly unlearn everything my mother taught me, including that men had, collectively, a duty to protect women a la Kitty Genovese.

That's over now in our society. It's been over for decades.

"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." No Western woman, especially American women, will be heard to complain about this now.

Suck it up, ladies. You asked for it - you got it!

Why back in my day..... You kicked a criminal in the ass, you got lauded by witnesses and protected by the police. Nowadays... you get charged by the police and sued by the criminal. /oldmanspeak

The modern Western female believes that she doesn't need a man in her life. Yet, when her latest bad boy toy becomes unmanageable, she promptly calls the police, who are normally male, to solve her problem. Most of these alpha male cops feel threatened if another male can actually help a woman. So, they find ways of charging such people with something to show them that they aren't special. Here, someone wonders why the other males aren't helping a woman in distress. People live and learn how their society actually works. It has many similarities to watching a documentary about apes in a jungle.

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