I can’t make heads or tales of the story (or perhaps the writer sucks). While she clearly isn’t at fault for the guy’s disgusting behavior, I’m not sure what exactly happened and how she feels it’s fair to blame United for not doing more.
It sounds like, from the woman’s own account, that United didn’t know what was happening until late in the flight…at which point they took appropriate steps.
You can’t just sit there quietly shaking and having a panic attack and then cry foul about no-one doing anything.
Good grief.
That isn’t why she is crying foul. After United was notified; the flight crew, and the gate agent decided against calling the cops.
Which given how airlines treat non-criminals is sort of insane.
There is something seriously wrong with guys who do this sort of thing. Also, wth United, you get cops for people who talk too loud but not this? It’s been a handful of months so obviously United knew they were due.
Her boyfriend was sitting/sleeping next to her for crying out loud. They both chose to do nothing. Saying that she’s afraid with a planeload of passengers and flight attendants that are all right there? AND HER boyfriend?
Speak up, shame him, call attention to him. Don’t sit there and stew and fret. It’s just passive aggressive bullshit.
Really, the out-lash shouldn’t surprise me. You’re all keyboard warriors.
You should try blaming the man sometimes. It’s okay. No really, try it. You can actually point at the aggressor and stop faulting everyone else for their sick behavior.
That guy is a total jerk. Hope he gets the help he needs.
Also hope I’m never on a plane where that woman is the one sitting at the emergency exit door.
I believe that he’s saying the man should be blamed, while pointing out that the correct response in such a situation is to publicly shame the guy doing such a thing.
I’d like to believe that, but I don’t see him actually saying it anywhere at all. Both posts criticize the woman, and neither one criticizes the man. Thus the reactions.
Again, i’m going to start harping on that double standard thing that we need but don’t have (or assume we have but don’t say). Many women just can’t deal with situations like this but we’re not at a place to accept a general answer as to why.
I’m getting to the point where i literally think we should advise all men to act around like 19th C. English gentlemen around women yet not actually say they’re doing so, because I’m pretty sure everyone would be happier. A 19th C. gentleman isn’t going to ask why a woman isn’t doing more to stop a weirdo perv masturbating next to her, he’s going to drive him from the manor with his riding crop and then make sure she’s ok (and then get really upset with the carriage staff for letting it happen). And frankly we shouldn’t either.
I don’t think anyone should blame the victim (whether they’re male or female) for the assault/violation/attack occuring. But being a victim isn’t an impenetrable shield against criticism for all things relating to the attack. In particular, here, I don’t think you can categorically say United was at fault, here, or that the victim’s reaction with respect to United is fair.
Who knows what facts the United crew had at the time they made the decision not to call the police. We can read the article now and, from the security of our keyboards, have the victim’s full accounting of what went down. But, I highly assume that she wasn’t all that coherent, in the moment, given how she reports her own reactions to the incident.
Yet, despite her own difficulties to reacting in this crisis situation, she fully expected the crew to react brilliantly with what is almost certainly confusing information, at the last minute.
It’s easy to expect perfect reactions from “United” the giant corporation. But ultimately, it’s a one or two individuals who make up “United” as far as this particular incident goes. What information did those one or two people have? When did they know it? Blaming the faceless corporation doesn’t mean that there aren’t consequences to individuals. Maybe those one or two individuals are made to pay a price in some way because of this. Is that necessarily fair?
I don’t think there are enough facts here to lay blame at the feet of United.
Personally, I can’t believe they didn’t call the cops, since they call the cops if you even argue with them. But that aside, if someone reads this story and their very first reaction is to ask why the victim didn’t do something different than what they did, that someone has a problem.
I think that a thing to consider is that women are MORE than simply victims. They are humans. They are adults. They have agency.
It is their responsibility as much as anyone’s to call or some pervert in a plane. Same goes for the guy with her.
Women are not delicate flowers.
There’s zero evidence that this woman’s story is true, so why is it sexist to ask why she or her boyfriend did nothing while this happened “for hours”? If it were a man I’d ask the same thing.
Why would United detain someone with no evidence? Why would the police?
I can’t believe someone is making me defend United Airlines, which sucks. You are not entitled to a huge payoff every time you allege someone has wronged you, especially if you have zero evidence and did nothing to stop something that was going on for hours.
PS - in a world where everyone has a smart phone and pull out their cameras for no reason what-so-ever, we’re supposed to believe that nobody near this guy caught him on camera masturbating for hours sitting in an aisle seat on an airplane.
Nobody else complained. Seemingly nobody else saw it happening.
This story is bullshit, IMO.
Yeah, what was she thinking wearing that short skirt, I mean he’s bad but look at all the things she shouldn’t be doing, boy doesn’t that sound famliar … or you know just blame the gross guy who masturbated on the plane is another option.
Again, there is zero evidence that this actually happened, in a world where that evidence should be proliferate. I do not believe that this woman was the only person on a plane to notice the guy in the aisle seat jerking off for hours.
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/raising-awareness-about-sexual-assault-aboard-aircraft-042618
The woman instinctively said, “No!” and pushed the man’s hand away, but he came at her two more times before she was able to remove her seatbelt and get away, even as her attacker used the full weight of his body trying to detain her. As the assault was happening, she recalled, “it didn’t make sense to me. It was all so disorienting and confusing.”
Investigators point out that offenders take advantage of the fact that some victims might not report an incident because they are embarrassed, don’t want to cause a scene, or try to convince themselves the assault was accidental.
Menzo is here to say to you other guys that when it comes to blaming the victim, you’re all pikers. Don’t mess around with questions and rationalizations. Get right to the point by calling her a liar.