Why should women have to put up with this in their locker rooms etc.
A transgender woman who masturbated in front of shocked staff at a hospital has been locked up.
Former soldier Paula Stanton, aged 62, of Severn Avenue, Barry committed the sex act at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. The Falklands War veteran had been taken there by ambulance for a mental health assessment over concerns over a threat to self-harm.
Lewis Ball, prosecuting, said: “The defendant put her hands down her leggings to the groin area. Staff could see that she had her penis in her hand and that her hand was moving up and down. This was happening on and off."
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"she had her penis in her hand"
A lot of people who are seriously mentally ill or in a mental health crisis masturbate in front of others. This makes her no different than many other people who are suffering from severe mental illness/crisis.
Frankly, that's what a lot of this thread is about: How can women tell when someone in the shower next to them is safe or intends to do them or someone else harm when they have visible penis, keeping in mind that one of the ways that people determine if someone is a danger is if they violate social norms.
The first person who ever assaulted me was someone I knew very well. Our families were very close so we saw each other often, talked often, etc. The truth is that I never knew when he was the nice version or the creepy would be rapist version until he grabbed me from behind, by the breast, by the crotch. It was very very disorienting as there was never anything the least bit sexual in the context. At the point it started, I had never even thought about having a boyfriend or kissing a boy, much less having someone knock me to the ground and tell me that he was going to fuck me. At that point in my life, I thought using the word 'fuck' was the real issue--partly shock and partly--I had zero context. It was as bizarre to me as if aliens descended and told me they wanted me to be their queen. Or pirate, at that point in my life. I truly only thought that fuck was something written inside bathroom stalls and that he was too dumb to know that.
So no, chatting someone up does not help.
Every single person who ever grabbed me inappropriately, tired to stick their hand down my shirt or pants or worse had moments before been talking to me, like a normal person. Well, there was the coworker who was older than my dad who tried to pull a very pregnant me into his lap and kiss me but honestly, except for that he was just a normal coworker. Turns out he did that with all of us younger women.
Sure, like most women, there have been guys I did a lot to avoid in general and absolutely refused to be in a position where I was within arms reach or alone with them. That really helps. And yep,, I definitely stayed away from guys who seemed controlling or who commented on my looks or my size.
But sincerely it came out of nowhere, those assaults. Shit, when that guy tried to kill me, it was shocking because there had been zero hint of anger, or mild irritation up until that moment. But it was illuminating: he had the same look on his face as the time he knocked me down and said he was going to fuck me.
I don't think I am or was that clueless. At the first, sure because I was pretty young, years from being able to drive a car. But I became extremely sensitive about making sure not to leave friends alone with guys they weren't sure about--or that I was not sure about. More than one friend specifically asked me to stick around because some guy kept trying to get her alone. One was a friend and was working on a project in college with this guy who obviously had a big crush on her and she did not know how to turn that off and still finish the project. At one point, he was so angry with me for 'interfering' in his 'relationship' with my friend that he wrapped a bicycle chain around my neck and pulled it tight. Fortunately there were others around. Me? I laughed in his face because he was just an asshole.
In the context of a bathroom, there really are not usually any sort of conversations there unless someone is crying or talking about how their date is going or something like that.