Notes On The F Train 'Slap' Video

So yesterday I saw the now infamous F train slap video.

There are a number of things about this video that deserve commentary:

1) Street (or Subway) Harassment: It was only a few weeks ago that we were shown a video of a woman walking around NYC for 10 hours where she was "harassed" by random men. The worst thing that happened to her was that one dude walked beside her as if she was with him and a second one was quite persistent about getting the mute Shoshana to at least say "no thank you".

This guy was apparently minding his own business on a subway while at least 3 young women berated him about his choice of clothing and who proceeded to physically assault him over it. Lets see how long it takes for the regular feminists to spend time discussing the "sense of entitlement" that these women had and how dangerous it can be for a man minding his own business on a train.

2) As I discussed in my lengthy piece about the facts of domestic violence, black women are the leaders of initiators of domestic violence (30%). I said then, as I'll say here, if we want to deal with domestic violence in black communities we have to deal with the women who initiate this violence. These women believe that they have a right to put their hands, feet or objects on men when they are upset and this is unacceptable.

This video shows just how early this sense of entitlement to hit men starts.

3) Equal Treatment: There are people who believe in equality for women and then there are feminists. This video is an epic show of what equality looks like. See, there is this rule that men generally understand. The rule is simple: If you hit someone, expect to be hit back. Therefore it is in your best interest to not hit someone unless you know you can "take them".

This general rule is why inter-male violence is generally low. Men regularly size each other up, particularly on the first meet in order to make a threat assessment. Is he fit? How large is he? How big are his arms? Does he have dominant or passive body language? etc. Women on the other hand given their relative weakness usually default to the "he's a physical danger" pose when confronted with most males. It's assumed he cannot be "taken out" in unarmed conflict. This became codified in cultural norms in that men do not hit women BECAUSE women are weaker. However along with this code is that women do not assault men. The only exceptions that have been allowed have been "emotional outbursts" where women were allowed to slap a man when he upsets her. This code, which is quite sexist, is based on the idea that women, like children, were and are incapable of controlling their emotions (prone to hysterics, a word based on their reproductive organs).

What is happening of late is that many women want the equality without the corresponding responsibility. Equality means that you don't operate under the sexist assumption that women are incapable of controlling their emotions and therefore their arms and hands (or feet). Equality means that you don't hit men when you are upset. equality means if you do hit a man when you're upset, that you expect to be hit back. Any other expectation is one of privilege. Unearned privilege at that.

And this is what we saw in the video. The female initiated the verbal confrontation. She elevated the situation by lashing out at any man that upset her. Then she struck out at man who had made no physical or verbal threats to her.

It is clear to me that Mr. 8 Ball jacket is the victim here. He was not only assaulted by the female (verbally and physically) but other people assaulted him when he retaliated against his assailant. He was minding his business. He shouldn't be wanted for arrest, he should be wanted as a victim of a crime and as a witness against the people who assaulted him on that train.

Of course there are going to be people reading this who think I'm advocating violence against women. This is the usual claptrap of those who seek to excuse and diminish the very real (and documented) violence committed by women against men (and other women). The fact is that the ONLY principled position here is that nobody, male or female is obligated to allow other people to assault them. They are within their rights to "dissuade" anyone who has already assaulted them from continuing to do so. I believe that men and women have equal rights to defend themselves. I believe that women are not children and are quite capable of controlling their bodies. It's high time the rest of society catches up with this.