The lives of women ....

But murdering criminals make the news because they are so rare and they will be around even if women never met attempts to intimidate them in any other aspecct of their lives.

Stephen Port, Denis Nilssen, Colin Ireland all targetted gay men. Each serial killer to their own.

Again all men.

Women are more likely to shoplift as I said, if I remember rightly they are more likely to be involved in neglect cases with regard to children, I feel no sense of concern when these issues are discussed.

I do think the poet has something to say about how women's lives are lived and how this is often unsatisfactory - we have concerns and fears that men do not have.

The need to take sensible precautions when out and about is just one of these. Tragic occurrences make the media because they are relatively rare; but one of the reasons for that might be that women ar4 taking these precautions.

I know of no parent who does not warn their chidlren about the dangers out there. The poem is looking at all the things that young women have ahead of them and need to be aware of. When it is spelt out like that it does make you realise what challenges women face; things that we have just soldiered on with.

I think the world is now a more dangerous place for women in spite of all the advances we have all seen over our lifetimes. The influence of porn on young men cannot be glossed over, even though we might like to feel that our GSs are not involved. They are - it is everywhere from a young age, and this does impinge on the girls in ways that I am guessing it did not in the past. Girly mags are peanuts compared with the evil that is being peddled now. And young men have the influence of the likes of Tate pulling them in the wrong direction.

I adore my 5 grandsons and hope that they will grow up to be decent young men - some already are - so it is not about labelling men as a blanket threat. But it is a concern that they are subject to all these influences that go on to impinge on young women's lives.

In some ways life is improving - for example the tolerance of difference by young people is second nature to them in a way that it was not for many previous generations and this is to be applauded.

The poet is a young women and she is expressing life as she sees it - it will inevitably be different to our own experiences and it is worth learning from this. I think she voices the feelings of many young women and we need to hear this.

Most men are safe.
Some men are a danger to women- 100 killed each year, many more raped/ assaulted/ hurt.
Women need to be vigilant, as these men can be difficult to distinguish.
Women will need to maintain vigilance.
I am sorry if I disagree with others who want to talk about victimhood, or what children say to each other in class, or that all of the men they know, privately and professionally, are delightful, or that knife crime is a massive issue . All of these matters may, or may not, be relevant,but I don't see that this alters the facts.

I agree with you luckygirl. Knife crime petrifies me tbqh as well but it's a different issue

JaneJudge

I agree with you luckygirl. Knife crime petrifies me tbqh as well but it's a different issue

... Knife crime petrifies me tbqh as well but it's a different issue

Precisely JJ.

If we want to discuss the 'lives of women' in future, maybe we should add a ryder noting that we are aware that men can and do suffer assault, injustice and discrimination, and acknowledge the fact that when we talk about men collectively this also means - not-all-men?

Otherwise these debates tend to focus on the defence of all those decent men out there; the problems they face etc, rather than the lives of women who are affected by those that aren't.

Good post Luckygirl3.
The world is a completely different place from how it was in my teens...60 years ago. And my grandparents' youth was 100 years ago. Absolutely nothing like today. So how we behaved then is totally irrelevant.
Even 25 years ago in my DC late teens and 20s is in the past.
I am truly sad for young women now having to learn to contend with such difficulties in every day life.
I am horrified by the male pack mentality shown by police officers protecting themselves and their colleagues from accountability in so many cases of violence against women. Their casual distribution and sharing of pornography. And these are men in positions of trust. What example do they set to young men. You see it in the Services as well.
It is the pack I fear more than the random offender.

Brilliant poet and brilliant poem, I'm going to look for more of her work, thank you Luckygirl13.
I agree that young men are also at risk but this poem is about women and written by a woman. Not her problem that we don't know about any poems written about fears for young men!

Brilliant poem. I was thinking of Sarah everard who was just walking home.
And the people who covered up the disturbing behaviour of her murderer.

Love this. Thanks for highlighting.