The fear of the woman traveller
Jul 29th 2011, 17:05 by A.B.
THERE’S a rather alarmist article on the website of the New York Times suggesting to business-travelling women that if they’re not paranoid about their safety at every moment of the day, they’re being remiss.
The piece, “At a Hotel on Business? Be on Alert, Too”, makes the reasonable statement that the victims of attacks in hotels are most often women. But it goes on to quote Paxton Quigley, the author of a book about personal safety for women, who said female business travellers were “just beginning to learn how unsafe they can be, especially in airports and planes, hotels, walking on streets in cities that they don’t know and in convention settings.” For women travelling to a convention, I believe that covers every second that they’re not spending eating lunch.
Later, Marybeth Bond, another writer on women’s travel, tells the journalist that hotel bars can be “problematic”.
“Men are always hanging out there looking for something,” she said. “I love the hotels where I can order a glass of wine and have it brought up to the room. Ask for a woman to bring it.” In this way, she said, “You set the tone, and then they know you are taking control of the situation.”
I don’t have much confidence in phrases that start with “Men are always…”, especially when I would like to think that my own behaviour contradicts the generalisation. Obviously it is the case that bad things happen in hotels, but there is a whiff of paranoia about the woman who stipulates the gender of her room-service deliverer.
As a man who has never had to worry about his personal safety in hotels, on planes, in convention settings, etc, I can afford to be blasé. But I’m intrigued to know whether this undercurrent of fear, and its accompanying need for ultra-vigilance, is something that can be overstated by the experts—or is it a genuine part of a woman’s travelling experience?
10 Comments
I am not a world traveler, but I have taken several trips to Europe and flown throughout the US over the last ten years. Most of those trips I made on my own, or spent a lot of time on my own whenever I was. I have never felt unsafe. I’m not paranoid by nature, but if I’m in an unfamiliar place I’m aware of my surroundings. I think that’s common sense.
The only time I remember feeling uncomfortable I had ended up in the wilds of Arkansas. The accommodation, far to much for my piece of mind, resembled the Bates Motel. I became even more skittish when I realized I was the only person in the place and the owner lived off site. Yea, I was nervous…