I’m so confused by the fear women report of strangers (don’t walk at night alone, have pepper spray, etc.) but how statistically they’re in less danger from strangers than men are. What is going on? How did statistics get so divorced from perceived risk?

— Aella (@Aella_Girl) December 5, 2020

Those statistics aren’t very revealing, though, due to rational risk assessment and compensatory measures to minimize chances of attack undertaken by women.

Men take more risks than women, though, for various reasons. If you feel physically vulnerable as women often do (for good reason — they tend to be smaller and weaker than their attackers) you won’t walk down the dark alleyway or through the bad neighborhood. I will and have, including a neighborhood in Cairo where I wasn’t really sure I was going to walk out of it.

Also, women pay far less penalty for saying, “I’m scared” or demonstrating fear or timidity than men. Sometimes, they are even rewarded for it. Men never, never are — we pay high penalties for showing fear almost always.

Men are also more accustomed to violence, and are far less likely to be sexually assaulted or raped in a stranger encounter outside of prison. These both matter a lot too.