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    jinniJE Reich
    3/29/16 10:40pm

    I find something off-putting about trains in Germany being segregated for any reason that does not take an individual into account.

    Further explanation of historical context unnecessary, I hope.

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      JE Reichjinni
      3/29/16 10:43pm

      As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, it was incredibly hard not to add that historical and contextual commentary.

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      Rooo sez BISH PLZJE Reich
      3/29/16 10:49pm

      Given the racialization of the attacks, I was actually going to ask if women of color were going to be permitted on the women-only train.

      /make you go hmm

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    OfmanynamesJE Reich
    3/30/16 12:15am

    So is it ALL women or only cis women? Going that far is it ALL women or only white women? ALL women or only non-Muslims?

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      JE ReichOfmanynames
      3/30/16 12:19am

      As far as the reports I’ve seen, all women — I’d specify otherwise. But I went through that exact train of thought.

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      ImforthisOfmanynames
      3/30/16 12:41am

      It’s all women. So don’t worry.

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    Adrastra, patron saint of snarkJE Reich
    3/29/16 10:37pm

    The female-only train cars will be available close to where the attacks took place, “on the Leipzig to Chemnitz line, positioning the carriages next to the train conductor,” according to the Telegraph—a line that (no surprise) runs near Cologne. Boys up until the age of 10 will also be accommodated.

    These two sentences made me very sad. In part because they wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing to have everywhere, and also because ten seems an abysmally young age to have to cut off at.

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      Hoyo AfrikaAdrastra, patron saint of snark
      3/29/16 10:41pm

      Are measures really going to stop sexual deviants like rapists though? I mean Iran has segregated public transport and I hear sexual violence is still an issue there.

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      oh-hell-noAdrastra, patron saint of snark
      3/29/16 10:46pm

      “...they wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing...”

      No, it really is a bad thing.

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    RuthieJE Reich
    3/29/16 11:15pm

    It’s incredible to me that Germany, which has opened its borders to refugees more than any other country (over 1 million in 2015 alone), is now being accused in comments here and elsewhere of fascist behavior simply because they a small rail company is introducing women-only compartments. Do people commenting here realize that a) women of all ethnicities and religions are welcome in these compartments and that in fact many muslim women may prefer them? and b) the support that the Germans have provided for the refugees is quite unparalleled and yet it’s this kind of incidental story that makes it into the media?

    No-one batted an eye when Sweden, Denmark and Britain closed their borders completely...

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      jinniRuthie
      3/29/16 11:28pm

      Take a deep breath. No one is accusing Germany of being fascist.

      We may, however, be pointing to Germany’s past (historical context matters). Because it is important.

      It is also important that we laud — to your point — Germany’s reception of exiled migrants (and recall that these refugees were uninvolved in the attacks of New Year’s Eve); and support Germany in the care of these migrants.

      By the same token, given our own reprehensible history in the United States, it is important that we keep the Voting Rights Act alive. There are those who have claimed racism to be over, in the United States, and thus, they argue that the Voting Rights Act is obsolete. It is not. That which has sprung up before may spring, again: and we must be ever vigilant.

      As we see Trump rallies, we are quite reminded that not only is racism still alive but it is flourishing unabashedly, here. We must be vigilant.

      That there may be extremely ominous reverberations to “Germany,” “Trains,” and “Segregation” is comprehensible, and not at all outlandish. Sixty years ago is not so long.

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      Ruthiejinni
      3/29/16 11:55pm

      Thanks for your comment and I agree with what you are saying. As a German I can assure you that no-one has forgotten or wants to forget what happened 70 years ago (our 9th grade class trip was to a concentration camp - not an experience you quickly gloss over).

      However, what really upsets me is when any hint of trouble in the merging of these different cultures leads to Nazi comparisons. It’s simply naive to assume that there is no difference between the Syrians, the north Africans and the native Germans and that they should all just get along. It’s also unfair to assume that any problems with the integration of 2 million migrants and refugees has to be the Germans’ fault. These situations are incredibly difficult - just take the whole ‘racism vs women’s rights’ issue, for example. It’s going to take a while to figure this out.

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    RetromancerJE Reich
    3/29/16 10:44pm

    So wait, do we like this because it addresses sexual assault and creates safe spaces for women, or do we hate it because it segregates women?

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      jinniRetromancer
      3/29/16 10:50pm

      A dynamic, vibrant group is created through individual (and often differing) opinions and voices. Why not add yours to the mix in lieu of asking what others think?

      I mean this gently and with support....

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      Adrastra, patron saint of snarkRetromancer
      3/29/16 10:54pm

      I mean, it didn’t sound like women wouldn’t be allowed in the rest of the train, just that there’d be a car that’d just be for women.

      It’s not the world’s best solution, but the world isn’t perfect and it’s better to be realistic and pragmatic about this than to live in denial (in my opinion, anyway).

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    JujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes hereJE Reich
    3/29/16 10:45pm

    Being Jewish, I would never step into any train car that was designated special for me. Call it instinct, but NOPE!

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      RuthieJujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes here
      3/29/16 11:21pm

      Your comment that a train car that is offered optionally for women reminds you of the holocaust is quite offensive.

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      JujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes hereRuthie
      3/29/16 11:48pm

      Please elaborate. My mother was five years old when the Holocaust took place she had a machine gun pressed against her head on two occasions while my grandmother begged Nazi soldiers for their lives.

      If you want details, I can give you more.

      Do you think I give a shit about your delicate sensibilities? NOPE!

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    Betty SlocombeJE Reich
    3/29/16 11:46pm

    I’m so torn on this. On one hand, in the context it’s obviously stupid, isolationist, and kind of racist.

    On the other hand, having ridden trains all over Europe I’d kind of go for it. After the 10th time while trying to quietly read a book and having some idiot hit on me, likely in a language I don’t understand, I’d cheerfully pay more to avoid it. But that’s what business class is for I guess.

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      KittyReavenBetty Slocombe
      3/29/16 11:51pm

      Yelling angrily in German has worked for me usually.

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      Betty SlocombeKittyReaven
      3/30/16 12:11am

      Ha, I need to brush up on my German. though most recently it happened in the Czech Republic.

      I just gave him a quizzical pug look and went back to my book.

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    MaMillJE Reich
    3/30/16 3:59am

    Without deciding for myself whether I think these carts would ultimately benefit or harm an equal society, I’d like to point out that the transportation company in question has issued a statement about this plan in which they say that there is no connection between the sexual assaults this article talks about and the decision to implement such carts. Rather, customers have apparently asked for such offers repeatedly. Whether you like to believe it or not is your decision, but I think it’s important to hear them out, too.

    Secondly, I’d like to add that the Leipzig-Chemnitz line that is referred to as “(no surprise) run[ning] near Cologne” is actually not really running near Cologne but at the other end of the country (as Germany is rather small in size, I realize that this still might qualify as “near” in American terms). While I get that the connection to the Cologne attacks is a welcome one to explain this, it is based purely on the fact that these attacks happened at a train station in Germany and three months later a train company somewhere else in Germany is having this idea.

    However, similar offers already exist in a number of European countries. While generally certainly a topic worth discussing, it seems to get blown out of proportion by this unfortunate connection with the refugee issue.

    While I do understand many of the negative emotions shared in this comment section about how this might be a step backwards rather than forwards on the way to a society of gender equality (i. e. what this should be about in my opinion), I am quite surprised at the amount of Holocaust references you get here. It seems like the words “train”, “Germany”, and “special compartment” are enough to make people think that Germans are at war with women or muslims. While it’s certainly true that Germany has a long way to go in all things sexism (and in many parts in all things racism), I find it rather bizarre to talk about the Holocaust in connection with this particular story, which in actuality has little to do with that kind of racist violence, if you ask me.

    Think of “women only”-carts what you want – in fact I don’t even know what to think of them myself – but opening up this pandora’s box of the topic of racialized violence in connection with this is a little premature, if you look at the naked facts this story is actually based upon. Granted, it comes at a difficult time for Germany, but that does not have to make it about Cologne and the attacks.

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      germankiwigalMaMill
      3/30/16 6:12am

      Thank you for this comment! I am appalled at some of the comments here and the way Germany is seen as some weird backwards still-Nazi country where women are shoved into train compartments at gunpoint and women of colour have to ride at the back of the train. Wtf, Jezebel?! Apparently, many people here don’t really understand that there is no strict segregation and that the rest of the train is still for everyone, with only one extra all-female compartment. And YES to the fact that Leipzig-Chemnitz is a few hundred kilometres away from Cologne, not even close.

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      House Milkshaker of Daftbollocksgermankiwigal
      3/30/16 6:45am

      Huh I know. They are all very different parts of the country. Chemnitz and Leipzig are Saxony. Nowhere near Cologne. It would be like saying “something bad happens in Boston so people in Delaware are taking action”.

      Germany is all the same all the time apparently.

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    MargieBonzJE Reich
    3/29/16 11:54pm

    I may not have read through the comments enough, but is anyone considering the availability of porn in Europe especially Germany (granted it has been 20 years since I was there) that might affect how men treat women? I am a woman who watches porn all the damn time but I can't imagine what affect it would have on me as a dude if I just saw that at the newsstands all the time. It's a double edged sword. I appreciate the openness of sex in Europe, however, there should be education that goes along with that. It's the same shit that happens in the US just in a different manner.

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      AnemoneMargieBonz
      3/30/16 12:12am

      I think porn is more likely to affect how men treat women in relationships than how they treat women in public. This seems to be more about cultural norms. Like, I assume German men mostly know not to assault women in public, while in other cultures groping seems to be pretty much normal.

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      dm0niesMargieBonz
      3/30/16 12:26am

      The issue isnt porn in a secular progressive countries like Germany where interaction with real women is common enough to distinguish fantasy from reality. Its online porn in places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia where education is minimal, women are basically off limits to any interaction and a man has likely never met a white woman in his life.

      When a man’s only impression of a blonde white women is hardcore porn, he is going to have an impression of their promiscuity that might not fit reality. Put him in a country full of white women that hes only ever seen getting fucked and he might start acting on those assumptions out of pure naivety.

      In the end its the women who suffer because their governments assumed every immigrant would be as secular and educated as they are.

      Even here in Hong Kong we are currently reeling from a brutal honor killing of an Austrian/Filipino girl by her Pakistani immigrant boyfriend of a month because she broke up with him for beating her.

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    cisum88noteJE Reich
    3/29/16 11:24pm

    They have women-only (and children up to age 10 or 12) cars in India on the metro and they are amazing. I refused to take the metro and not get on those cars after the few experiences I had in the all-gender cars. Never again.

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      JustWhatTheDrOrderedcisum88note
      3/29/16 11:45pm

      There is a lot of precedent. There are also women-only cars on subways in Japan. But the ones there are only women-specific during designated hours, to prevent cram-packed rush-hour groping and late-night, drunken problems. It’s a choice—use it or not, sit elsewhere if you have a male companion, or don’t want to bother with it. It’s nice to have a safe non-triggering space.

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      RedVioletcisum88note
      3/29/16 11:47pm

      They have them in Tokyo, too. Even in a low-crime city, it’s definitely better during the famous packed commutes.

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