text/Ma Qing
(The author Ma Qing, litchi news special commentator, well-known commentator; this article is exclusively commissioned by litchi news client and litchi.com, please indicate the source when reprinting.)
Recently, a netizen A message on the "Interactive Communication" website of the Shenzhen Municipal Government stated that she was about to give birth for more than nine months and needed to take the subway to go to work every day. However, from the early days of her pregnancy to the present, women in the subway were given priority and women in the carriage were not given priority. She had a big belly, and anyone could tell that she was pregnant, but no one gave up her seat to the man sitting in , the female priority carriage, . Since women-first carriages are meaningless, it might as well be removed. In response, the Shenzhen Municipal Transportation Bureau forwarded a reply from Shenzhen Metro Group Co., Ltd. stating that the women's priority carriages on the subway are "priority, not exclusive" and "promoted, not mandatory". Women's priority carriages are not a mandatory separation of male and female passengers. , love seats will still be reserved for those in need.
Whether there are people who give up their seats to pregnant women and whether there is a need for women’s priority carriages are actually two-level issues.
Special love seats do not only exist in women’s priority carriages, and caring for pregnant women is not the exclusive responsibility of passengers in women’s priority carriages. Therefore, there is no strong causal relationship between no one giving up their seats and whether the women’s priority carriages should be removed. Generally speaking, the special love seats for the elderly, the weak, the sick, the disabled and pregnant women are not divided into carriages, and it often happens that the special love seats are occupied by healthy people. Will the special love seats be canceled because they are occupied? Of course not. Above the bottom line of the law, society also needs moral and civilized regulations. It is not mandatory, but as long as those orange seats are there, it is like a mirror, allowing everyone who passes by to take a look at themselves. The more no one gives up their seats, the more civilized advocacy is needed. If the charity seats are always occupied, it does not mean that the advocacy is wrong, it only means that the advocacy is not enough.
But the women-first carriage is indeed unnecessary. Why should women be given priority? Su Zhongyang, a member of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, used the word "exclusive" instead of "priority" in his suggestion. "Women only" specifically names mothers, infants and pregnant women, while "men only" emphasizes the elderly, weak, sick and disabled. In other words, "the old, the weak, the sick, pregnant women and gays with children" are separated into carriages of different genders. Leaving aside the rationality of this division, there is at least one important point that needs to be underlined, that is, the proposed "women only" and "men only" became only "women first" when implemented. Such a change would be a bit nondescript. .
It first faces a soul torture: Why do women need priority on the subway? Riding in a car is not a fight, and the difference in physical strength between men and women is not that important. And if it is to prevent women from being harassed by sluts, various misunderstandings are likely to arise: for women, it will feel like "protection in name only de facto restraint"; for men, it seems to be implied that everyone is They are suspected of harassment; at the same time, if women enter the non-female priority carriage, they may also worry that the "not afraid of harassment" they want to express will become "welcome to harass" in the words of some people with ulterior motives. And women who really want to get a "safe space" through the "female-first carriage" cannot meet their needs because of the fact that men and women ride in the carriage in fact.
Earlier this year, a video of a woman taunting male passengers one by one in the "ladies' priority carriage" went viral on the Internet. In the video, the man sat on the seat of the ladies' priority carriage with a loud voice. At that time, Shenzhen Metro also responded in this way: men are not prohibited from using this carriage, and seat giving up is voluntary. Many people followed the perspective of the video and mocked the male passengers in the carriage, and many people in turn mocked women, who want equality and priority at the same time, which is a double standard. Many women also express dissatisfaction. Such "priority" treats women as inherently weak. There is still a discriminatory mentality behind "priority".
Therefore, the women-first carriage has become an "unfinished project" of a social experiment. It cannot solve any problems, but it creates topics in the "gender field of public opinion" that is prone to antagonism.
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