One reader is angered that so little has changed in the way authorities respond to such incidents, and another suggests some ways of tackling the problem
It is always frustrating and disheartening to see that authorities have yet again placed the onus of women protecting themselves from men back on the women themselves rather than recognising that male violence and the normalisation of male privilege in public spaces is the real issue. So in that respect I fully agree with Gaby Hinsliff’s column (Young women are sick of being told to stick together and watch their drinks, 21 October).
However, while she seems to think this is a new thing, I have to disagree. She says: “Generation X didn’t go out at night worrying that someone might poison us. Nobody had to offer us lids for our drinks, as they do our daughters.” This suggests either that she moved in a very different space from anyone else that I knew, or that she just didn’t recognise what has been totally normal for decades.
