Comments on: How safe is Brno for women? Tips for better personal safety

By: Johanka

Johanka — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:49:34 +0000

Ah, the r-word and PC… I’ve yet to experience being whistled at in the Mediterranean countries, though that may be due to me not being exactly the best specimen of the feminine. :-)
Anyway, I just wanted to comment on the relative safety of the suburbs. I lived there for well over 5 years and I’ve never felt more safe than in Kohoutovice. Though perhaps you meant Kamenný Vrch or Starý Lískovec/Bohunice — truth be told, I wouldn’t want to live in either place for aesthetic reasons even more than for (relative) safety reasons.

Great site, by the way, keep it up! Too bad I don’t live in Brno any more.

By: Helena Zikmundova

Helena Zikmundova — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:10:03 +0000

Michal: Well, I guess it´s not quite as easy to rape a man, unless you do it the prison way :) Otherwise there would probably still be more female victims (yes, we are generally easier to physically violate), but the numbers would be closer to a par I think.

By: Michal Kašpárek

Michal Kašpárek — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:47:49 +0000

I did some googling and found various stats – the problem is that many victims don’t tell anybody about the rape. Police is investigating approx. 600 rapes in the Czech republic every year, but some gender institutions say that the real number of rapes is approx. 18,000 (however, the estimation is not based on any apparent methodology).

The important fact is that more than 90 % of the evil deeds is commited by men known to the women, which means that it is more important to choose a good partner and friends than to choose a good defensive spray. (I know it isn’t easy, although it seems so.)

Finally, there is one more interesting number – one raped man to ten raped women in the Czech republic. I remember an essay written by an American claiming that if we count violations that take place in prisons, there are more raped men than raped women. I think that this remains a tabu, although it is a big problem too.

By: Zuzana Zelená

Zuzana Zelená — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:24:42 +0000

Yeah, a link to a statistics or some kind of a source would be nice, actually.
Txarli: Czech men definitly still have a long way to go (there’re still a lot of men who expect their partners to do the household chores for them!) and sexism is present in the Czech Republic. But we’re talking about “taking women seriously,” which, in my opinion, has to do more with taking the woman as a person and not just as a specimen of the feminine; and I still think that there are percentually more men who can’t do that in the South than in my country. And this is a mental thing, deep down in their thinking, which, I’m aftraid, can’t be fixed by any Ministry of Equality, by positive discrimination in the politics, etc.

By: Michal Kašpárek

Michal Kašpárek — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:25:11 +0000

Carlos, I understand that, but just I had no idea this would be an insult to so many people, investing so much energy into defending their beautiful cultural heritage of whistling at unknown women from other cultures, who really don’t want to be whistled at and who understand that as a threat.

I am not insulted when foreigners claim that “whipping girls in Easter” is sexist or chauvinist or when I read complains that Czechs don’t clean pavements after their dogs etc. Some of these stereotypes are wrong, some right – so what? Some commenters here at Brno Now were saying some really mean statements about Czechs – but c’est la vie and being offended never changes the controversial opinion nor improves the image of a nation.

By: Txarli

Txarli — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:17:42 +0000

In that case – avoid being politically incorrect – , just say Brno is a very safe city, and link to some official statistics or ask people to post comments. Don’t say that in some countries we have not as much respect against women as here, when this is not true.

Again, I found this blog very helpful and really interesting. This is just a question about the form, and not about content.

By: Carlos

Carlos — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:10:56 +0000

I totally agree this is your personal weblog and, of course, you have the whole right to express your thoughts on it, but, good for you, this webpage is also a reference and it´s visited very often by many foreigners who want to know what´s in the city. If the contents of this blog are about offending people you will loose many loyal readers like me.

By: Michal Kašpárek

Michal Kašpárek — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:02:19 +0000

Txarli, just calm down. How can you survive an average episode of the Simpsons with so much pride mixed with anger and desire for political correctness?

I don’t think that “Czechs are best”. As I wrote in the article, “there are still issues to be solved.” I think I am among the 10 % of Czechs that are most critical to their own nation and country. But most men in Brno definitely treat women better than most men from Albania or Macedonia. I also know that most men in Stockholm or Helsinki treat women better and with more respect than we do.

I don’t claim that to show that we are better than some other nations – I really don’t think so! I just want to inform one lady who is afraid about her daughter studying in Brno – and could not find out a better way than being slightly politically incorrect.

By: Txarli

Txarli — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:51:10 +0000

Helena, Zuzana, this also happens to me here in Brno when I’m with a friend-girl.

By: Txarli

Txarli — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:46:42 +0000

In Spain, we have the only government in the world that have parity. That means 50% of our politicians are women and 50% are men. We have a Ministry for equality, which veils for woman not to be discriminated in our society. We have the best maternity and paternity periods (16 weeks for mothers, 8 for fathers). We also have one of the most punishing laws against gender violence and sexual harassment.

Whistling at women in the street it’s not a “machoman” attitude, its a cultural heritage. I remember in Czech Republic you have the tradition of whipping girls in Easter. But that’s not sexist, right?

Maybe in Czech Republic nudity is not as “tabu” as in “southern european countries”, as you were not as influenced as us by the church (here I have to declare my envy), but one thing is not being ashamed about naked bodies, and other is to announce car cleaning services with girls using their boobs to do this job (you can find these adverts near Mendel University).

Saying that once in some southern european countries you saw one, two or a hundred guys whistling – not even talking or touching – a girl, all these countries have no respect to woman, is the same that, as I saw a lot of drunk people sleeping in the streets, buses and trams of Brno at 4 PM, Czech Republic its a country full of drunks.

You are right, this is your (great) personal blog and you write your opinions. But one thing is to have an opinion and other is to be chauvinist (we are the best because we are czechs).

By: Helena Zikmundova

Helena Zikmundova — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:16:44 +0000

Zuzana: I noticed that as well. It´s particularly funny when I´m with my boyfriend in France, because I speak some French and my boyfriend does not. Which means that when I ask a French man a question, he answers to my boyfriend… who doesn´t have a clue what the guy is saying. Not all southern men do that, of course, but it happened to me several times.

By: Zuzana Zelená

Zuzana Zelená — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:03:28 +0000

I agree that “whistling” and “taking seriously” are not necessarily related, but I think that the percentage of men who don’t take women seriously is bigger in the South than in the Czech Republic. For example, some Spanish or Italian men (my experience – don’t know about the other southern nations), when talking to a couple, look just at the man and ignore the woman. It has happened to me in Spain that I asked a man a question (an impersonal one, something like “where is the train station”) and he answered to my boyfriend. It seems to me that in the South there are more machoes who regard women not really as personalities, but just as counterparts of men, they see them only in their role of the man’s mate. This is my opinion and I don’t mean to insult anyone; I hope it is clear that I am generalizing my own experiences and observations.