Safety and Violence While Running

“There are plenty of safety tips for female runners. But how do we stop men from assaulting them?” Natalie Stechyson,CBC News (Nov 01, 2024)

I spoke to CBC about safety while running.

Putting the responsibility of "staying safe" onto women is a barrier to actual change, because it shifts the focus from the systems that allow gendered violence to fester, said Jean Ketterling, assistant teaching professor at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, who is also an avid trail runner…

"The way to stop this pattern is to get away from individualizing the problem, and instead think about root causes of violence," said Ketterling.

Choosing to speculate on the motivations of an individual attacker ignores the societal conditions that make gendered violence so common, she said, in favour of labelling perpetrators as unique monsters.

And again, it puts the responsibility to stay safe on the victims, Ketterling said. Maybe by buying a sports bra that can hold mace.

"While trying to solve a deeply rooted social problem with commercial trinkets feels gross, it has been happening for a long time — and hasn't solved the problem."