“Ladies Only” Buses In Mexico Think Pink, Short-Term

Mexico City has become the latest of several cities worldwide to provide “Ladies Only” modes of transportation for women who feel constantly harassed by men on their commutes:

Acting on complaints from women’s groups, the city rolled out “ladies only” buses, complete with pink signs in the windshields to wave off the men.

As word spreads about the buses, the women seem delighted, while some men forced to wait a few minutes longer have shown their anger. Still others have stumbled on board despite the signs, much to their embarrassment.

We see the desire to have an immediate solution to a very real problem, but is segregation really the answer? Wouldn’t grabbing the hand of an offending male and shouting “HENTAI!” be more effective, have a lasting impact and, um… be more perversely fun? We guess embarrassment and shame don’t have the same cultural impact on Mexican men as those in Japan. Which, really, is a shame. Moving on, you perverts:

On Thursday, passengers on one of the female-only buses spent most of their trip down the capital’s tree-lined Reforma Avenue chatting or putting on makeup, instead of fighting off unwanted male attention.

When a man mistakenly climbed aboard, the women immediately began teasing him and shouting that he should read the “ladies only” sign.

“He’s a gentleman! He should get off,” shouted Yolanda Altamirano, a 64-year-old office janitor.

The man blushed and mumbled an apology, then ignored the taunts until he got off several stops later.

“Now he knows how women feel,” Altamirano said, unapologetic for giving him a hard time.

But the fact is, he doesn’t know how women feel and, while there’s no way he could ever possibly know how they feel, segregating men and women does nothing to attempt to teach him. It’s a band-aid solution that keeps women separate and “othered” while doing nothing to promote education or tolerance.

Mexico City Rolls Out Women-Only Buses [AP]