MARGERY EAGAN, a columnist with The Boston Herald, offers a painfully glaring example of feminist dementia. She complains that the mayor told women to take precautions against a rapist:

After three attacks on women in East Boston, women there should stay alert and walk in pairs, police said.

After an attack on a woman in the North End, said Mayor Marty Walsh, “I’d just ask women — if you’re walking, you know, walk in pairs, don’t walk around alone, particularly at night.”

I read this advice, well-meaning and well-intentioned, no doubt. It made me nuts.

How come no one ever tells men to walk in pairs and stay inside after dark? They’re the ones raging out of control. How come it’s always the women, who did nothing wrong, who have to rearrange their lives? Who are now supposed to go out and find a designated walker (however you do that) to escort them back and forth to work, to the parking garage, the mailbox, the corner store for milk?

The sun set at 5:20 p.m. yesterday. Guess that means 5:20 is ladies’ curfew, time to burrow in for the night. You venture out again, well, you’ve been warned. You’re asking for trouble. And if trouble finds you, rest assured, somebody will blame you for not doing what you were told.

She then says that the real problem is the men who are rapists. As if the police didn’t realize that. As if rapists are reading her column and saying, “You know what? She’s gotta point. I think I’ll stay home tonight.”

Eagan’s comments make about as much sense as a woman who says to her midwife or obstetrician, “How come you’re not doing this to men? Why aren’t there any men experiencing labor pain?”

Eagan is entirely divorced from reality and shouldn’t be permitted to walk without an escort.

— Comments —

James N. writes:

According to Margery Eagan, it’s “anti-woman” to describe reality. Of course, the problem is compounded by the fact that Boston will not issue Class A unrestricted licenses (carry permits) to anyone unless they are well connected or wealthy, but even at that, the streets are unsafe for women alone after dark, anywhere and everywhere. To paint someone who states the obvious as anti-woman is, well, anti-woman.

Buck writes:

Wow. Radical autonomy must be a real bitch to deal with. Reminds me of your terrific discussion about Slutwalks. That protest was also inspired by “well-meaning and well-intentioned” advice, unwelcomed at that time from a police officer. Did the police officer and this mayor actually make them nuts?

Lydia Sherman writes:

The warning to women is obviously designed to protect them from the brutal attackers who target women walking alone. The attackers are the ones who are anti-women, not the protectors.

A reader writes:

To follow the “logic” of slut walks, Eagan should demonstrate her right to stupidity by walking alone at night in hazardous areas.

 Laura writes:

Definitely.

I want to see her out there at 3 a.m. taking a stroll where the rapes took place. Assert your rights, Margery!

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