爱华网系列专题：《点亮生活的智慧：人生之钥》
In the old days, rich ladies never moved without an escort, while the women of the poor were sent into the world little more than children, vulnerable, exposed, fair game to anyone.
When I grew up, my mother told me it was unseemly for young girls to go about alone at night or travel without an older companion. I scoffed at such ridiculous conventions designed to keep demure young ladies in control. I was a child of the late twentieth century, intending to suit myself. See the world, go where I pleased, at any hour I fancied. I can recall the thrill of freedom hitching a lift down the German motorway; solitary strolls through Paris’ Latin Quarter in the early hours of the morning; illuminated baroque churches in Rome, splendid in the dead of night. Though once in London’s Soho I got lost. A real thug helped me to a taxi, saying I wasn’t safe there on my own. In newspapers we read reports of women missing, raped or murdered, having mistakenly believed they were safe. The truth is, we are still as vulnerable unprotected. It’s not just old-fashioned prejudice that comes in the way of our freedom. And not just fear of misbehaviour that makes our loved ones want to shelter us. I know now that I was incredibly lucky. Some women weren’t. To them, and their families, the danger became real. Even in our enlightened days, the saying goes that women give sex for love, while men give love for sex.It makes me think of a modern-day Casanova, who specialised in entering the homes of attractive, successful single women as they slept. Once awake, they were subjected to a terrifying ordeal of reassur-ance, tenderness, affection. In the end he gently coaxed them into bed: no sign of force or violence. Indeed, he did his best to satisfy them; a few even asked him to come back. Eventually found out, he went on trial accused of countless serial rapes. The prosecution had a hard time getting victims to testify. They were so deeply ashamed – not of having been raped, but of having offered no resistance.
