This was a really excellent piece, and beside it making me curious about that game, it really does illuminate how little many men understand the constant vigilance that women have to employ, and how little they seem to want to understand it.

I take my dogs to a local dog park fairly regularly. We try not to go at peak hours, but that also means that sometimes it's me and my dogs and one or two men and their dogs. There's never been anything remotely like a problem - for the most part guys who really take good care of their dogs and their needs are also good human beings - but, it still gives me pause when this happens. I still have a split second where I acknowledge and process that it's me and a man or men I don't know in a somewhat remote area, and I evaluate the safety of doing that and make a choice. Most men have never had to do anything remotely like that even once in their lives - much less on a continual basis, even while at home. "Is it safe for me to leave my windows open?" "Is it safe for me to answer the door if a man I don't know is ringing the bell?"

Obviously, guys who live in rough urban areas have to make some of those same evaluations, but there are no "safe" areas for women anywhere. My friendly suburban neighborhood is largely very safe - but I still have to be on alert as do most other women, most of the time. Refusing to understand that is a large part of why we still have the culture that we do where that takes place because not enough men are challenging it and joining us to demand better.