I didn’t mean for this post to cause a bunch of arguing in the comments =(
I thought this was just some gallows humor (e.g. “Everything’s lovely except that I have to fear for my safety all the time”) type of shitpost that sounded similar to comments I’ve heard from women irl a lot.
I routinely would go on long walks at all hours of the night (like 3am), with headphones on. Ive done this in the US, Brazil, and Europe in all kinds of neighborhoods. I was a 180lb male and I somewhat consciously and subconsciously would put on the lunatic vibe of “I am the one who knocks”.
Now I started my transition, down to 150 lbs, dressing more feminine. Still have a decent amount of muscle but Truuust me, the vibe is not the same. This meme is valid.
I’m a cis man and closer to 140 lbs (with average height). And though I don’t regularly go out for night walks, when I do I don’t feel particularly unsafe. A little more cautious perhaps, especially around groups of drunk people but that’s about it.
If I were forced to fight the average person I meet at night I would literally have to resort to using my damn teeth or expect to be beaten up to a pulp at the very least.
Still, the risk of me ending up in such a situation is tiny. I’m far more likely to be run over by a car - which actually almost happened a couple weeks back had I not paid attention.
Honestly, I think large parts of women’s fear at night in the US is culture dependent. You don’t have walkable streets over there so children don’t have the opportunity to walk to kindergarten or school. Over here in winter children are literally walking to school at night, before sunrise.
You do have a shitton of neverending fear mongering. Like, the concept of “Amber Alerts” is absurd over here in Europe, I can’t imagine what this would’ve done to me as a child if I had been told on a daily basis that strangers are out to get me.
Tl;dr it’s probably culture dependent