Women And Children First: Technology And Moral Panic

"We are still having conversations now about the meaning of 'opening doors'. Opening doors is seen as a transgressive act for feminists since the 1960s, but actually the action is rooted in notions of moral purity from 1600s.

It has taken us 400 years and we still haven’t sorted out the door."

Who is the "we" in that sentence? I've never had anyone, male or female, be upset with me for opening a door. I cannot imagine respecting someone who was angry about being shown a courtesy.

This reminds me of a piece of trivia.

The reason that NY subway stations were originally painted white was to make them feel clean and safe so that women would go inside. Because they knew that the success of the subway was assured if they could get women to use them.

Considering that subways changed people's relations to time, space and other people, they were wise to tackle that problem first.

Bell's research sounds fascinating - I wonder if it leads to any suggestions to getting over the moral panics more quickly? They're almost never productive, and they harm far more than they help. I'm thinking especially of the political angle, because in the current arrangement, there's no serious incentive for politicians to resist moral panics, and you could argue that there's a significant incentive for them to encourage moral panics (e.g. Michelle Bachmann's endless madness).

From a comment:

> Is it right for developing elementary, pre-teen or teenage sons and daughters to be seen naked on the internet because cameras were left in an apartment or house recently rented or newly purchased?

That's funny: when I was a kid (a few decades ago) the concern was that kids could see naked people. Now, apparently, the concern is that they could be seen naked themselves.