this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2026
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I understand why women feel this is necessary, but I also understands that a policy like this paints all men with the same brush. It's like they are saying "Since a small number of men are creeps, we give you the option to avoid all men". Which seems to be counterproductive.
Meanwhile, Uber has invasive tracking, where they know everyone's history. They know how many drives a customer has provisioned without incident. And I have always considered these rideshare things to be particularly safe, because all parties are consenting to the tracking. That's not guarantee nothing will happen, of course, but it is more unlikely when all parties know Big Uber is watching you.
If Uber had rolled this out and said "you have the option to avoid rides with the opposite gender without an established history in our files", then I think I would have less of a problem with it. But it seems like I can do everything right, and be respectful of everyone, and give Uber shitloads of money, and still be potentially waiting longer for a ride, just because of my parts. How is that OK?
It's not about you. Repeat after me: It's not about you. It's about women who feel unsafe.
Most sexual assault is not reported.
And you will not be waiting longer, women who choose this service will be. So cut the pity party. You lose absolutely nothing.
The more I think about it, though, the more I think this is a genuine discrimination case. If Uber had rolled this out and said "White drivers can choose to pick up only white passengers", would that be OK? Or even "Male drivers can choose to only pick up male passengers"?
Heck, I even think if they rolled this out and said "female users can choose a preference for only female drivers", that might be able to fly, because it's the buyer of the service expressing that view.
But to me, for the people offering the service, there is no difference between this and someone who doesn't want to make a cake for a gay wedding. When you are offering a service to the general public, you can't really discriminate like that. Yes, I understand the safety thing. But a store that catered to women wouldn't be able to bar men from entering at all. Why is a car service any different? Yes, drivers are using their own cars, but it is still a car service.
You know what sucks the most about this? They're probably gonna get sued over it, either by the Trump DOJ or some shitty Red State AG, who is probably gonna win.
An estimated 20% of women will be sexually assaulted in their life. Half of those will happen by the time that they're 16. 40% of trans women will be sexually assaulted.
This isn't about your feelings being hurt.
Sorry, but discrimination is discrimination, even if the people doing the discriminating are doing it for reasons they think are just. If stuff like this gets normalized, it's only a matter of time before it's weaponized against others, and the trans community in particular.
There's a direct line between things like anti-trans bathroom bills and this. Surely I can't be the only one that sees it this way?
If you, as a passenger, notice no difference in service, because they still find someone to cover the ride in the big pool of potential drivers who aren’t women who only drive for women, does it actually matter if some of the drivers are personally refusing to serve you? Have you actually been discriminated against by the service? Would you even know it happened? I doubt it.
Large numbers of men are creeps, and I say that as a man. That's the issue, that's why they're doing this.
Is there a technical definition of "large" that justifies this? If not, then this is all based on feelings.
I think it's bad news to generalize entire large groups like this, no matter how good the intentions are.
There have been a few studies. Most estimates put it at around 20% of men engage in actively degrading behaviour, sexual harassment, or have had a history of sexual assault, with between 5-8% actually engaging in violence. It isn't everyone, but it is around 1 in 5 which is not a small group that could be classified as "Creeps." It's a lot higher percentage of the population than, for example, the percentage of violent extremists among Muslims.
Well yeah it's based on feelings and it definitely just mindlessly repeating the extremely popular male bashing perspective the majority of fediverse users blindly accept as dogma, but it's also undeniably true. A very large number of us are creeps. If you'd like to get technical, we can pull sexual crimes stats of men vs women and see which number is larger... But, do we really have to?
And it's not that we're inherently evil or perverse by nature. It's that, more often than not, in one on one interactions we are the ones with the potential ability to physically dominate and coerce the human of the other sex. Every once in a while a man will delude himself, snap, explode or give in to whatever dark urge was brooding in him and use that ability in some horrible way.
The probability of an individual of whatever demographic doing something horrible is = (the probability they have the urge to attempt the horrible thing) x (the probability they have the capacity to carry out the horrible thing). It's really not that complicated.
And If you think women would never do this if they had, on average, larger body frames, more strength and were brainwashed into seeking validation through dominance from an early age, please allow me to introduce you to the fascinating matriarchal pack dynamics of the spotted hyena, where females are larger and stronger than males. Guess which sex is more aggressive and socially dominant?
It's not that us men are evil. It's that on average, we have physical power that more often than not, woman do not. Any form of power has the potential to corrupt, cause it can be used for evil and therefore, every once in a while, given a large enough time frame or population, it will.
It's just true, we believe this stuff because it's true.
What is true, specifically?
Oh yeah, definitely true.
Anecdotally, large by the fact that every single woman I know has experienced some form of sexual harassment. And that's not hyperbolic.
More abstract, large by the fact that it is even a discussion. If a not inconsequential amount of men have harassed women enough that this is just brought up at all, then it's an issue that needs to be addressed in some form or fashion.
Right, but is this the best way to address this, by telling women "All men are the same, they will harass you, they can't help themselves. So here, click this button and you will never have to pick one up?"
Best? Maybe not.
But until the underlying social issue gets resolved, it's a solution to address it.
It's also one that could be utilized alongside other protections for women, or as a stop gap to get to a better solution.
They still will need to work out other ways to empower women to terminate a ride (both as driver and passenger) without penalty AND to ensure the passenger is let out of the vehicle in a safe place. Along with better reporting, investigations, and consequences for those who do harass.
You said "small numbers" first as the entire basis of your argument and now you pull the "feelings" card on me??!
Well, yeah, this is the same type of shit that is used to denigrate Muslims, or trans people, or any other marginalized group. "Some of them are violent, so we won't trust all of them!". I don't think we really want to go there, much less with half the human race.
You dont think that or you dont feel that?
Speaking as a man, the majority of men are creeps, but even if they weren't, it wouldn't be counterproductive. If it was, say, a 5% chance, one in twenty, that would be far and away high enough of a risk to make a move like this worthwhile. Hell even 1%. And we know the proportion is far greater than that.
No they don't, single digit percentages of sexual harassment are ever even reported let alone followed up because almost nobody gives a shit about it. Someone's squeaky clean history is basically indistinguishable from that of a serial creep.
Sadly, lots of things in the world aren't ok. It's tough out there.
I wouldn't mind if they'd implemented this the opposite way: if a woman, driver or passenger, encounters a creep, they could report that in the app and then the creep would automatically be banned from riding with women. That way decent men aren't affected and women keep more choice in drivers/passengers, and only the creeps are singled out.
You’d prefer that women are assaulted or harassed first?
Quite the opposite.
How else do you think women would be identifying creeps in your scenario?
I think this rule a massive improvement, but I also think it's very restrictive. Women can only choose to avoid all men, rather than just the creeps. So female drivers who need more passengers might feel forced to accept all men, and female passengers who can't find a ride, might be forced to accept a ride from any male driver. Which might still be a creep.
I think it's better to weed out the creeps. I think that's ultimately better for everybody. Make it harder for creeps to get a ride or passenger, instead of making it harder for women.
Maybe both should be an option.
Women riders are already forced to accept a ride from any male or female driver.
How do women riders label male drivers as creeps? After they sexually assault or harass them? That’s what my question to you was - how does putting the onus on individual women riders to report creeps after they’ve done something creepy help those riders?
I agree that there should be a way to report drivers. But you realize that already exists, right? So maybe we could just support more options for women to feel safer?