In my recounting of the “Studio City Camera” story, where I walked around the affluent Colfax area at noon and happened to meet another photographer, I apparently touched a nerve.
About 11am, on Tuesday, I had parked my car on in front of 4107 Troost, in Studio City, which is a lovely 1936 ranch with a picket fence and mature trees. I came there to shoot some photos.
Then I wandered around the neighborhood and walked about six blocks east towards Tujunga. I saw a woman with a Canon DSLR, also taking photos on Kraft. We stopped to chat. It turned out that she was there to scout locations for KMart. I told her about the Troost house, but couldn’t quite remember how to find it. She remarked that the house “sounded perfect”. I casually said to her, “Well if you want to give me a lift back to my car which is parked in front ot it, I can show you where it is.”
She said to me, “No. That would be TOO WEIRD.” So she got into her car, drove off, probably not ever finding the “ideal house”. I eventually walked back to my car.
Evidently, she used great judgment in refusing me a ride. But…..
It’s a fact that perhaps it isn’t smart for a woman to pick up a strange man and give him a ride. But to some readers, this woman would have been taking an enormous risk, to transport me, in broad daylight, six blocks back. If perhaps, I was a violent man, I might have carjacked and raped her, yet neither one of us was intoxicated, and I was clearly an intelligent, articulate, and helpful fellow photographer.
I also wrote that I am clean shaven and white, which apparantly was “racist”. That’s what I am and I make no apologies. I don’t have tattoos, or a pierced tongue and metal ringed nostrils, and I don’t have a big build, with steroids or weigh 250 lbs. Do you see my point? I’m 5’9, 175 lbs, with a short haircut.
Someone wrote that Ted Bundy, the killer, was also white and clean shaven. So what? If it’s wrong to point out that most murders in this city are committed by non-whites, than I will politely refer you to the LA TImes homicide report. The victims are almost entirely black and Hispanic. That in itself is an injustice and wrong.
And it is also “sexist” to broadly label any man, such as me, as a threat to women. Don’t put me into the category of Ted Bundy when I more clearly fit into the shoes of Woody Allen.
The same Studio City women, who are so averse to the “awful risk” of giving me a ride, will be speeding at 50 mph down Moorpark in their 2 ton S.U.V’s, drinking coffee and talking on their mobile phones oblivious to anyone else’s life, but confident that their own pleasure and comfort is foremost.
Funny that what we fear the most is the least dangerous and what we do daily is oftentimes the riskiest.
Here in Van Nuys 
There is very little information on fear of men or androphobia perhaps because it is so normal that people don’t think it is a problem.
Men are dangerous and violent, we see it every day on tv and in the news.
Also many have experienced it first hand.
I don’t know how to get over it myself.
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You should have told her if she didn’t get in the car you would notify the mother ship that you found a suitable female for transport and to beam you both up immediately.
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Some people are just crazy around here. Thats about it.
http://StudioCity.mobi
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It is sad that many people in LA county don’t feel safe around strangers, but this woman isn’t so bad. She made a practical decision. I have a big build and constantly notice people that seem to be afraid of me. Sometimes people here in Sherman Oaks look at me as if I am an escaped gorilla who could freak out at any moment. I try to counter this by dressing blandly and having a calm, aloof, Zen-like demeanor. This usually works after a person has seen me a few times, then I become a novelty for being the opposite of what they first expected.
People are crazy here though, and I’m reluctant to get involved with strangers even though I’m almost always bigger than them. One time an old man at a gas station asked me for a ride a couple of blocks because it was too hot to walk. I agreed and when he said we had reached his apartment building I said “okay let me find a place to park.” I had to go half a block to find a safe place to let him out where I would not be double parking on a busy part of Burbank in Encino. But he was so old he didn’t understand what I was saying and seemed to think I was kidnapping him. He kept saying “Please! Please stop here! I live here! Please!” while I tried to explain I was looking for a safe place to stop.
If you really believe that woman speeds in an S.U.V. while drinking coffee and talking on a cell, maybe you should be afraid of her. Heh. In all seriousness, I do understand why you are unhappy with the lack of trust and community around here; but there are too many people around who are selfish, mean, or stupid. It’s just not practical to trust people without reason in this time and place. I think some kind of critical mass of decency must be reached in a community before it can be improved further by being nice to strangers, and we’re not there yet. Maybe I’m pessimistic.
The race stuff reminds of a blog called the inductivist.
inductivist.blogspot.com
This guy digs into statistics about race and religion with reckless disregard for political correctness. It’s ugly and he has a few weird views about women and religion in my opinion, but still it is interesting because he has statistics about stereotypes that most people would not publish. I think all of us in the LA area have known good people from many races, so it can be fun to look at the little differences between groups without judging individuals.
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My dog’s afraid of men with facial hair. Who can say what’s going through his mind?
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