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Fearless in the city
Boston Globe ^ | March 9, 2006 | Donovan Slack

Posted on 03/09/2006 6:42:53 PM PST by george76

Some women still party as if invulnerable

It's midnight at Pravda, a trendy Manhattan bar where graduate students from nearby New York University are jammed into leather booths.

A group chants, ''Another vodka! Another vodka!" A young woman named Jovana is in the corner, kissing a young man she met hours earlier.

Days after the brutal rape and murder of a 24-year-old graduate student from Boston who had been drinking at a bar two blocks away, the scene is notable for an absence of fear.

''It happens here," Barbara Klen, a 24-year-old NYU student, said of the slaying. ''It happens everywhere. What can I do about it?"

Such carefree attitudes are more than the usual bravado of young adults, some sociologists say, and instead reflect false feelings of safety that are unique to the generation of women that grew up watching ''Sex and the City," chatting with strangers on the Internet, and relying on cellular telephones as lifelines.

Many young women were children when high-profile sex crimes such as New York's so-called preppie murder and the brutal rape of a Central Park jogger occurred in the late 1980s;

many weren't even born when the movie ''Looking For Mr. Goodbar," about a young woman who is murdered after drinking at a New York bar, came out in 1977.

binge drinking...

Seated next to Bassett Monday night at The Falls, the SoHo bar where St. Guillen was last seen alive Feb. 25, Bassett's friend Kiri Jewell sipped a glass of shiraz and pondered her own vulnerability.

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: boyfriend; brudnickcenter; conflict; criminology; director; feminism; forthenight; liberials; lookingfor; mrgoodbar; newyork; northeastern; paidgirlfriend; professor; sociology; university; violence
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To: durasell

I know ... you're right.


21 posted on 03/10/2006 8:20:21 AM PST by nmh (Intelligent people believe in Intelligent Design (God))
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To: nmh

I blame repeated viewings of Friends...


22 posted on 03/10/2006 8:22:24 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: nmh

Down the street at Pravda, 23-year-old Jovana Babovic later learned the man she had been canoodling with was married and just wanted to be a ''boyfriend for the night."

Taking it all in stride, she and her friends drank until the bar closed at 2 a.m. and then set off for home together.

''I was a little bit buzzed, whatever, fine, I admit it," she said when contacted the next day. ''But it was just a fun thing."


23 posted on 03/10/2006 8:29:57 AM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76

That is beyond ridiculous. Surely you forgot your /s (sarcasm) tag?


24 posted on 03/10/2006 8:31:02 AM PST by NYC Republican
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To: NYC Republican

You are correct. There should have been a /s.

For all kinds or reasons.


25 posted on 03/10/2006 8:35:40 AM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76

Oh no! Not canoodling! The end of civilization as we know it!


26 posted on 03/10/2006 8:43:35 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: nmh
Tell him gently that Rudy is no longer the mayor.

Still the safest big city in America, by a long shot.

We still don't need to panic just because something bad happened to one person in over 8 million, thanks.

27 posted on 03/10/2006 8:45:07 AM PST by highball (Proud to announce the birth of little Highball, Junior - Feb. 7, 2006!)
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To: durasell
Did you move to NY last week?

Nope, born and bred. You?

28 posted on 03/10/2006 8:45:53 AM PST by highball (Proud to announce the birth of little Highball, Junior - Feb. 7, 2006!)
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To: nmh
no doubt about that but what you see going on is becoming a TREND.

One murder is a "trend"?

29 posted on 03/10/2006 8:46:31 AM PST by highball (Proud to announce the birth of little Highball, Junior - Feb. 7, 2006!)
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To: highball

Same.


30 posted on 03/10/2006 8:46:35 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: durasell
Same.

Then you should know better than to give into media hysteria.

31 posted on 03/10/2006 8:49:00 AM PST by highball (Proud to announce the birth of little Highball, Junior - Feb. 7, 2006!)
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To: highball

I didn't think I was giving into media hysteria. If I came off like that, I apologize. And thinking on it now, I probably came off like that, feeding into the folks who don't particularly like NYC.

I suppose I am offended by the stupidity of the whole thing. NYC is still not some safe wonderland of shopping and drinking.


32 posted on 03/10/2006 8:52:55 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: durasell

No sweat.

I don't know what's feeding this particular frenzy, be it dislike of New York or general bluenose fear that somewhere, people might be enjoying themselves.

Of course one should take reasonable precautions for one's own safety. But for the Boston Globe to tie that into one isolated murder is beyond silly. For FReepers to then latch onto the Boston Globe's paranoia for whatever reason is sad.


33 posted on 03/10/2006 9:22:37 AM PST by highball (Proud to announce the birth of little Highball, Junior - Feb. 7, 2006!)
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To: highball

Moral outrage sells papers. But tie that moral outrage into young girls and liquor, well, there's a real crowd pleaser...it's like saying, "Girls Gone Wild videos are horrific! And we'll show you the film clips to prove it!"


34 posted on 03/10/2006 9:29:25 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: george76

Photo

"Senator Kennedy killed that girl the same as if he put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger" - George Killen ~ State Police Detective - Lieutenant on the scene 


35 posted on 03/10/2006 9:29:56 AM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: highball

What NY needs is a good ole fashioned Sanford White/Evelyn Nesbit/Harry Thaw murder!


36 posted on 03/10/2006 9:33:55 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: highball
Forget the crack about "highball" and congrats!

It is a "trend". It's not limited to NYC and bars. It's happening all over the place. Kids drinking to excess. What's different today is that females are competing with this stuff and don't seem to care about the vulnerable position it puts them in. Many dress like sluts, a few drinks, take off with a stranger and it's a recipe for disaster.

In the old days this would occasionally happen primarily with guys "sowing their wild oats" but today, it's becoming more the norm. What startles me is how "friends" don't look out for one another. Perhaps it's the moral relativeness kicking in -> what's right for me isn't necessarily right for you and then this indifferent aloofness kicks in. It's all related ... .
37 posted on 03/10/2006 10:40:10 AM PST by nmh (Intelligent people believe in Intelligent Design (God))
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