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ENTITY talks sexist comments on Airbnb

Recently, China has noticed the sexist comments made on their Airbnb site. Though comments made about a women’s physical appearance are, unfortunately, no news for this online service, the recent Zhengzhou murder have posed them as a potential threat.

The murder of a woman in Zhengzhou, China who used Didi Chuxing’s taxi service, Hitch, is what prompted this sudden shift.

Hitch, being a social ride-sharing service, allows users to rate each other by appearance. One can only imagine how that feature could devolve into something more sinister. And it did.

Based on comments made about her appearance on the platform, the driver picked up the woman and allegedly murdered her. Since then, Hitch has taken measures to review its operations. But why did it take a murder to realize that comments like these are hurtful towards women?

“In the past, I felt such comments were compliments and even felt a sense of pride,” said Sun Qian, a frequent user of Airbnb, who has had comments made about her appearance. “But recent events got me thinking how too much of my personal information is exposed on these platforms.”

In China, it’s much more acceptable to comment on one’s appearance. My own Chinese family members have made casual remarks about my appearance (all in good jest). There’s even a phrase in Chinese that literally means “you are blessed.”

Figuratively, however, it means you’ve gained weight (in a healthy, positive way).  It’s a cultural thing, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a problem. As Didi and Airbnb have shown, this liberal treatment of commenting on a woman’s appearance can go very wrong on online platforms.

Comments found on the Airbnb site include: “what long legs this lovely little sister has” and “a legendary beauty, both sexy and passionate.” If this doesn’t scream creepy to you already, there’s also “the landlady and her mom are both babes.”

It doesn’t matter what men think about the female guests or hosts. They are providing a housing service. It does not warrant you to comment on their appearance.

However, men don’t seem to get the message. Recently, my friend recounted an experience where her Lyft driver asked for her number. All she wanted was to get to work on time. Yet, this driver thought it would be a good decision to hit on her.

When she declined to give him her Instagram handle, he opened his phone to the add new contacts page. First of all, that is grade A creepy. Second of all, why do you expect a woman to give a complete stranger her number? Third of all, f-ck off.

It’s like women can’t catch a break. And statistics show, we really can’t. In 2014, SSH reported that 65 percent of all women have experienced some form of street harassment. According to National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 91 percent of rape and sexual assault victims are female and 63 percent of sexual assaults go unreported. These numbers are abysmal and disheartening. And it’s because of these statistics that women don’t feel safe using these shared economy apps.

Just last winter I was in Beijing. After catching a movie with my friends, I used the Didi taxi service on Wechat to call a taxi home. Little did I know, I had gotten into the wrong taxi by accident, but the driver said he could drop me off after he took the original caller home. It was late and I was tired and he said it would take 15 minutes. I said okay.

However, as soon as he got onto the freeway, I started feeling uneasy. Why would you need to take the freeway for a short ride? I gave him the benefit of the doubt, but as he got further and further away from my original destination, I started to panic. He said it would be quick.

There was the original girl in the car as well, but I couldn’t guarantee what would happen after he dropped her off. Plus, I wasn’t on Didi’s radar. As soon as he got off the freeway, I told him to let me out of the car so I could call another taxi. “You’re driving too far,” was my explanation, and to my relief, he let me off. It was quite possible that nothing would’ve happened, but I couldn’t take the chance. I took another taxi home (the right one this time) and breathed a huge sigh of relief when I reached my apartment.

It’s moments like these that remind me how many precautions we have to take as women. Whenever I get into an Uber or Lyft by myself (rarely), I let my friends know where I am. Yasmina Guo in Bloomberg said, “she’s seen female acquaintances replace their profiles overnight with cartoon pictures or […] menacing-looking old men.” Because even having a picture of ourselves can pose a threat to our own safety.

The comments on Airbnb, Hitch and other community apps proliferate a sexist culture. They tell other men and people that it’s normal to comment on a woman’s appearance no matter the situation. It tells them that as long as a woman exists, they must rate her.

It’s comments like these that make us feel objectified and unsafe getting from point A to point B. If no one takes action, this behavior will continue to persist.

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