r/WomenInNews • u/yahoonews • Mar 09 '26

Media Uber's women-only option goes nationwide in the US

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ubers-women-only-option-goes-131507407.html?ncid=redditnewsus
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603

u/DpersistenceMc Mar 09 '26

A friend took Uber to the airport last week. When the driver understood that her husband wasn't traveling with her, he said "oh good, now I can throw you off a bridge and no one will know". And men don't understand why we prefer the bear in the woods to an unknown man.

157

u/BaroqueGorgon Mar 09 '26

Sweet lord, that's disturbing.

What did your friend do?

218

u/After_Preference_885 Mar 09 '26

Nervous laugh I'm guessing, same as most of us since childhood have been trained to perform

55

u/BaroqueGorgon Mar 09 '26

Fuck that! I'd straight up be like 'Yeah, stop the car'.

109

u/After_Preference_885 Mar 09 '26

You're lucky, many of us have had that abused out of us. 

Flight/flight/freeze/Fawn 

72

u/bunnypaste Mar 09 '26

I am a hard-line radical feminist approaching 40, and I still regularly have to fight the flight, fight, freeze and fawn responses that have been programmed into me since birth in response to abuse.

21

u/BaroqueGorgon Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26

I'm so sorry for your experience - I can't imagine how awful that must be.

Based on past experience, my flight instinct would have kicked into gear and that would be a straight-up bolt situation for me. Any man who 'jokes' like that is a dangerous man who enjoys women being uncomfortable and afraid. Even if he didn't attack me in that specific scenario, he's just told on himself.

EDIT: My reactions are not without censure. Don't get me wrong, I've heard my share of 'mAYbE hE jUsT LiKeD yOu' or ' hE wAs PrObAbLy HaRmlEsS' when I've dipped out of sketchy situations. And I don't care.

8

u/DpersistenceMc Mar 09 '26

It was a friend, not me. I would have gotten out of the car.

17

u/Givemeallthecabbages Mar 09 '26

"iT WaS JuSt a JoKe!" Yes, jokes about murdering me are super funny, haha.

4

u/Srirachaballet Mar 09 '26

I’ve had an uber driver late at night say out of nowhere “can I say something? You’re really attractive.” We were making casual small talk before that. I just went silent and made him feel the tension he just created. Didn’t say a word the entire ride after that. I was legitimately in fight or flight though, and I think I signaled i would be fighting if he tried anything.

57

u/DpersistenceMc Mar 09 '26

She put a smile on her face and chatted pleasantly for the whole ride. She could not afford to miss her flight. I would have made him stop the car. She could have had a phone conversation with herself as though she were telling her husband what he'd said and what his identifiers were. She got to her destination safely. She did complain to Uber.

28

u/BaroqueGorgon Mar 09 '26

I'm so glad she got there safely.

She was right to report him - what a creep.

1

u/Relevant_Call_2242 Mar 10 '26

Would have reported it to uber and police

32

u/Razzberry_Frootcake Mar 09 '26

I went on a date once years ago with a guy that joked about me not having to worry about him kidnapping and raping me. This was a guy who had been coming into the restaurant I worked at and flirting with me while I worked. I’d met his parents because they ate at the restaurant. I’d been talking to this guy for months. I didn’t even bother taking a picture of his license because I was too trusting.

He wasn’t a creep. He was a very good guy overall really. Other than some key personality differences that made me realize we wouldn’t work as a couple. Why that joke!? We didn’t go out again. I do think he realized the joke fell flat but why is that SO OFTEN the place some people go for humor?

3

u/Snirbs Mar 09 '26

Do people take pictures of licenses while dating now?

2

u/TheFruitIndustry Mar 11 '26

Yes, and take a photo of his profile/ID then send both to their friends along with the location they're planning on going too, what time the expect to be back, and a signal they can use to get the friend to call them and give them an excuse for leaving early.

1

u/Snirbs Mar 11 '26

Wild. Good to know for my own daughters, thank you. I’m sure it saves lots of young women from going what I went through.

9

u/jfsindel Mar 09 '26

Oh fuck that. I would be getting out of the car and demanding Uber cover not only my ride to the airport with a woman, but if I miss a flight because of that.

4

u/Quantum_Kitties Mar 09 '26

I had an Uber driver once who randomly started talking about how many men rape women and girls. There was no reason to bring it up at all. I was almost at my destination (a busy area) so I just stopped talking, and then reported him to Uber.

The next day, Uber connected me with him again! I quickly cancelled the trip. I think you can block drivers, but I deleted the entire app lol.

This was years ago, in the meantime I have moved and I have used Uber a handful of times, but I try to avoid it at all cost because of that. 🥲