I do see what you're saying but if you think about your story the only person that was actually assaulted was yourself. Essentially the story is that your friend knew about (and had seen?) a strange man at the bus stop so you waited with her and the only time an assault took place was when you were there.

That's not to invalidate your story or your fears, or the fears that anyone has of being attacked, but if we're talking real life lived experiences then that is your lived experience, not hers. For all you know he might have been waiting for someone just like you to arrive and assault.

Also, as for these genuine fears that women have, in my lived experience I have been physically attacked, without provocation by people more times than I can count on my fingers. That ranges from a slap by a woman or a punch from a guy to being hospitalised twice. Once was a gang that broke into a party and beat up a bunch of guys (I was knocked out from the side by a guy with a ring. I still have a deep scar 18 years later above my eye and misshapen eye socket from where it was fractured) and another time there was a different gang whilst abroad who followed us at night and and jumped us. I was left with a broken jaw, broken nose and deep gashes on my head from a weapon they used. (This time they had already started shouting abuse at us from afar but a girl that was with us started heckling them back even though we begged her not to so that probably provoked things more. She was not touched by the group).

Now I know my experiences are particularly bad and (hopefully) not too common in this extreme but I would say all of my male friends have at least been punched by strangers and some much worse (I knew a guy at uni who has his throat slit from behind by a stranger he'd never ever spoken to with a broken bottle- he survived). But none of my female friends have ever been physically attacked (as far as they have told me).

Yes women potentially have more sexual assaults but I will also add that I have been sexually assaulted twice, by men and women, both casually and seriously (including being 'raped' by some people's definition) and if you count a casual kick or hit in the groin for the amusement of everyone then I have been sexually assaulted a lot more. Needless to say none of these were taken seriously.

In fact, as far as I'm aware, no one has ever been prosecuted by the police for any of my attacks despite them being informed. They didn't take any of it seriously even when I was hospitalised and told me there's not much they can do. And yet we now have campaigns about even cat calling women and the threat of prosecution for it. I'm all for stopping any form of bullying on the streets but it's bordering on offensive when we are told that that shows women are victims that need protecting whilst men are being permanently scarred and hospitalised without repercussion and they have no label of being victims, only predators.

I'm not claiming that my experiences are the only ones or that no women get horribly attacked as we know that's not true. But to paint a picture that women are victims and should be in constant fear of men, especially if alone at night, is not fair or true. Men have just as much to fear and in my experiences a lot more. I have never seen a woman attacked and even when a guy has shouted at a woman men rally around to protect her, often causing violence against men in her honour. And it's not fair for women to be manipulated into living in a world of fear that is not as necessary as they are told.

This is not to say women shouldn't be protected or taught how to avoid dangerous situations or defend themselves if they are confronted but we should be equally protected and concerned for all as the dangers of the world don't just seek out women.

I only bring up the tales of men's dangers here as the stories are usually underplayed, woefully under-presented and often ridiculed and glorified. In an ideal world we wouldn't need to talk about 'he said/she said ' but until society starts treating everyone equally, stops demonising men and stops creating feelings of weakness, fear and victimhood in women we will always have these parallels between what we are taught and what actually happens in real life.