Schrödinger's rapist

In an open letter to nice guys everywhere, Phaedra Starling writes:

"So when you, a stranger, approach me, I have to ask myself: Will this man rape me?

"Do you think I’m overreacting? One in every six American women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. I bet you don’t think you know any rapists... Consider: if every rapist commits an average of ten rapes (a horrifying number, isn’t it?) then the concentration of rapists in the population is still a little over one in sixty... How do I know that you, the nice guy who wants nothing more than companionship and True Love, are not this rapist?

"I don’t.

"When you approach me in public, you are Schrödinger’s Rapist...

"Fortunately, you’re a good guy. We’ve already established that. Now that you’re aware that there’s a problem, you are going to go out of your way to fix it, and to make the women with whom you interact feel as safe as possible."

She continues with five things nice guys can do to help. Read her whole post.