Eve teasing, chikan, groping,....a culture of perversion

It occurred to me and a friend while traveling in a crowded rush hour subway in New York City, that such crowded public places would be considered extremely unsanitary for women in India (and public places usually  ARE  crowded in India). Yet here men and women seemed to be crowded together and nobody seemed to mind the casual physical contact. We were left wondering about the possible reasons that led men to behave so differently in two different cultures - more like behave in one, and misbehave in another. 

Women getting groped in public places is a major problem in South Asia and other places. The recent incident in Tahrir square in Cairo when a western woman journalist was beaten and almost raped was just a more striking example that attracted widespread attention. Yet it's not necessarily just confined to poor third world countries. Japan has its culture of chikan where older men grope girls in crowded trains - and in fact in keeping with the stereotype of perfection coupled with quirkiness that one associates with that island nation,  these perverts have their own social networks where they exchange tips and compare notes on the most effective groping strategies.  A master chikan-er (?) is one who is able to actually pleasure his victim!

Japan possibly needs to be treated as an isolated case, but in most other cases, this might have something to do with the traditionally deep-seated nature of patriarchy and the culturally ingrained gender apartheid with the consequent sexual repression that is endemic to these societies.  The former leads the men to assume that they own the public space It is easy to get away because the women are not confident enough to fight back or have little available by way of public support systems  in a society that is largely insensitive to their problems. Men and women are usually ascribed very different social roles and any interaction between them outside the traditionally prescribed confines of marriage or family, is discouraged. Young men deprived of female company and any outlet for their libido feel entitled to gang up and harass women, of whose sensitivities and bodies they probably understand very little.

Why is it not so pervasive in Western societies then? Is it because the men are less frustrated, sexually or otherwise? Is it because the women are more independent and confident? Is it because they are more accustomed to sharing space with each other, at work or in more relaxed environments?  Or is it simply a cultural difference, for sexual harassment is a problem anywhere, and countries like the US are not exactly very well off when it comes to more serious sexual assaults? Maybe sexual harassment just takes a different form here?   It is not that groping or other such forms of "contact of a sexual nature without explicit consent" are entirely absent here either. A classic case in point would be nightclubs, the basic premise of which seems to be many bodies thrown together in a sexually charged environment.  It could be argued that the women  who go there expect and are prepared for this situation - so it is not entirely non-consensual, and they have the freedom or authority to have a bouncer redress their grievances. It is also quite possible that they shed their inhibitions after a couple of drinks, and such behavior is not as upsetting to them as in more sober times. In a nightclub where women also see men as sexual objects, groping may not carry the same sense of violation as it may bring in other situations. Whatever it is, women in the West seem to be much better off in the public space than their third world counterparts.