把男性的身高标准写进工业设计,就是一种结构性暴力Industrial Design Based on Male Height is a Form of Structural Violence
这篇新闻揭示了一个极其典型的 structural violence 样本:电动滑板车(e-scooters)的伤亡率远高于摩托车,而女性的重伤率更高。最令人作呕的细节在于,女性更容易遭受胸部受伤,因为把手的标准高度是为男性设计的。
这就是典型的 masculine-centric narrative 在工业设计上的投射。在设计者的认知入口里,一个“标准用户”默认就是成年男性。女性在这样的系统中被处理成了“次要用户”或“边缘适配者”。她们在使用产品时,必须在不适配的生物墙面前进行妥协——强行适应一个过高的把手,从而导致重心失稳,增加事故风险。这种风险在数据上被呈现为“事故率”,但在本质上,这是设计者通过忽略女性身体事实而实施的暴力。
更有趣的是,面对这种血淋淋的 data,官方和专家的反应是呼吁“强制安全培训”和“佩戴头盔”。这又是典型的共谋逻辑:当结构性缺陷导致受害者受伤时,解决方案竟然是要求受害者通过“自我规训”和“增加防御”来抵消制度性的缺陷。他们试图用 cultural violence(教育和培训)来掩盖 structural violence(设计缺陷)。
如果一个产品的设计标准本身就是一种 exclusion,那么在这种产品上发生的事故就不是随机的概率问题,而是一场关于身体适配权的博弈。只要“默认人类”依然等于“男性”,女性在公共空间的每一次移动,都将是一次在不适配设备上的生存战争。
This news reveals a textbook sample of structural violence: e-scooters are far more dangerous than motorcycles, and women suffer disproportionately more severe injuries. The most revolting detail is that women are more prone to chest injuries because the handlebars are typically set at a height for men.
This is the projection of a masculine-centric narrative onto industrial design. In the designer's cognitive entry, the 'standard user' is defaulted to an adult male. Women are treated as 'secondary users' or 'marginal adaptations' in this system. They are forced to compromise against the biological wall—straining to fit an oversized handlebar, which destabilizes their center of gravity and increases accident risks. In the data, this is presented as an 'accident rate,' but in essence, it is violence exerted by designers who ignored the biological facts of the female body.
Even more telling is the reaction from officials and experts: they call for 'mandatory safety training' and 'compulsory helmets.' This is a classic complicity logic: when structural flaws cause victims to suffer, the solution is to demand that the victims offset systemic defects through 'self-discipline' and 'increased defense.' They attempt to use cultural violence (education and training) to mask structural violence (design flaws).
If the design standard of a product is itself a form of exclusion, then accidents occurring with such products are not a matter of random probability, but a game over the right to bodily adaptation. As long as the 'default human' equals 'male,' every movement of a woman in public space will remain an existential war on ill-fitting equipment.