Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ames.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!tektronix!hplabs!nsc!ames!barry From: barry@ames.UUCP Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: using public anger to avoid attacks/harrassment Message-ID: <709@ames.UUCP> Date: Tue, 18-Dec-84 15:32:12 EST Article-I.D.: ames.709 Posted: Tue Dec 18 15:32:12 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 21-Dec-84 00:32:52 EST References: <1767@wateng.UUCP> Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA Lines: 39 [] From wateng!jamcmullan (Judy McMullan): > [me]>Anger in an actual attack can be helpful, but using anger to ward off > >potential attacks is really just a variant of the "stay indoors" > >solution for rape. It advises you to build walls that reduce your contact > >with a dangerous world. I await better solutions. > > Yeah. You can wait. Meanwhile we women have to walk down the street or > through train stations or into subways. We've got to cope with the leers > and the brushings-against and the dirty and suggestive comments, and worse. > I won't go into what happens in our own offices and homes. > Too many of us have learned the hard way that the cold, deadening stare or > the anger work better than timidity or friendliness. And it IS boring and > it DOES cut us off from the world. And we HATE it. However, we need something > that works, right NOW -- in our day to day lives, while we await the 'better > solutions'. I guess I was unclear in distinguishing "potential attack" and "actual attack". If you will recall, I was responding to an article about the *fear* of being accosted, not about actual harassment. I agree that anger is a proper response to "the leers and the brushings-against [if intentional] and the dirty and suggestive comments, and worse." I think that it is counter-productive, however, as a "defense" against males whose only threat is their proximity. I retract my last sentence, and will instead propose a better solution: Take a self-defense class. This will not only help against an actual attack, it will increase your self-confidence and thereby lessen your fears (if you have them) of the possibility of attack. Not a complete solution to the problem, I agree, but better than replacing constant fear with constant anger. - From the Crow's Nest - Kenn Barry NASA-Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- USENET: {ihnp4,vortex,dual,hao,menlo70,hplabs}!ames!barry SOURCE: ST7891