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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
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