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Path: utzoo!watmath!saquigley
From: saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: using public anger to avoid attacks/harrassment
Message-ID: <10594@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 4-Jan-85 20:59:40 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.10594
Posted: Fri Jan  4 20:59:40 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Jan-85 03:23:37 EST
References: <1767@wateng.UUCP> <709@ames.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 36

> 
> 	From wateng!jamcmullan (Judy McMullan):
> > 
> > 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.
> 
I took a self-defense class.  One of the things we learned in the class is
how to give that "cold deadening stare" that Judy mentioned above.
The point that was made in class was that prevention was the best way
to deal with potential attacks.

> -  From the Crow's Nest  -                      Kenn Barry

Sophie Quigley
...!{clyde,ihnp4,decvax}!watmath!saquigley