Self Defence for Women ... Sort of.

[Stu]

I spotted an ad in a local paper called "Self-Defence Course for Women - via Zoom!" I know from experience in the police that the main protection for an unarmed woman in the street is her demeanour and what she says rather than fancy kicks or armlocks, which rarely work for amateurs. I was, however, reminded of a couple of incidents, one of which happened to a friend called Sally, a tiny young women with short blond hair. She was followed by an unknown man walking through our town centre and into an underpass/subway. He was closing in on her and saying things that left her in no doubt that he was going to molest her, but he didn't know Sally as I did. As he closed in on her, she turned on him, punched him, swore at him, offered to fight him...etc. I knew Sally and she was a little tiger! Not knowing what to do, he decided to run away, but she wasn't having any of that. She chased him through the town and the idiot eventually sought refuge ... in the police station!

Another incident - one in which I was not personally involved but was related to me by a detective in a neighbouring city, was of a mugger accosting an older lady called Mrs Edwards during the early evening. The mugger's system was always to target lone women walking alone along a fairly busy street around 6pm, threaten them with a craft knife, and take their handbag, jewellery and anything else that took his fancy. This was the days before mobile phones or CCTV. He got away with it for a while until he was foolish enough to tackle Mrs Edwards. He threatened her as usual and she handed over her valuables - but she had certain skills that ensured his crime spree was over. Her skills were first that she had a photographic memory for faces: the second was that she was a highly-skilled portrait artist. After the mugging, she made her way straight to the police station with a drawing of her assailant and it was immediately recognised as a local criminal. Within a couple of hours, he was in custody and Mrs Edwards belongings had been recovered along with property he had stolen from several other women. I can't recall his sentence, but for robbery with a weapon he would have had several years in prison to reflect upon his actions - and perhaps learn that attacking an artist with a memory for faces isn't the smartest thing to do.

[partlyscot]

I used to work with a young woman who was a little......unusual. She was brought up by her mother, mostly, and her mother subscribed to a fairly strict religion that sort of thought gender roles were very fixed in certain ways. e.g. women were not permitted to wear pants. But another aspect of her upbringing was that she was raised with 4 older brothers. The end result was a very determined and strong personality.

Anyway, she was *very* good looking, and had some training in cosmetics and would do modeling work on the side. She always came to work perfectly turned out, makeup, skirt, mostly high heels, but far from just decorative. She would come back to the warehouse looking for say, a case of 4x4 litres of cleaner. When I offered to take it up front, she said, "No, it's OK, I've got it" pick up the 35 pound case without any noticeable effort, and cart it off, her 2-3" heels click clacking away. Definitely not a helpless little waif.

One evening at the bar, a friend of her's was being pestered by some dude, the second she realized, she was in his face like a shot, and told him she would "punch him in the ovaries" if he didn't back off. He very wisely left, as nobody in earshot had any doubts about her intentions or ability.