I don’t know if it’s from growing up with three brothers, but my responses to attack are much more typically male than not.
The first time someone tried to rape me, I was 15. I was in the subway, walking through a tunnel toward the stairway up to the street when a man pushed me up against the wall, holding my neck with his forearm (which was holding a knife).
I remember thinking to myself, “It’s 10:30 in the morning in the subway, and this guy’s trying to rape me?” Fortunately for me, I’m good at multitasking, because while I was being incredulous, my body just dealt with it; without even thinking, I kneed the guy in the groin with all my might. The guy crumbled, and I walked away, fast.
I remember he was lying on the ground, shouting as I left, “I thought your kind liked that!”
I never did figure out what kind he meant. Just women in general, I guess. We’re all asking for it.
I have had to use that tactic more than once, even as a teenager (and just like you said, it came automatically, I barely thought or had time to think about it) – my other tactic is a BASEBALL BAT which I keep near enough to get to in case I need to use it…
Some big hulking adolescent tried to drag me off into the bushes in ’76 or thereabout. When I resisted, he brandished a gun, and God help me, I totally went for it.
I did not manage to get it from him, but he did run off, saying “Take it easy, lady-it ain’t even loaded.”
There’s more to the story, but I’m running out of the time to tell it.
well I guess you’re lucky, because I grew up with 2 bitchy sisters and a tyrannical father and a doormat mother and when I got mugged by 2 teenaged girls and a gang (watching), I crumpled like tissue. I can only imagine what I’d be like in a rape-y situation.
guess I’m screwed. well done you, I guess. Must be nice.
“Nice”? My brothers weren’t exactly nice to me. That’s why I had to learn to fight back.