I am on vacation with my family and I am not suppose to be on the blogs or FaceBook and pretty soon I will be too busy hanging with everywhere to be, but I got an email from a friend this morning and I wanted to share.
My friend, let's call her Mary, forwarded me an email to a basic pistol course. I sent back a reply you should go since we had yet another bank robbery yesterday and a convicted murderer is running around town, envading the police.
She returned an email saying "where?"
Me- "our town" and said, "don't you read the newspaper?".
Her- "no, to depressing and scary".
She looks up the info and says "interesting".
I said, "yes, interesting in a girl needs to know how to protect herself kind of way".
She recently lost 100lbs and she said, well when I was bigger I never worried about that, who wants to move that kind of weight, but now maybe I need to think about it.
My response was bad guys don't think like that and your life has always had value.
Now to be fair, I think she was partially joking, but I think she was also partially serious.
Let me say this lady has always been beautiful and weight is not the determining factor for anybody.
But, lets be clear, rape and other crimes against women are not about beauty. They are acts of violance. They are committed by bad guys and all of us are at equal risk.
Regardless of size, we all matter equally. All of our lives are worth fighting for and defending.
The bad guy is looking for money, power, control, the thrill of harming, and how we look has nothing to do with it. He does not see you or me has a person with worth, so you and I darn well better.
You matter. Whatever your flaws or mine, whatever we think we maybe lacking, we are valuable and you better face the fact that world is ugly and if you don't make up your mind to fight, you are at a higher risk. Not of being attacked, but of losing if you do.
There are lots of people who can help you prepare, but you have to look in the mirror and say, "Not today" "I am to valuable and you picked the wrong girl cuz, I will fight you til one of us is dead if I have to, but rest assured it's not going to be me."
I love you Mary and I hope you decide to fight.
I do to Mary!
ReplyDeleteMy cousin had a rapist running around her neighborhood (Camp Pendleton... yeah, the Marine Base). Since civ. firearms are verboten on base, I couldn't recommend that tool, but, of all the people that left her facebook comments, mine was the only one with more substance than OMG SCURRY! I told her, if he should negate the locked doors, to stab him and beat him with a baseball bat. The tool is important, but the mindset above all. Its amazing what people can learn and do, once they see society with finish worn off... none know that so keenly as you. I hope your friend fights, too.
ReplyDeleteI've heard varying stories from women on why they wouldn't be set upon by the bad guy. I always tell them, "I'm 6'3" and 250 and I carry. That should make you think." And it usually does.
ReplyDeleteThere have been accounts of old ladies in their 60s and 70s that were raped, so yea they shouldn't assume anything.
ReplyDeleteWe women have been deceived. The media has led us to believe from early childhood that we need to look like a Barbie to have worth.
ReplyDeleteIn the real world
Women are attacked no matter what they look like.
We as women must stop believing the media as start valuing ourselves for who we are, not what we look
Like on the out side.
Choosing to carry a weapon of any sort is a outward expression of our inward " I am worth it" belief.
I am a changed woman since taking tactical gun training classes, and have introduced several women friends to the joy of shooting, and the resultant confidence that comes from knowing they can now defend themselves. This past weekend, one friend who was deathly afraid of guns, left the class with a newfound respect for pistols, and the desire to continue training. i urge all women to take this important step.
ReplyDeleteBad guys have brains that are bad-mush - you can't tell *what* they're thinking, but it bodes nobody any good - stay on the alert and Merry Christmas!
ReplyDelete"We women have been deceived. The media has led us to believe from early childhood that we need to look like a Barbie to have worth. In the real world women are attacked no matter what they look like."
ReplyDeleteAnd isn't that weird? That in our culture, many people think of being attacked, being raped, as a horrifying kind of compliment to the victim? She looked so good, he just had to rape her. Couldn't help himself.
It's bullshit. Rape is a power game. Sex, sure. But mostly power. It's not about the victim. Young or old, fat or thin, stunningly beautiful or downright homely... it doesn't matter. A rapist looking for a victim doesn't care who you are. He only cares what he can do to you. You're just a piece of meat to him, the shape of your body irrelevant and the "you" that animates your body completely inconsequential. He wants what he wants and he'll take it if he can.
It's no compliment.