It’s interesting. My immediate thought was that it wasn’t on my list but… it’s on my list. It’s not my top fear, but it’s on the list.
What I’m not sure of is whether it would have been on my list a week ago. Threads like this amp up my anxiety about some really ugly male attitudes. The contempt some men show for women, women’s autonomy, and our worth as individuals is scary.
How about the difference between offering advice after it’s been requested and spouting condescending claptrap multiple times after others have pointed out that it’s not welcome?
Look, you’re the one that showed up to claim that you had something special to share and just haven’t been appreciated like you should. To wit:
Hence my question “exactly what extra qualifications for listing common safety precautions comes from martial arts mastery?”, a question you still haven’t answered.
So in other words, you are yet another man patting the poor stupid little wimmenz on the head and telling them how to take care of themselves. Because no one on the entire fucking planet has ever told any of them “don’t get drunk in public” or “don’t let yourself get set up”. And obviously women are way too stupid and incompetent to think of those things themselves, it takes a martial arts expert to advise them to do so.
After all, it is completely and totally reasonable to expect all women to completely give up all freedom to live as they choose, because it is simply not possible to tell asshole men “stop acting like assholes, that’s no longer acceptable behavior”. Boys will be boys, and all that.
Poor, poor abused little men. Poor, poor little Shodan, so unappreciated for his marvelous and singular wisdom.
Manipulative abusive women do the same things. AFAIK, they tend more to emotional and psychological abuse than physical, but the basic techniques (isolate, restrict, violate, justify) are the same.
I think, from my POV as a man, the disconnect I feel with what you’re saying in this paragraph is that those guys who don’t really “get” that what they’re doing is rape are kinda the low-hanging fruit of the drive to fight rape culture. The guy who sets out to rape and not get caught, he’s not going to be particularly responsive to anything I say–but the guy who hasn’t got it through his thick skull that “she’s drunk” = “you are raping her” probably CAN be swayed if he can be convinced.
Granted, this is the same reason that “rape prevention” advice is so often bunk–it seems to me that most rapes/assaults I’ve ever been aware of were not violent, or from strangers, they were from frat guys who took liberties at parties because they thought that’s what parties were for and if you came to one and got drunk, as a woman, it was because that’s what you wanted. It might be a function of what people one knows, granted.
That doesn’t really jive with the following comment you made, namely
If the advice you’re giving isn’t in your experience construed as distinct from slut-shaming, then why bother saying this? Then again, I ask the same question asked upthread–what special expertise do you bring to the table that is not something everyone’s heard before, and/or due to your particular training as a martial artist?
Then again, if you can’t see that this isn’t a thread for jokes, even black humor such as you demonstrate here, I’m not sure how anyone can help you not be construed poorly.
I don’t know what you are talking about. I said it because it was, and is, a problem. Dolts like redtail23 are going to misconstrue everything. That can’t be helped. I address myself (when I teach) to the teachable.
The experience of teaching defensive tactics.
Many years back I taught at a local community college, as well as teaching jujitsu at my university club. And there I encountered people who were resistant to some of the common-sense notions that I taught. They often fell into one of two categories - men who were threatened by women learning to defend themselves, and feminists of a certain stripe, who were threatened by the fact that I did not care about their rhetoric. Both these types tried to denigrate what I was teaching, both hand-to-hand skills and the kind of situational awareness that is even more important. Tough shit - I don’t care. I don’t care if your boyfriend is afraid you will be able to fight back, and I don’t care if you think it is a denial of your personal freedom to tell you not to get drunk in public (as redtail23 apparently believes).
So that is one of the things I bring - the ability to spot bullshit. To be fair, that kind of BS doesn’t just come from women, as in that ridiculous pepper spray thread, where men were claiming that a woman cowering away from a threatening man with pepper spray in your hand constituted assault.
It doesn’t matter if I make jokes or not. Some people (like redtail23) are going to misunderstand no matter what I say. Therefore, I might as well amuse myself.
You know what Shodan, no one in this thread is currently teachable. Right now, it’s coming across as patronizing. So if you want to focus your efforts on the teachable, take it somewhere else. Not hear, not now.
Look, honey, just have your boyfriend show you how to use the Back button. Then you won’t have to trouble your pretty little head about my posts in this thread.
Gee in a thread about guys not respecting what women have to say and thinking they know what a woman needs, this guy is being told that his “helpful” approach is actually offensive and he doesn’t listen because he knows better what a woman needs.
Gosh, that sounds just as stupid as thinking that asking people to behave respectfully on a message board is the same as forcing them to participate in a feminist focus group.
Why? Why are you choosing to respond like this? Did I do something to hurt you? Am I threatening? Do you want to get a rise out of me? Do you want to finally convince ME after all these years that you are an asshole? Come on Shodan, this is me.
Remember when you said you didn’t want to come to a twin cities dope fest because maybe people wouldn’t like you? I know you aren’t this person.
Thank you. I think having an interest in telling women how to protect themselves is a good thing. Its certainly more positive than the “but no doesnt always mean no”. Or “i can’t read signals, don’t blame me.” tactics. But here and now, there are a lot of women who have had a lot of their triggers pulled trotting out rape and abuse stories. We don’t have a lot of patience for what we perceive as patronizing, whether that is the intent or not. We don’t need to be told we should have kneed him in the groin, or not accepted a ride home, or held our keys in our hands to form a crude weapon, or carried mace or a handgun. My mace was in my purse, my purse was on the other side of the room, and the door was locked.