Self-defense against rapists

The man who taught a recent self-defense class has a female friend who was attacked last year in the parking garage at her worksite one night after work and taken to an abandoned house and raped. He started a women's group and began teaching these classes soon after.

The man is a black belt in karate and trains twice a year with Steven Segal. He and the others in this group interviewed several rapists and date rapists in prison about what they look for. They learned the following facts:

The #1 thing men look for in a potential victim is hairstyle. They are most likely to go after a woman with a ponytail, bun, braid, or other hairstyle that can easily be grabbed. They are also likely to go after a woman with long hair. Women with short hair are as not common targets.

The #2 thing men look for is clothing. They will look for women who's clothing is easy to remove quickly. The #1 outfit they look for is overalls because many of them carry scissors around to cut clothing and on overalls the straps can be easily cut.

They also look for women on their cell phone, searching through their
purse or doing other activities while walking because they are off guard and can be easily overpowered.

The time of day men are most likely to attack and rape a woman is in the
early morning, between 5 and 8:30 a.m. The number one place women are abducted from/attacked at is grocery store parking lots. Number two is office parking lots/garages. Number three is public restrooms.

The main thing about these men are looking for is a woman they can grab and quickly move to a second location where they don't have to worry about getting caught. Only 2% said they carried weapons because rape carries a 3-5 year sentence but rape with a weapon is 15-20 years. If you put up any kind of a fight at all, they get discouraged because it only takes a minute or two for them to realize that going after you isn't worth it
because it will be time-consuming.

These men said they will not pick on women who have umbrellas, or other
similar objects that can be used from a distance, in their hands. Keys
are not a deterrent because you have to get really close to the attacker
to use them as a weapon.

So, the idea is to convince these guys you're not worth it. Several defense mechanisms he taught are:

* If someone is following behind you on a street or in a garage or with
you in an elevator or stairwell, look them in the face and ask them a question, like what time is it, or make general small talk, I can't believe it is so cold out here, we're in for a bad winter. Now you've seen their face and could identify them in a lineup, you lose appeal as a target.

* If someone is coming toward you, hold out your hands in front of you
and yell Stop or Stay back! Most of the rapists this man talked to said
they'd leave a woman alone if she yelled or showed that she would not
be afraid to fight back. Again, they are looking for an EASY target. If you
carry pepper spray (this instructor was a huge advocate of it and carries it
with him wherever he goes), yelling "I HAVE PEPPER SPRAY" and holding
it out will be a deterrent.

* If someone grabs you, you can't beat them with strength but you can
by outsmarting them. If they grab your wrist, pull your wrist back so your
hand is in waving position (palm facing forward) and twist it toward
yourself and pull your arm away. It is hard to hold onto wrist bones that are moving in that way. They stumble toward you and you stumble back, so you can use that momentum to bring the same hand out and backhand them with your knuckles in the forehead, nose, or teeth.

* If you are grabbed around the waist from behind, pinch the attacker
either under the arm between the elbow and armpit or in the upper inner
thigh. HARD. One woman in a class this man taught told him she used the underarm pinch on a guy who was trying to date rape her and was so
upset she broke through the guy's skin and tore out muscle strands - the guy needed stitches. Try pinching yourself in those places as hard as you can stand it. It hurts.

*After the initial hit, always go for the groin. If you hit a guy's testicles, it is extremely painful. You might think that you'll piss the guy off and make him want to hurt you more, but the thing these rapists told our instructor is that they want a woman who will not cause a lot of trouble. Start causing trouble and he's out of there.

* When the guy puts his hands up to you, grab his first two fingers and
bend them back as far as possible with as much pressure pushing down on
them as possible. The instructor demonstrated this without using much pressure and his partner ended up on his knees and both knuckles cracked audibly.

Of course the things we always hear still apply. Always be aware of your
surroundings, take someone with you if you can, and if you see any odd
behavior, don't dismiss it, go with your instincts. You may feel a little silly at the time, but you'd feel much worse if the guy really was trouble.

This is simple information that could save your life.