Monday, December 30, 2019

Their Wits About Them

Over 30 years ago, Denise Caignon and Gail Grove published Her Wits About Her: Self-Defense Success Stories By Women. The book is a compilation of different ways that women have defended themselves against attack, using the tools they had available to them.

IMPACT Chicago shares blogs and Facebook posts of local, national, and international self-defense stories.  Below are some stories that we have shared recently on the IMPACT Chicago blog or on Facebook.  None of the targets of violence were responsible for the violence they experienced. They used their wits, voices, and physical tools to prevent, interrupt, stop, report, or name violence.

Awareness, Assessment, Voice 
  • Meredith Gordon's daughter, a first grader, told her mom that she had learned about consent in school that day. Sometime later when her pediatrician put his hands on her cheeks, she said: "You need to ask permission before you touch me.” He responded: "You are right. You are the boss of your own body."
Yelling, Strikes, and/or Kicks
  • A man pushed a University of Chicago student to the ground & tried to put his hand up her skirt. She bit his arm & he ran off. 
  • Some boys at a high school who saw a transgender boy's selfie taken in the boys' bathroom were angry and decided they would walk into the girls’ bathroom to take their own selfie “as a form of protest." The first boy to enter the girls’ room was met by a girl ― who kneed him in the groin. With that, the “protest” was over.

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