The post I wrote a couple of days ago discussing the reality of being a young woman, or a woman, for that matter, in this world, prompted me to write another post dealing with similar subject matter, but perhaps in a more constructive sense. Allow me to acknowledge that by no means am I a safety or self-defence expert; rather, I’ve learned some things in time that I consider to be incredibly useful information that I would like to share with the general public.
First and foremost, invest in some knives. I don’t mean cooking knives, but instead hunting knives, which you can purchase at any outdoor or agriculture store. I keep a knife in my purse, my truck, and in my coat pocket at all times.
Consider keeping a baseball bat in your home with a sock on the end of it. The hope of having a sock at the end of the bat is that if you use it and swing it at someone, and they happen to catch it to halt the impact, instead of grabbing the bat, they’ll latch onto the sock, giving you more time to connect.
Either take a self-defence class or teach yourself some key moves using the internet. Know how to throw a proper punch, and how to block one, and if you ever find yourself overtaken, try your damn hardest to punch the perpetrator in the throat as hard as you can. Better yet, find yourself a large, chunky ring to wear to add more of an impact.
Keep a can of hairspray or spray paint in your bag or vehicle. Hair spray, when sprayed directly into the eyes, hurts like a bitch, and the idea of the paint is to notably mark someone who attempts to harm you so they’re easier to identify.
I pray no one ever needs to make use of these tips, but I figure this information is better shared with the public than not.
Photo by Dan Burton on Unsplash
ontheedgeofeverything 
The big problem I’ve had with self-defense is that it’s kinda impossible to really practice it outside of a safe and controlled environment! I’ve taken a whole bunch of classes with a friend of mine over the last year but I still feel like I might just fall apart if put in a real situation. Lol the best options I’ve found for addressing this problem is certain male friends who’ve offered to put on kind of semi-serious mock fights to help us test. It’s a crazy idea, but I also dunno what else you can do.
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Thank you so much for reading! I couldn’t agree with you more. It is incredibly difficult to find scenarios in which you’re able to realistically practice, but I think the idea of getting some of your male buddies to let you engage with them is genius! I might have to try that myself, so thank you for the idea. 🙂 Keep up the hard work regardless; I commend you for your commitment and dedication.
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Great article! I do love the hairspray idea, I’ve known a few women who’ve used that one, although it annoyingly doesn’t get the same range as real pepper spray does (how sad that I know that).
Another really interesting angle with women learning self-defense is that it can accidentally be of huge benefit to boys too. We had this with my son when he was in his roughest teenage years (15/16ish) and he had some really bad behavioral problems for a while (which he luckily grew out of). One of the things that rather interestingly corrected his behavior was the fact that he harassed a woman at one point who did not take it well, and she basically responded by kicking his ass. The cool benefit of that was that he actually seemed to learn his lesson and he never messed with women again.
Not really something they focus on in self-defense classes but still an interesting by-product I thought!
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Hi Penny! Thank you for reading and for your comment. You are so right in saying how sometimes things can lead to unexpected results, but in a very positive way. Stay safe out there.
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