No women every wants to think she will be assaulted in any point of time in her life; yet, sadly that is not the case. According to rainn.org a women is a victim of sexual assault every 2 minutes and there are over 207,000 sexual assaults a year. Imagining that someone is sexually assaulted every two minutes is hard to believe, but it this is cold hard truth.
As women we need to to take a stand against sexual assault. Some people say that women who are dressed more provocatively where "asking for it," which is definitely not the case. No matter how a women it dressed it does not give anyone the right to physically force themselves onto them in any shape form or fashion.
Secondly, women need to become advocates for the word "NO." If someone is coming onto you and you say no, no still means no. Maybe, I'll think about it is, is not good enough. Don't leave anything up to interpretation. This two letter word could ultimately change the outcome of some situations.
Furthermore, we can always take the precarious route of carrying pepper spray, or a pocket knife, or even a tassor if need be so in case we ever find ourselves in this type of situation you have a little something extra to help protect you. The only downfall with using items such as these is that you have to not only be prepared to use them if a situation unfolds, but also know how to use them properly so you will not ultimately end up hurting yourself in the end.
Finally, women love to do things together, so possibly starting a self defense class or taking a class at a local recreation center could be great. It gives women a chance to bond, and to also learn self defense mechanisms to keep them safe which is a plus.
All in all, the greatest gift that God gave us as women is intuition. As a women you can feel when something is right and it's wrong. So use your gut feeling to determine if you are about to step into a potentially harmful situation,because it just might be what saves you from being the next 2 minute statistic.
Shannon, I enjoyed reading your perspective and I agree with all your points. I especially like the part about sternly saying no and leaving nothing to question. I believe women should not be the only one taking steps to reducing the risks of being attacked. Society as a whole needs to go back to the basics of viewing and displaying women as human beings with a soul rather than sexualized objects of meat that can be used and trodden down upon. Once we get to the core of the problem we can ultimately end the assaults against women, but until we do that we will still be trying to stop the problem from the outside such as using tasers, self defense classes, and etc.
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