features@ihuxf.UUCP (01/31/84)
Regarding the "non-approachability" and not being hassled. The Working Women's Forum here at Bell Labs (Naperville) had a demonstration by a member of a Chicago women's self-defense group Chimera. The speaker told a story about one woman who had had one of "those" days: hassles from all and sundry, and she was up to her eyebrows in frustration. On her way home (via public transportation), she was accosted by a man. She was so furious she just yelled at him, "Get out of my way" and marched down the stairs to the street level. It wasn't until she got home that she realized that the man had had a gun in his hand! The moral of the story: If you can disrupt the mental game plan of a potential attacker, he is not likely to follow through with his original plan. (Like the burglars: they'll pick the house that's least protected.) It is not infallible, but it can work. Mary Ann Zeszutko AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL