http://www.dr-ruthless.com/frameset.htm LOL - ahem...well the principle is sound PILLAR ONE: Knowledge of how criminals operate. To reduce your chances of being targeted, you must understand the bad guy's mindset and modus operandi. Learn to recognize the lures, behavioral clues, ploys and patterns that precede crimes and violence. Assaults against women often involve an initial non-violent interaction (“Can you tell me where....”) or Nice-Guy gestures (“Hey there, let me help you... ”). Other ploys involve pleas for help. Like serial rapist Ted Bundy who sported a fake arm cast, predators prey on women's compassion and empathy. The predator's real intent is to lower your guard, gain proximity or your trust, and ultimately control you and hold you hostage with fear. WARNING! UNDERSTAND TESTING!!! Predators and thugs often test a woman's boundaries to size up her defenses. While engaging you he may be thinking: ‘what is her response to my intrusion... will she let me get closer... can I control her without too much trouble?’ Testing can happen in seconds or over months, preceded by a simple question or persistent unwanted courting. Assailants may also use intimidation tactics to weaken your defenses or get you to comply. Learn to disengage, draw the line, say NO! and do everything you can to immediately break away. Believing a predator's promise “If you do what I say... you won't get hurt...” can be a fatal mistake. Take control and act on your own behalf! PILLAR TWO: Prevention strategies to avoid, deter and escape would-be victimizers. Cardinal Rule: Act sooner than later! Your first lines of defense may be called into play when an intruder gets too close, or won't take NO for an answer. Or you're confronted with a hostile client or touchy-feely coworker. Or you're navigating a dark parking lot or street and need to walk-the-talk. More than a vague notion of appearing like a “tough target”, learn the nuts-and-bolts of these strategies: panoramic awareness, body language and postural skills, verbal de-escalating and boundary-setting methods, using your voice as a deterrent or weapon (or to attract help), and simple evasive tactics - how to "throw the dog a bone" and escape. Another prevention tool is your intuition and gut feelings which picks up signals that our conscious minds have not yet processed. To increase your safety, turn your antenna inward as well as out. PILLAR THREE: Physical defense and the use of weapons. Learn no-nonsense defense skills! Gain practical techniques that you'll be able to bring to bear under the pressure of a real attack. You need to know what to do and equally important, what NOT to do, if physically threatened, forced into a vehicle, thrown to the ground, pinned, choked, beaten or confronted with a weapon. You must know how, where and when to strike, plus how to generate power. (Hint: it's all in the HIPS! Once you know how to generate power, a pen in hand can become a deadly weapon.) Your self defense tool box should include techniques for stand up, “pin” and rape-specific positions, and reflect uncomplicated gross motor skills that are less likely to go POOF! under the effects of “adrenal stress”. Regardless of the weapon - be it knees and elbows or your firearm - you need the will and determination to back it up. PILLAR FOUR: Survival consciousness and fighting spirit. Survival is the ultimate transformer. Sometimes it means doing the unthinkable. Many women have been shocked by the ferocity they exhibited when attacked. “I was so enraged I just went primal...” said one woman who chomped her knife wielding rapist's finger down to the bone in a brutal assault. (It worked. She escaped.) “I turned into Regan from the Exorcist!” recounted another who went ballistic then fled her rapist's car. Here is what Margaret Mead says about this: “When women disengage from their traditional role they become more ruthless and savage than men. Men will fight to show off their prowess and impress females, but when women fight, it is fierce and to the death...” Once a violent attack is underway, hitting the “on switch” and going primal is the single most important strategy, regardless of technique, a woman can employ. The key is channeling terror into animal-like rage. Survival consciousness must become second nature. You must know in advance what's worth fighting for (or possibly losing or taking a life over), and what is non-negotiable. Resoluteness of spirit is the foundation of self defense. It enables all the other ingredients - knowledge, strategies, physical defense tactics - to be effective. Aided by adrenaline, it's also what allows a woman to keep fighting if she is hurt, cut or even shot. BOTTOM LINE: If a woman chooses not to defend herself in a sexual or physical assault, let it be because she has assessed her situation and determined that it is far too dangerous - at least in that moment - but NOT because she doesn't know how to or thinks she shouldn't.
