Call Them What They Are! Assailants.

“How often have we stood there helplessly? How many times have we left a situation, giving our space over to assailants? How often have we said something, but our words have had no impact...or worse, how often have our words been used to escalate the assault against us?”

~ “Consequence: Beyond Resisting Rape,” by Loolwa Khazzoom, Page 13

Yes!

Call them what they are!

Assailants.

A person standing on the sidewalk who catcalls, or reaches out and touches me, because he can, with impunity, is an assailant.

Yes! Call them what they are! Assailants. A person standing on the sidewalk who catcalls, or reaches out and touches me, because he can, with impunity, is an assailant.

A dear friend shared the following story with me years ago and it has never left my head.

She was walking down the street and three youngish guys were coming towards her. As they passed, one of them tweaked her butt. She turned around and yelled, “Hey, what was that! Not cool!” They stopped in their tracks and turned around with stupid smirks on their faces as if saying, “Hey little lady, what are you going to do about it?”

Then there was something about her asking a woman who was witnessing this to watch her bags as she put them down on the sidewalk and walked towards them.

“You did that???”

“Yeah, what are you going to do about it?”

Up flies her foot kicking him soundly in the head, off balancing him, and shocking his friends.

Up flies her foot kicking him soundly in the head, off balancing him, and shocking his friends. Assailant seems to want to engage, but his friends, smartly said to him, “Dude, did you just see what she did?? Let’s just go!”

And that, as I remember, was the end of the story.