FOR WOMEN ONLY: THE LIONESS METHOD OF RAPE PREVENTION ***************************************************** Some day, the realization may hit you, "My God! I'm about to be raped, mutilated, or killed!" I hope that never happens; but it is simple fact that 27% of all Canadian women can expect to be sexually assaulted (statistics from Metro Action Committee on Public Violence Against Women and Children, 1991), if our violent crime rates get no worse. They went up by 69% from 1979 to 1989 (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 1991), and are still getting worse, by 7 to 8% per year. When a rape begins, there is no one there but you and the rapist. When it ends, there is still no one there but you and the rapist. When it ends, you will be dead; or alive, but physically and emotionally shattered, probably permanently. You may also be pregnant, or under sentence of death from the AIDS infection he just gave you. Rapists don't use condoms. The police don't come during a rape; they come afterward. It is vanishingly rare to find an instance where a rape has been interrupted or prevented--by anyone but the intended victim. When that realization hits you, you have ten seconds. Within ten seconds, your attacker should be incapacitated, unconscious, or running for his life; or you've probably lost. A good fight is short, sharp, and decisive, not a movie-style brawl. Would you like to learn how to end your rapist's career? If you believe that you cannot injure another human being, this training is not for you. If you believe that it is proper to stop a violent criminal to save yourself and others, it is. Your attacker is usually larger and stronger than you. He is also usually totally untrained in fighting, which is to your advantage. He didn't even learn the feeble fighting methods of school children; if he had ever been able to merit the respect of his peers, he wouldn't attack women in order to feel powerful. You have effective weapons, which you carry everywhere you go. You are perfectly capable of stopping your attacker--if you know how to use the weapons built into your own body. However, you must learn to use your strengths against his weaknesses. You will not learn many tricks here; just enough to defeat almost all rapists. Caution: Practice-with-a-partner for hitting methods is wrong; if you do that, you will do on the day what you do in practice, not what is right. You'll hit the rapist exactly as you hit your practice-partner--without injuring him. The most powerful muscles in your body are your leg muscles. The most powerful blow you can deliver is a heel-stomp. To do one, draw your heel up as far as you can, then try to drive it through the target at high speed. It should be used against the most vulnerable part of a man--and that's not what you think. Men spend their entire lives learning to avoid blows to their testicles; their reflexes are well developed, and fast. It's a bad choice of target for blows, but you can sometimes attack it with a hand which moves into place unnoticed--then grabs and squeezes with all the force at your command. That works well. Men spend their entire lives learning that people do not step on each other's feet; so their foot-protecting reflexes are poor. Also, he has to take his weight off the foot before he can move it. A foot is terribly vulnerable; your smashing heel-stomp to his instep will crush tendons, and break or severely bruise several small bones. A man with such a severely damaged foot can't catch you, and probably won't even try. Small hard high heels are more damaging, but even soft rubber heels are devastating. NOTE: TIGHT SKIRTS PREVENT HEEL STOMPS! The heel-stomp uses the strongest part of your body to damage one of the weakest parts of his; and that principle is used in everything you'll learn here. The heel-stomp can be used from almost any position; even against a man holding you from behind. You just learned how to do major damage--and it requires little practice. Practice the heel-stomp, using full force on an old stuffed shoe, not a partner. Do not learn to go easy! Always use full force. If you have been knocked to the ground, don't try to get up. Double up in faked fear, then use your heel-stomp against his kneecap. It's easy to smash a knee backwards; and the damage you do is severe. Once he goes down, then get up and depart. If your attacker grabs you by the throat with both hands, cup one hand into the other, making a double hammerfist, at waist level; throw your head back, then drive upwards with both arms. As your angled forearms hit his arms, his hands will be thrown outward and away. Then use your hammerfist downward to smash his nose. Next, your forehead is the face of a 10-kilo hammer; so hammer it into what's left of his nose with all the strength you have. The results are devastating. You may be bruised, or even have a superficial cut; but he'll have a broken nose, a severe nosebleed, and his eyes won't be working well for some time. When grabbed by the wrist, break free: A man's arm is stronger than your arm, but your arm is stronger than his thumb. If you try to move in a line, he is stronger, and you'll fail. Move your fist, very quickly, in an 8" (20cm) circle. If he's huge, grab your captive wrist first to use two-arm power. He will always be trying to fight what you were doing a moment ago, but your circle is now going in a new direction. Soon, you'll get to the position where he can't follow your movement any further; your wrist folds his thumb back and breaks out. Practice that with a partner. There are several ways he can grab you: right hand holding your right wrist, from under or from over; right holding your left, under or over; etc. For each, the sequence is the same; look at it, make a fist, then circle toward his thumb--which may mean starting upward or downward, clockwise or counterclockwise. If you go the wrong way, don't worry; it still works, you just have to circle a little further around. You do practice breakouts with a partner; but not this: Always deliver a heel-stomp as you break free, then depart, so you can run and he can't. If you are grabbed from behind around your waist, pry his finger up into your fist (if possible, one from each of his hands in your two hands) then snap his finger backwards to dislocate it. A man with a dislocated finger on each hand finds it hard to hit, hold, or grab you; so heel-stomp him and depart. If your attacker is a trifle more sophisticated, he may twist your arm behind your back. Bow deeply from the hips, straighten your captive arm and lock your elbow; then keep it straight and spin to face him. Deliver a heel-stomp; if he's still got your wrist (unlikely), use a circle break, stomp, and go. You may (rare!) be grabbed in a full nelson--he puts both arms under your armpits, up, and clasps hands behind your head. Just throw your arms straight up, and drop straight down. You end up squatting or sitting on his toes. As you come free, snap your arms down and back--because you're now at the base of an unstable pillar. Grab his ankles, and heave your body backward. He has no leverage to move his feet to save himself, and so you can easily topple him in this way. He will either injure his tailbone, or crunch the back of his head, or both, on impact. Get up. If practical, heel-stomp his kneecap to further discourage him, and go. Stand, and look to your front; then bring your hand up from waist level, close to your body, with the fingertips vertical. Notice that you (he) can't see it until it gets to chin level. That is far too late to try any counteraction. You use that blind area to drive the heel of your hand upward into the base of his nose with maximum speed and force. The results are extremely bloody, painful, and temporarily blinding. That blow ends with your hand above his head; curl your fingers, and come back down, raking your nails across his eyes; then heel-stomp and depart. For the benefit of those who know a little about karate, no, you will not kill him; it is far more difficult to kill with that blow than some literature suggests. NONE OF WHAT YOU HAVE JUST LEARNED WILL DO YOU ANY GOOD WHATEVER, IF YOU WAIT UNTIL THE REALIZATION HITS YOU TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO; YOU'LL DO IT TOO SLOWLY. You must make your decision here and now. Decide now that: When this realization hits me: "My God! I'm about to be raped, mutilated, or killed!", I attack. I will feel rage instead of fear. I will believe that I am being attacked by an animal (you are), that my life is in danger (it is, AIDS or no AIDS), and I have the legal, moral and ethical right and duty to stop this dangerous animal before it injures or kills again--and I will instantly remember all this material. Yes, you can do that. It all works. You're probably not his first victim, so be his last. Turn into a lioness. If you make that decision now, then when the realization hits you, everything you have learned will come cascading back into your mind--sharp, bright, and clear. Yes, that is true. You will have the priceless advantage of his shock: He grabbed a victim, but he's holding a raging lioness. You have now learned how to use your body as a weapon against a violent rapist. Now learn a few ways to deal with offensive drunks and men who ignore "NO!"; situations where you don't need major damage, just educational pain to alter bad behavior. Put your index finger into the hollow at the base of your throat; then push inward and downward. One finger doing that slowly and steadily will cause him to kneel in front of you; but jabbing can damage his windpipe, so use it carefully. Put your index fingers in the hollows under your earlobes, and slide them gently up and down. Feel the pain lump behind your jawbone? Press the pain lump inward. Ouch! Slide your thumb forward an inch (2cm) from the angle of your jaw, then lift the tip of it upward, inside the jawbone. Squeeze that pain lump outward against the jawbone. Place the tip of your thumb under your brow ridge, above the inside corner of your eye, and rock it side-to-side. Feel the tiny pain lump? Squeeze it gently outward, against the bone. If you are grabbed or pushed by a hand near your breasts, put both your hands over his hand, pull inward, and bow. He'll kneel; that bends his wrist backward, and is very painful. Put the edge of your hand under your nose, and push upward and backward, as if trying to slice your way to the top rear of your skull. Inflict that pain to move him back, away from you. What you've just learned much improves your chances of stopping both violent attacks and loutish pawing, but you may have to walk into situations where the risks are so high that you need even more protection. Consider what follows, if you work in a mall, and have to go to your car, late, in a bad underground parking location; or if you sell rural or suburban real estate and must rendezvous with strangers. Noisemakers, and "weapons" like car keys jutting out of your fingers are quite useless. Buy a good quality ($40-$100) 3- or 4-inch blade sharp double-edged boot knife with a good sheath (one it can't cut its way out of). Carry it and a folded paper bag in your purse. Make sure that at least three people witness you using it to open letters--because that's why you own it. It's unlawful to carry a concealed weapon, but not a tool you work with. When you have to walk into danger, take the knife out and put it in the fluffed-out paper bag. Roll the bag around the handle, and carry it by that handle. If you're walking on ice, or anywhere where you might fall, don't carry it unsheathed; you can fall and sever your femoral artery, causing death. Leave the sheath on it, but unfastened. Tear the bottom of the bag so the sheath can be shaken off the blade and out of the bag. If grabbed from the rear, drive your knife into his thigh muscles; that makes him unable to chase you, and marks him for police. If you have to fight him, your knife should be used by making continuous rapid slashes, unpredictable in direction, fast and erratic. It's very difficult to disarm anyone using a knife in that way. It's safer for him to run away from you--so let him do that. A handgun is much better self-protection for a woman, but you can't get a permit to carry one in Canada--yet. The law allows it, but the 98%-male bureaucracy refuses to issue you the necessary permit. You can own a handgun in Canada. First, join a target shooting club. Any store that sells handguns can tell you where to find such a club. Take the handgun training that the club offers, get your club credentials, then buy your handgun. For your first handgun, a .22 Ruger is not ideal for self protection, but it is accurate, reliable, rugged, and cheap to shoot. You need it to learn how to shoot well cheaply, so you will be thoroughly familiar with shooting. You must learn every relevant thing a police constable must know. Also, having one appropriate target handgun already makes it easier when you buy your second handgun--one better designed for protection of life. For self-protection, a small short-barrelled .38 revolver is usually best for a woman; it is safer, because its double action trigger is difficult to pull and therefore you won't pull it when you don't intend to, even under stress. Any handgun will usually cause an attacker to remember urgent business far away. Next, practice actually shooting your revolver, rapid double action while focussed on the front sight, at targets 7 meters away. Virtually all self-protection shooting takes place at under 3 meters. Warning shots and shooting a weapon out of his hand are strictly for Hollywood. Always aim at the center of your target, because in protecting life you always aim at the center of the visible mass to stop him. For protecting life at home, keep your gun unloaded but ready, secure and out of sight in your bedroom. A handgun in a locked metal container, with no trigger lock and no cartridges in it, is legal in Canada. The cartridges may legally be kept in the safe with it, in a speedloader or clip. Purpose-built safes of this type--the size for one handgun--are available. Tell no one about your handgun. Do not keep your handgun where you can reach it instantly while in bed. When you wake, there is a brief confusion; so keep it where it takes major body movement or definite action to get to it. You don't want to shoot your cat or your sister. If you drink heavily, are unstable, or use mind-altering drugs, don't own a firearm. It's not for you. Buy alarms and better locks. The firearms control officials usually refuse permits to carry handguns, regardless of the danger around you. The law contains provisions for issuing the permits, but they refuse to issue them on the basis of a "policy decision." There is Supreme Court of Canada precedent for voiding any law where officials do that. If you can get a permit to carry your handgun, there are purses with two top-opening pockets, and a hidden front-opening velcro- closed one for your handgun. There are jogging "fanny packs" made for handgun carry. Buy and read gun magazines to find one. You do not have the right to threaten with or use deadly force (knife or gun) unless you are at least in a state of reasonable fear that deadly force is about to be used against you. If, when asked why you stopped your attacker, you reply that he was trying to rape you, you may be sent to prison. If you reply that he was trying to rape you and you were afraid that he would kill you, then you probably won't, particularly in a jury trial. Juries don't like rapists either. Never threaten with a weapon you won't use; he'll take it and use it on you. Pre-decide: Use it when it's needed, or don't buy it. My sister, I hope you never need to know or use any of this. For more protection than I can give you in this brief offering, order: "ARMED AND FEMALE" (ISBN 312-923325), by Paxton Quigley, about $6. CLIVE, THE RAPIST -- KNOW YOUR ENEMY ************************************ Clive was born into a violent family. He grew up watching his mother being beaten by his father, and being beaten himself by both of them. The parents who physically abused him also verbally abused him. Clive learned, literally at his mother's knee, that she who verbally abuses Clive can and will physically injure Clive. As he grew, Clive copied his elders. He also used verbal and physical abuse of others to get what he wanted. He learned that anyone who accepts verbal abuse will probably accept physical abuse as well. He also learned that anyone with enough self-confidence to verbally abuse Clive would probably physically injure Clive unless he knuckled under promptly. Later, Clive went to jail, where his fellow inmates continued the pattern. They verbally abused him, and physically injured him if he objected. At gut level, Clive believes that anyone who roars at Clive loudly and abusively can and will injure Clive. When you're attacked by a rapist: Pleading quietly is bad and only encourages him to force you to do anything he wants. Screaming will cause him to hit you to shut you up. Never scream; high tones indicate fear. Roar at him, indicating rage. Moving toward him to attack him physically while roaring obscenities and orders at him will confuse him. You're proving you can injure him. His best move is to escape from you -- because if you injure him, he'll be arrested when he seeks treatment for his injuries. Don't corner him; desperate, he'll fight. Always leave him room to run away. If he were courageous and self-confident, your insults and orders would not affect him; but he isn't. Courageous, self-confident men do not become rapists. Rapists rape because it is the only way that they can enjoy a feeling of power, of being in control -- it has nothing to do with sexual pleasure. Most rapists are cowards, conditioned to obey authority figures promptly and unquestioningly by their fear of injury. Take advantage of that fact; behave like an authority, and be treated like one -- or behave like a victim, and experience his penis in your vagina, your anus, your mouth, or all three; pregnancy; AIDS; perhaps even death. Those are what victims receive. The other common type of rapist is the "mama's boy". Obviously, these methods also work on him, for slightly different reasons: He's not used to verbal abuse, and it frightens him. Most rape victims never fully recover from the effects. They cannot totally separate, in their minds, any other man from the beast who destroyed their pride and self-confidence. It is much better not to be raped than to cooperate in the hope of surviving as a mentally crippled woman. It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lioness; but it is even better to be a live lioness--and usually easier. Behave like a lioness, and win; you deserve to win, and stopping Clive will save your sisters. NFA COPYRIGHT: THIS MAY BE COPIED, REPRINTED, OR DISTRIBUTED BY ANYONE IF THE ENTIRE TEXT IS USED. SEND LONG SASE FOR FREE COPY: NFA, BOX 1779, EDMONTON AB T5J 2P1 PH: (403)439-1394 NFA, BOX 4384 STN C, CALGARY AB T2T 5N2 PH: (403)640-1110 Excerpt from Clive's song: "...a victim, a lioness -- who can tell me which is which?"