on retalliation

Just a quick post this piece on Jezebel made me think a little. I'm fierce about my personal space when out in public, quite frighteningly so sometimes, and I do seem to have a little bit of a rep amongst my male friends as being fairly scary. I don't think I am, I'm only 5'3" and I look about fourteen but apparently this has to come from somewhere (I think it's cause I look like I might bite if poked at).

Anyways, because of my "if you talk to me I will make you wish you had never been born" death glare (took years to perfect, totally worth it) and "Fuck off I'm taken" vibes I very, very rarely get hassled in bars. On the few occasions I have been groped though I have a very clear course of action

1. Politely request that the groper stop groping me.
2. Tell the groper that their continued groping of me despite my very kind request is making me uncomfortable and ask again for them to stop.
3. Inform the groper that I have now asked them twice to cease their inappropriate behaviour.
4. Put my heel through the groper's foot.

I have done this in clubs, (the first time I was actually wearing my favourite pair of stiletto boots, that had to be re heeled so many times that eventually I just said "fuck it, we'll go with the metal tips", this happened after that) and although it is probably not very nice and violence is bad mkay it is a) incredibly satisfying and b) not like I didn't give the guy ample warning.

On the street is another matter however. I am of the "make an absolutely huge fuss" school of thinking, I don't lash out unless I feel really threatened but I'm going to make damned sure that every single other person around me knows what's going on, even if they completely ignore me. One example of this is the time I was standing minding my own business entirely and waiting for a bus on a crowded street a guy in his sixties walked up to me from behind and actually wrapped his arms around me. Needless to say I was freaked. My response was to kick backwards, wrench myself forwards and question at the top of my lungs just what the fuck he thought he was doing. I continued berating him even as he slunk off, mainly because when my brain shuts down my mouth tends to run on its own steam. It was not a nice experience but shit like that happens all the time in London. One of my best friends, S, once had a guy sit next to her on an empty bus, pinning her in against the window and start jacking off while looking straight at her and grinning.

And that's when I really falter: when men expose themselves. I'm not quite sure what to do then. For some reason when it's someone directly assaulting my sense of personal space I can handle it but if it's not aimed directly at me I'm at a loss. And even if it is aimed at me I'm not able to handle it, I just tend to try and move away as quickly as possible - which is weird for a usually gobby cow such as myself.

Thoughts? Stories? Comments? Suggestions on how to deal with this kind of thing?

passive aggressive?

Well, it's 9:30am. I have a tattoo appointment in less than two hours and the fuckers next door decided to have a very loud all night party complete with drumming so loud that I couldn't get to sleep until 5am, even with my headphones in. I speak from experience: tattoo on no sleep = no fun.

So what is my response to this?

Well, the best of Korn has been in my stereo with the baseline turned up since 8am and will remain that way until I return home at 3pm. The speakers? Right up against the wall.

What? I think it was a perfectly rational response.