Today's message is about safety

Today’s message is about safety .

I received an email today from my aunt. The subject was “safety precautions for women” and I decided to scan it quickly before deleting. I would strongly advise both men and women to take a minute to learn the facts.

The first couple points are fairly common sense. Watch where you’re going, look both ways when you’re crossing the street…that sort of thing…

Number three reads: “If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car, kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole and start waving like crazy. The driver won't see you, but everybody else will. This has saved lives.”

Even assuming that this email originated in the United States, I am boggled that enough women are getting thrown into the back of a car that this would useful information for the masses. Not that it doesn’t appeal to my worst-case-scenario tendencies…I always wondered what I would do if I were locked in the back of a mobster’s beemer…

Number four: “Women have a tendency to get into their cars after shopping, eating, working, etc., and just sit (doing their checkbook, or making a list, etc.) DON'T DO THIS! The predator will be watching you, and this is the perfect opportunity for him to get in on the passenger side, put a gun to your head, and tell you where to go. AS SOON AS YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR, LOCK THE DOORS AND LEAVE.”

The predator will be watching you. If you have been paying attention, you are now convinced. There is a predator and he is watching you. I guess no one told the 80% of sexual assault victims who were attacked in their home by people they know [Sexual Assault Care Centre: Violence, Myths and Facts of Sexual Assault (1999)] that the “bad man” wasn’t the black stranger flossing his teeth in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

“If you are parked next to a big van, enter your car from the passenger door. Most serial killers attack their victims by pulling them into their vans while the women are attempting to get into their cars.”

There have been 8 convicted serial killers in Canada. In the USA, where the vast majority of serial killers appear to operate, about 65 have been convicted since records were kept, with three or four cases left unsolved. Even if every serial killer in the world drove a van, thinking you’re likely to park next to one should probably be identified as egomania rather than caution.

Number six tells us: “ALWAYS take the elevator instead of the stairs. (Stairwells are horrible places to be alone and the perfect crime spot).” And then, number seven: “If the predator has a gun and you are not under his control, ALWAYS RUN! The predator will only hit you (a running target) 4 in 100 times; and even then, it most likely WILL NOT be a vital organ. RUN!”

So here’s my question. I drive to the mall to avoid dark alleys. I park in the driveway so there’s less distance between me and the front door (ignoring for a moment what goes on behind the closed front doors of North America). I never take the stairs because stairwells are where crime happens. I am probably wearing heels because they make me look sexy while I’m waiting for the elevator. My legs (never mind my brain) have atrophied for lack of use and now I’m supposed to RUN?

And finally, “As women, we are always trying to be sympathetic: STOP. It may get you raped, or killed.”

If there’s a dotted line I signed on to join up for this kind of world, you can take my name off now.

“Fear of violence also limits many women's lives. Forty-two percent of women compared with 10% of men feel "totally unsafe" walking in their own neighbourhood after dark, which in Canadian winters can begin at 3:30 pm, even earlier in the north. [Statistics Canada, Women in Canada: A Statistical Report (1995).] This, despite the fact that, “Canadian, British and U.S. studies indicate that women are at far greater risk of being assaulted by men they know.” [Public Health Agency of Canada website] and “More than half of all reported physical assaults on adult women are by family members, half by their spouses.”[Statistics Canada, Family Violence in Canada]

The email concludes with this final piece of wisdom. “IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. (And better paranoid than dead.)”

Today’s message has been brought to you by fear.