When some asks you to define security, what is the first thing that comes to mind? On a micro level, there's law enforcement and house alarms while on the macro we have national security and the military. Those are seen more as providing safety, rather than actual security. Look at it on a more personal level. It is more about protection and vulnerability. Genderly speaking, men and women deal with security in very different ways. Men have guns and switchblades and girls carry around pepper spray and bad attitudes. Depending on where we're going, I occasionally pack my colt 54 (the original of course). No, but honestly, all sarcasm aside, I do carry around a pocket knife, and though its intended use is for cutting things like rope and those obnoxious nylon cable ties, I would not hesitate to utilize it if i needed to protect myself. I have never owned pepper spray, though it has been highly recommended when I live in third world countries. I think any woman would be a hypocrite if she stated that she didn't use her bad attitude to get outta one sticky situation or another. And I am no exception. I had a few close calls in Ecuador where I wasn't armed with Rambo (that's my pocket knife's name..actually I just made that up by thinking of the most BA man in the world) and had to play nasty gringa girl. The thing about security is that it needs to be consistent. Men and women alike should feel safe all the time, not just when they are with a bigger group of people or at the county fair, but always. The other day, prior to the security discussion in class, a few of my friends (not in this class) and I had a talk about how security and power go hand in hand. The girls in the discussion explained the concept of the ever-present and underlying fear of going anywhere. Basically no matter where ladies go, there is always the fear in the chance of something bad happening in the back of their minds. This includes places that seem safe and familiar, like on-campus parties. I am not strictly speaking of Juniata, but this college serves as a good model for what happens in universities all over the country. The fact remains that 1 in every 4 girls gets sexually assaulted. These perpetrators are not toothless townies or escape convicts from the maximum security prison down the street (which still kinda freaks me out every time I pass it on the way to wal-mart). They are the fine gentlemen that reside right here on Moore Street. In 1991, there was a reported rape here at Juniata that turned the campus upside down. There were claims made against the perp and the victim. "He would never do that...he is an upstanding young man." "She had it comin'" It was a disaster (the entire story can be found the Sept. 2 '91 issue of The Juniatian). In this case, there was no trust in the accused student nor the legal system supporting the victim. So essentially, there was no security.
Most males feel completely comfortable walking down an alley at night with no fear of danger. Ask females if they concur and you will be hard-pressed to find a positive response. You know what else is really interesting? Ever wonder why they are DARK alleys? Because most of the civil engineers that designed the layout of the cities and towns are men and they did not consider the SAFETY of women. I know this is true because my dad works with some civil engineers (he's an electrical engineer himself) and I had the opportunity to ask them some questions for a similar case study a while back. Statistics show that bystanders are more likely to intervene if they hear someone yell "fire!" instead of "rape." How comforting. I was surfing the web some and stumbled upon several articles about how dark alleys are unsafe for women. I even found a news report of a rape in an alley one block from my grandmother's home where I used to walk all the time to the Turkey Hill to get my Take 5 fix. That hit a little too close to home for me.
I would be lying if I said I don't have that same little "what if" voice in my subconscious constantly. Its innate. Security lies in personal defenses. If you think about any situation, if you are not armed in some way, either with martial arts, or some weapon, what are your chances? You'd be defenseless without security. I mean, I'm no black belt, but I know where to kick.
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