LOL!
Hey, I’ve got a question for you, actually it is a series of questions, to make it simple.
1. Do you think there is ANY case where it is OK to respond physically to a verbal comment?
This first question is where I started with the “would you hit someone if they called your wife a name”.
There are some here arguing that it is never acceptable to respond physically.
2. Is it ever OK for a woman to slap a man if the man makes an inappropriate statement to her?
I ask this question because there is a long history and tradition of women defending their honor by slapping a man if he makes inappropriate suggestions about her. Do you believe all those women who do slap a man should be subject to criminal charges, or is it OK for women to respond with physical violence?
3. If a person said “I am going to hit you in 3 seconds”, would it be OK to hit them first (a physical response to a verbal statement), or must you wait until they actually physically hit you?
I have never hit a person in my life. I have been hit before; I respond verbally. I never got hit more than once — in the cases where I was hit, passive resistance was a useful response.
Once I actually interjected myself between a violent man and a guy he was kicking who was lying on the ground. I did so non-violently, physically putting my body in between them. I am serious about being personally non-violent. BTW, this tactic worked (my back was to the assaulter) — the guy stopped kicking, and did not touch me.
One time I grabbed a bat out of someone’s hand at a softball game during a brawl. I had moved myself to the stands, and managed to grab the bat in a non-threatening manner. I was not attacked in response. I’m not stupid enough to have actually tried to get in between two people trying to hit themselves with bats, plus I was a college summer intern at the time and the others were all adult full-time workers with the company.
I do have a plan which involves physical force, if I ever determine that an attacker means to harm me and won’t be stopped by passive resistance (which is actually non-resistance — I did not defend against blows either). I’d like to think I’d survive, but I’d have to be pretty desperate because I find that once you return blows, unless you disable your attacker you generally just make them madder.
I work around halloween as a haunt monster at a local theme park. Sometimes you make people mad and they want to kill you. I’m really good in those circumstances at avoiding punches and kicks. You hope there will only be one — we are strictly prohibited from touching guests, and I’m ideally suited for that as I have no inclination to do so.