Head up, look around, with confidence (sort of like ita on a normal day), not with anxiety. Always park under lights at night, in the highest-populated area possible. Move like you have a purpose. Keep the keys in your right hand, ends and edges out and up, between the fingers, firm grip. Pay attention to everybody but don't make eye contact. I run defenses in my head (sort of like Miranda Otto practicing sword work on the sidewalk, but not actually) for being grabbed in different ways. I do a lot of visualization, and have done some simulation because familiarity reduces shock and improves reaction.

That's all I can think of. Oh! Always make sure your trunk lid is locked and check your back seat and floor before you get into your car.

But ultimately, as sorry as I feel for the many many wonderful men who get lumped in, that doesn't outweigh my own sense of self-preservation. So yes, keys (or pen) out, radar on scan, back-seat checked, and generally wary about meeting a new guy in any situation--certainly not in public if I'm alone.

Heh. I think that's just sensible preparation for potential self-defense. Or, you know, not dropping your purse.

Self-defense. I've deliberately broken someone's wrist with my purse.

I don't think I've done the keys-in-fist thing since I got held up at gunpoint. Eh.

I've deliberately broken someone's wrist with my purse.

Damn! I think your purse is bigger than mine.

Always make sure your trunk lid is locked and check your back seat and floor before you get into your car.

And under the car, as you approach it.

I know I'm nobody's personal safety role model, but I hadn't realised precisely -- it's not that I'm looking to not get mugged on the way to my car, it's that I'm looking to not be startled by a mugger on the way to my car.

I don't do the key thing, since my remote unlocking device is a huge blocky thing that would throw my punch off no end. I am, however, likely to not make my purse too hard to get at -- I don't want to get in a tug of war about it. If they get it away clean, then they can have it.

It's not that I don't want to be robbed. It's that I don't want to get hurt (worse than my mugger).

I've deliberately broken someone's wrist with my purse.

Damn! I think your purse is bigger than mine.

The current one is a metal-frame leather purse I got at a vintage store, and it's about 9" tall and 11" long. The purse I used to break someone's wrist with was a box-type purse, but I'm pretty sure I could do it with this purse if I needed to.

And under the car, as you approach it.

This too. I didn't post it originally because I didn't want to sound (more) paranoid.

And under the car, as you approach it.

You know, if I was watching a woman approaching her car, and trying do work out when to jump her -- this might be when. How do you do this without compromising your balance and increasing your dead space?