I like your brain.

Hee, so I totally lurk in this thread, but you are all talking weaponry! So I have to pipe up to say that in April I'm going to this Becoming an Outdoorswoman thing, which is totally like camp for grownups. I can learn stuff like orienteering and still water paddling. BUT I have also signed up for basic firearm instruction and shotgun and archery! I cannot wait. I'm particularly excited because it's in the context of women, so I can learn gun stuff without having to deal with the testosterone issues. I won't know until later which classes I got into, but I will be happy with any of the many things I signed up for.

I can learn gun stuff without having to deal with the testosterone issues

That was my shotgun class. Fuckers. The guy I went with sent me back upstairs to dress less feminine, and I was treated like a glass princess at the course. As a woman in IT and the martial arts, it was hands down the most sexist treatment I've ever received. I was a brave little kitten, I was, for picking up a skeery shotgun. They recommended I try rifles instead. I guess they're more femme.

I complained enough about it (and got backup from the guy who thought I'd initially dressed too girly in the first place) that I got a free pass for another class, but why would I want to go back to that same school?

That sounds awesome, Liese.

ita, that ... does not. Fuckers.

They recommended I try rifles instead. I guess they're more femme.

Femme doesn't send the home invaders running when they hear you chamber the shells.

The only gun I can think of remotely femme would be a little silver derringer that fits in a reticule. And still, lethal.

Stupid guys.

An all-female auto shop and an all-female shooting range would be cool to open. Oh, and an all-female construction team. Just because.

I blister at the idea of all-female just about anythings, even as I understand why they exist. I'd like to think that maybe one guy looked at me that day and said "Huh. Not what I expected from a chick." and maybe that's enough, annoying as most of them were. I will continue to do those things in mixed company and leave the single gender spaces for people who need it more. I went to all girls schools from ages 11-18. I'm done with that now. I don't need a safe space, and will take a few bruises to show people who're being close-minded that you don't need testicles to have cojones.

Take this and put a whip in instead?

I is broken.

Hearing about JP's groomsman's gift

So cool. I have not had knife lust before. I think I do now.

leave the single gender spaces for people who need it more

I was imagining it less as somewhere I would need to go and more a place I would like to provide. To other women who might need it, sure, but more as fuck you to men who don't think those things can be done well by women.

It took a while for me to come around to other women really really not looking on fighting like I did, but having what seemed to be a gender-based reaction to the principle of violence. It really affected my teaching, and I found it very frustrating that I couldn't get that across to many of the other teachers, some of them female.

While I was against the idea of an all women's fight class, or even women only ever partnering with women, I did offer to take fight class with novice women so they'd have someone they weren't afraid would whip the living tar out of them (oh, did the boys laugh at the idea of me going gently on anyone) and ease them in more gently. But it was important that I get them to fight with guys before intro fight was done, because it was a big mental thing for them, and really that's who they're learning to defend themselves from, not me.

But I grew up just looking for people to beat up on, and never understood anyone's reluctance to throw a punch or a kick. We just didn't tend to get many guys show up and pay money and still be afraid to hit anyone. They self-selected before the credit card came out.

Except for the ones that wouldn't hit women. Them I beat up on mercilessly and without apology. Technically, I couldn't really hurt them, right? I'm just a girl. If I were a danger or a threat, they'd defend themselves, and even maybe throw a strike or two themselves. I will always remember Jose Canseco for piping up that he'd hit me. Which, really, no. He wasn't really fast enough to land a hit on anyone (but god forbid he should have).