But he doesn't get arrested for grabbing her arm?

@Dekker, the laws are often very misogynistic even in supposedly developed, egalitarian countries. A guy broke into my house once. I was in the kitchen, grabbed a knife, held it up, and screamed at him to get out. He ran; I locked the doors and waited for the police. He was a large, intoxicated man; I was at the time recovering from major surgery. Getting so much as a punch to the stomach could have killed me. And I'm a rape survivor. I told the cop all of this, thinking I'd done well getting him out of the house and protecting myself, and the cop gave me s**t for holding up a knife because that's "assault," and the guy was within his legal rights to file a charge against me. Apparently I was supposed to just endure whatever he wanted to do to me and hope that the police could catch him afterward. Odd how that cop changed his tune once my 6'4 father showed up.

That’s so scary and to be honest the idea of you getting yelled at for the knife is really unfair I had a similar ish situation where I was verbally assaulted and threatened by a homeless guy while trying to walk to class and for months after I didn’t like leaving the house without a knife because it was the only thing that didn’t make me feel helpless and during school whenever I’d make the walk back from robotics to French (which was the class I was going to when it happened) I would take a steel beam from the classroom so that I wouldn’t be scared. Idk if that made any sense and sorry for the crappy formatting and punctuation I’m typing this on a phone and I have a really hard time remembering periods and commas and such

Nayla, I got an answer from my cousin. In Canada, if you have just cause to fear your life is in danger, you are allowed to use a weapon to defend yourself, even if they haven't actually hit you first. Like if they're backing you against a wall or something. I don't know how it works where you live, but I'm relieved to know that that cop was just a misogynistic a*s and that I can defend myself.

Nayla, I can make out what you're saying, please don't worry about punctuation. Your words are more important. And I'm sorry you have to go through that. It's just wrong. I don't like violence. I love living in a country with strict gun control. But we ought to be allowed to have something to protect ourselves. From my understanding, in Canada, you can fight back if someone attacks you first, but if you hold a weapon out to them or use mace if they haven't physically attacked, you're in the wrong. I'm going to ask my cousin the lawyer to find out for sure. For my situation, it was amazing how fast that cop stopped scolding me when my dad showed up. Then it was all "your daughter is okay, sir, we're looking for the perpetrator, we're glad she wasn't injured...." But my dad is huge and scares people.

She is being grabbed. I often was humped, on the trains and busses. my boobs were grabbed daily ( LOVED winter, thick coats insulated me somewhat.) If you are not subjected to it you have NO fcking idea DUDE. I broke a few toes, by back stepping HARD. High heels hurt the instep

Exactly. Once a man physically stops a woman from walking away, he becomes a physical threat. Not saying the woman should attack him immediately, but just being able to show him she has a self defense weapon could be enough to make him back off. And, I haven't looked into the laws. I have been fortunate enough to not have been harassed like this before, so I don't carry either of these myself, but the OP said this sort of thing happens to her regularly. I also live in the southern US; it would surprise me if tasers were banned when there are so many places people are allow to have guns.

I'm so sorry that has happened to you. You did not deserve it. And I hope those broken toes hurt. Good on you.

No one said anything about responding to non-physical harassment with violence. And if those are the laws in many countries, then those laws are wrong. If someone is attacking you, you should have the right to defend yourself, period.

Slight snag : "defend" is a dangerous word around yanks. They tend to interpret that as carte blanche to actively hunt people with any manner or weaponry. Formally "stand your ground" is supposed to be just that, but in practise that usually turns into "hunt your prey".

Most AMERICANS disagree with stand your ground and the unlimited access to guns, the NRA just has too much power. Brit's have their problems too, misogyny is much worse there, as I experienced when I lived there during college.

@Hey, I just spoke with a lawyer. Apparently you are allowed to use an implement you happen to have on hand to defend yourself if you feel your life is in danger. Carrying something like bear spray (which has other uses) is smart, because you can justify that you have that with you for another reason, and it's not just a weapon you carry.

Come up with a couple random, weird phrases. "The monkeys from my brain have been eating lots of sheep when I'm on the bus. I think I'm going to have to kill them!" Watch the guy think you're nuts and back away.