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Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

Running can be a peaceful and reflective time to clear your head – but if you’re a woman these peaceful thoughts can easily be interrupted by hyper-vigilance for personal safety. Amanda Deibert, a writer for TV and comic books, proved just how frightening a simple run can be by tweeting out about the topic of running safety that was shared in her mom group.

Deibert then widened the question to Twitter, asking her followers for their own safety strategies, and it quickly went viral. Deibert used to be a runner, but now she mostly hikes and walks. The writer told BuzzFeed News, the response made her “sad,” with women sharing everything from photos with their large dogs to knives to pepper spray.

This writer’s twitter thread on the measures women runners take to protect themselves has gone viral and it’s eye-opening

Image credits: amandadeibert

Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

Image credits: amandadeibert

Deibert told Good Morning America the reactions were astonishing, “When I was reading the thread that all just kind of hit me, that is something we all do, all the time, without thinking about it,” she told the outlet. “It speaks to how universal it is, that every woman does have an answer to this question.”

Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

Image credits: amandadeibert

The original tweet prompted thousands of alarming replies

Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

Image credits: Hayjen9

Fisher Defensive Go Guarded Ring is a heavy-duty plastic serrated-edge weapon that is worn on any finger. The serrated edges can be used to fight off an attacker and even scrape off DNA. The product is convenient because does not need to be retrieved from a belt or fannypack, will not spray back on you, and will not be knocked out of your hand.

With women posting photos of special emergency gadgets

Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

The SLFORCE Personal Alarm Siren is a security safe sound rape whistle. It works by pulling on the hand strap to activate a screaming siren of 130 dB – as loud as a military jet aircraft take-off – giving the runner vital seconds to flee the scene and immediately attract attention.

Or their large and intimidating canine running companions

Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

Image credits: RawrItsNichol

Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

Image credits: therealneyzilla

MMRM OK Printed Camping Opening Tactical Folding Knife Outdoor Survival Pocket Folding Blade Key Shaped Knife when folded looks an ordinary key. The total length is 12.7cm; blade length: 4.8cm; handle length: 7.5cm.

Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

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Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

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Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

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Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

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Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

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Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

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Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

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Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

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Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

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Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

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Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

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Some women even had stories of how their equipment had save them already

Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

The Pepper Spray Keychain for Women Blingsting Pepper Spray contains 10% Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) formula for maximum stopping power. This pepper spray projects 10-feet / 3 meters to prevent wind blowback. Pepper Spray is classified as an inflammatory agent and can immediately incapacitate and temporarily blind a potential attacker. The 1/2 ounce canister has up to 15 powerful bursts and can be replaced after use or expiration.

Women Are Sharing All The Ways They Protect Themselves While Running Alone

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Sofie Tapia is a journalism graduate from the University of Kentucky. She is now a free-spirited content creator who wanders the globe rearranging words for various outlets. She previously worked as a reporter for Lebanon Daily News and worked as an editor at both Al-Masry Al-Youm and Egypt Independent. She can be reached at Sofie@BoredPanda.com

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Hans 5 years ago

It is alarming that this feeling of unsafety exists. However, for most Western countries at least it is a myth that the level of security is so low. Although many argue that guns are a way to protect freedom, I argue that doing everyday activities fully armed is a loss of freedom. Carelessness is not good, but constant vigilance means we are either too freightened or society has taken a wrong turn.

71points

Foxxy 5 years ago

I’m sorry Petra but countries with stricter weapon laws have less violent crime. For example Homocide rates in the UK is 1 out of 100,000, Australia is 1.1 out of 100,000, Sweden is 0.9 out of 100,000 but the US which has lax weapon laws is 4.7 out of 100,000. And most of the time it is by someone they know. Since 1st July 2012 to 30th June 2014 there was 487 homicide incidents in Australia. In the US it is OVER 30,000 homicides in the same time frame.

46points

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Si 5 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

14points

Daria B 5 years ago (edited)

Although I witnessed and heard firsthand some trully bad stuff, I agree with you, Hans. Besides that, I think there's a correlation between fear and crime, like, the more crime you hear of, the more you're afraid (of course), but it also works the other way around, (more fear → more crime). This is why caution is good, but we should never lose our minds. I'd just ask you a weeeeeee little tiny favour. Please, let's try to avoid using the term "western" within these contexts, and try to be more precise, more specific. Generalizations are no joke (I'm saying this as an ethnic minority, an Italo-Croatian living in Korea since 2010).

9points

Parmeisan 5 years ago

Hans... society has taken a wrong turn. This level of vigilance is warranted. Even if you would have been safe 999 times, if it stops you from being raped once then it was worth everything. Also, NEVER drink from a glass that has left your line of sight - not even a water at a restaurant, not even if you left it with an acquaintance who is at anything less than bosom buddy levels of trust.

6points

Leodavinci 5 years ago

The feeling of unsafely is not the same as actually being unsafe. I have the impression you probably wouldn't like what George Washington said about "constant vigilance".

3points

daniel280456 5 years ago

Amanda Deibert is a lesbian. She wants women to be afraid of men.

1point

Ula 5 years ago

You can't help it, thinking about safety every day when walking alone.

0points

Petra Christovová 5 years ago

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Foxxy 5 years ago

It is so sad that anyone has to protect themselves whilst just going for a run or anything for that matter.

49points

Hans 5 years ago

The problem lies deeper than this. We have no statistics at hand about actual violent crime. The reason these people wield weapons or bring dogs is the _felt_ threat, be it a real one or an imaginary. And that they need to feel endagered while doing a perfectly normal thing is sad.

17points

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Jonathon Smith 5 years ago

They had a discussion about this on the BBC's Women's Hour a little while back. They came to the conclusion that it was the fact more female victims make prominent news headlines and more crime dramas have pretty young female victims that make women feel disproportionately afraid of being alone. (In the UK) If women are attacked it is most likely to be by someone they know and in a familiar setting. Attacks by strangers are relatively rare and the victims of such random attacks are heavily weighted towards young men. This has been borne out in my own friendship circle. I know far too many women who have been sexually assaulted, but always by someone they were (up to that point) friends with. On the other hand an equal number of my male friends have been beaten up in the street by random groups of men or a lone attacker with a knife.

27points

Rabite 5 years ago

It's not only about actual attacks. It's enough if you have guys running behind you yelling obscenities. They probably won't attack you for real, but you are still in danger and very uncomfortable to be outside the least.

19points

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Peko 5 years ago

That's how the statistics look here as well. Men in their twenties are much more in danger when just being out and about than women. It's more dangerous for a woman to be inside with a man she knows than it is for them to be alone on the town. That's really more depressing than anything but those are the statistics.

7points

WillemPenn 5 years ago

I was going to call BS on this, but a quick Google search pulled up a wealth of scholarly articles supporting the fact that a man walking alone is more likely to be attacked by a stranger than a woman walking alone. The issue is far more complex than that however. Check out, for example, "Could A Woman Walk Around The World Today?" from the 4 April 2019 edition of National Geographic. The following passage hits at the core of why women feel less safe (beyond media hype) than men. "Where there are women in public, there are men to question them. To police them, sometimes, or to offer well-meaning advice, or express an opinion. Not all queries are malicious or overbearing, but public space is the arena of men, whether in Tehran or in Brooklyn. Women can’t move freely, without being subject to stares, comments, questions, catcalls, solicitations, threats. Everywhere, they are seen. This policing of space is inseparable from the policing of female bodies."

5points

Si 5 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

3points

WillemPenn 5 years ago

This may have gone down a path you did not intend, but thank you for bringing it up. From the same Nat Geo article I mentioned before: "A recent New York Times story documents a rise in the number of solo women travelers, [who were victims of violence]. Such fearmongering is dispiritingly common . . . . Men, who also fall victim to attack, are assumed to learn courage and street-smarts from these negative experiences, while a woman will be forever damaged or traumatized—or worse."

2points

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Hans 5 years ago

71points

Foxxy 5 years ago

46points

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Si 5 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

14points

Daria B 5 years ago (edited)

9points

Parmeisan 5 years ago

6points

Leodavinci 5 years ago

The feeling of unsafely is not the same as actually being unsafe. I have the impression you probably wouldn't like what George Washington said about "constant vigilance".

3points