Now if she had a gun she could say "Hang on minute" and go and rummage it out of its secure cabinet, load and cock it, check safety off, and return and blow the bastard away.

Hi there HOUELLEBECQ...

Your right pal, I just beat my chest in an overt demonstration of how chivalrous I am ! I reckon in my time I've seen many instances of vicious assaults occasioned against females, often for absolutely no reason whatsoever ! And the assaults have been so bad and so vicious the victim dies, and dies very painfully indeed, and in the presence of their children too. Of course, the Brief of Evidence becomes much much harder, as do all charges of murder ?

During the days of the old R of I, you'd ask the offender why he gave his missus such a floggin', he'd reply along the lines, '... I had a bit of piss on board and she nagged me from the time I came in the front door, you know what I mean eh ? 'gees' she never let me alone with her whinging, she deserved a good kickin' you can understand that ...' ?

Sure, I can understand his wife 'really' deserved a good kicking because she failed to recognise his 'delicate state' after he'd consumed so much booze ? How dare the 'b...ch' question his sobriety, after all a man is boss of his own house, and his wife MUST learn to accept that, and yield to his wishes ...?

And you HOUELLEBECQ, have the temerity to accuse me, and many other men of merely 'grandstanding' and carrying out a lot of public 'chest beating' in an effort of demonstratively, treating women as inferior!

All because we utterly condemn any physical assault occasioned upon any female, for any reason, save that of self-defence. Pal, I have so much to learn from your wise counsel ?

IS MISE...Somehow I couldn't imagine a bloke like you, giving ANY female a 'beating', it simply doesn't fit with your character, background, or vocational antecedents ! Others though, I'm not so sure ?

I thought that Houllie made some great points, that it is not a black and white issue, as so many are claiming.

So who do I blame? I blame both men and women. Women are mothers and run a good part of the education system. They know as I know, that many a young male, with few brains and loaded with testosterone, often from a dysfunctional family, is let loose on the community and then wonder why some of them turn violent. Yet this kid sat through years of education, when he could have learned to deal with things like anger management, conflict resolution and other skills. Instead he is forced to learn languages or some other dicky idea dreamed up by the educators, commonly women. So keep me out of it.

Imperator,

So you have decided to join that little band who cannot answer the question?
The question being; what can a woman do to defend herself against a bigger and stronger male who is bent on doing her immediate harm?

Surely you must have some idea of how she could defend herself.

Perhaps she could dial '999', it would be just as effective as dialing '000', the response time would be much longer but the fatal result would be the same.

//Well, yer Honour, we was only stranglin' fer a bita fun, but I had an organism an' she was dead; diden mean t' do it//

Actually, great majority of erotic asphyxial deaths are male. I've never heard of any female cases; but male cases do pop up in the news from time to time - I'm sure we all remember Michael Hutchence of INXS fame. Then there was David Carradine a few years ago, and some British politician a few years before that...

It's a risky game and you wouldn't catch me doing it, but apparently some people do get off on the hypoxia. What goes on between two consenting adults in private is none of my concern, even if they are weird sick freaks.

//The question being; what can a woman do to defend herself against a bigger and stronger male who is bent on doing her immediate harm?//

Kick him in the nuts? Hit him with a frying-pan? Employ the deadly art of Dim Mak? Maybe not that last one. I'd probably go with the frying-pan. A heavy blunt object will probably stop him in his tracks or at least slow him down, and you're more likely to be able to improvise a weapon when you need one than have a readied firearm conveniently close by.

Toni,

I can't see the little woman overcoming the big 16 stone hyped up male with any close physical contact.
You, and others, seem to be obsessed with guns; don't you know of any other effective means that a woman could employ?