Are women shifting from ‘flight mode’ to ‘fight mode’?
“See you tomorrow!” said a 21-year-old retail worker to her colleagues.
“DON’T BE LATE!” shouted the boss.
It is late, it is dark, and it is quite. As she walks home – she has walked this route many times before and has memorised each and every shadow – she is confident that her purse is safe for tonight at least.
Suddenly, a hand closes around her throat. There is a knife and she can feel it pressing against her throat. It takes less than a second for her brain to register that she is under-attack.
As he grabs the purse and wrenches it off her left arm, he pushes her to the ground and starts running. She takes off after him blind with panic, bewilderment and anger – the adrenalin urging her on.
This was not the sort of reaction that he was expecting to get. He is quick, but she is closing in on him.
And suddenly he drops the purse hopping she will halt the chase.
As she picks up her purse, she wonders at her aggressive response and the superhero in her that she did not know she possessed.
The brave-hearted 21-year-old M&S employee from North London is a dear friend of mind. When I heard about her ordeal I felt shocked and surprised at the same time; I’m sure some of you may consider it unusual, after all it is not often that a victim fights back when attacked by a chunky or sex predator.
Having said that, stories of such an incident are more and more being reported on the mainstream media. The message it seams to be delivering is something along the lines of: ‘chunkies and rapers be alert women are switching from flight mode to fight mode.’
So what induced this North London woman to react such a way?
Well it is impossible for one to know how one will respond in such a situation or explain one’s action afterwards for that matter.
The so called ‘fight or flight’ syndrome cannot be controlled by individuals; it is rather an involuntary physical reaction. No individual can plan ahead of an attack. So when fear kicks in this reflex device will make some people fight, some run and some just simply freeze.
That is said – women have long been enduring late night street attacks – may be just may be evolution is altering women’s response into more of a fighting mode.
And there is absolutely no doubt that for the predators that commit such crimes, their greatest fears are getting caught and they are totally unprepared for confrontations.
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I’ll assume that your surprise that women choose to fight back instinctively(or purposefully) is stemmed from stereotypes that you’ve grabbed onto.
Of course women don’t fight back; we just endure attacks.I dare say it’s evolution, even though a woman’s response to an attack may be as varied as a man’s(the resulting shock!).
Considering that men usually have the physical advantage in a fight(and an attacker usually brings more than himself to a fight),I’m sure that many women who did fight back were subsequently killed during an attack.No big success story the papers will share then, so that could be why hearing about women fighting back is so limited.
And I don’t mean to be snarky, my apologies.I’m sure that there is some merit to your claims, but this was my first reaction.