How to Say No to a Rapist and Survive

People seem to either love or hate this book passionately. The complaint seems to be its representation of women as weak. Well, some of us ARE weak and need to use our brains to get out of difficult situations. It makes perfect sense to me that if your attacker is stronger than you, you may be taking an unnecessary risk by escalating the physical conflict. The point is to live and get out of the situation as safely as possible. This book got me thinking creatively about the many ways to reduce danger.

I'm 14 years old, and I thought this book was excellent. Every single idea I ever had about what I would do in a rape situation was absolutely contradicted, and I highly recommend this to ANY woman. The standard advice given to women in such a situation is to scream, kick, struggle and other various attacks. But this book provides answers as to why these tactics are so stupid, and directly tells you why. Furthermore, I feel Storaska covered what to do in varied rape situations, and how to prepare yourself. Excellent, to-the-point writing - hopefully I won't need this information, but I am so glad I do for the future.

I thought and still think this book is an incredible resource.I wanted to buy it for every girl I knew, but by the time I read it itwas already out of print. Contrary to what some may say, this book does not teach women they are helpless, nor does it tell them they can't fight back or escape. In fact it provides a wide range of tools (i.e., "weapons") that can be added to the arsenal of options potential victims have to choose from. If "passive verbal techniques and self humiliation" can be consciously and deliberately used by someone to resolve a difficult situation, then they are empowering, not disempowering. Potential victims of crime (all men and women) should have ALL options available to them. I don't know if it is a good idea to try to kick someone in the groin when their friend is holding a gun to your head. And what good is a gun if you can't get it out of your purse or it is locked in the closet so your children can't get to it. Anyway, Mr. Storaska does include information about some violent, defensive techniques, and running, etc., in his book. Mr. Storaska also notes specific examples where each of his techniques, violent or non-violent, worked. I do agree that anecdotal evidence does not outweigh the value of collective statistics, and I would be very interested to read any research which would provide the larger aggregate of information. Perhaps a book could be or has been written in that vein and added to the sum of knowledge. In any case I highly recommend Mr. Storaska's book to ANYONE. Anything we can do collectively to understand and reduce the incidence of rape in the world is of the utmost importance.

The author first exposes the myths of women's self-defense, then moves on to more realistic and effective ways to avoid rape once an attack has started. As a martial artist, I am regularly astonished by the pathetic techniques being taught to women who ought to know how to defend themselves. This book covers all of the non-physical forms of self-defense, starting with treating the attacker like a human being, not an animal. Although the statistics have no doubt changed, this book remains an excellent guide to realistic self-defense. I HAVE BOUGHT COPIES OF THIS BOOK FOR ALL THE WOMEN THAT I CARE ABOUT!!!