Miami Student

Issue date: 12/3/04 Section: Campus

Erin Weed, founder of Girls Fight Back, taught Miami University women empowerment, self-protection, and self-defense in a presentation Tuesday night."From what I know, there is no one else doing what I do," Weed said. "There is no one else going around the country saying, 'I think any woman should be able to walk across campus by herself.'"Weed started Girls Fight Back shortly after Shannon McNamara, one of her closest college friends, was murdered.Weed told the 60 girls in attendance that after hearing of McNamara's death, she read a note McNamara gave her at graduation. The message read, "Weed, I will never forget you." With that, Weed abandoned her dream job as a television producer in New York and decided to spend the rest of her life "never forgetting Shannon."During her presentation Weed advocated the use of certain alarms and motion sensors that can be purchased on her Web site and encouraged girls to be loud, obnoxious "bad victims." After having girls call out weak spots of the male anatomy and covering her male volunteer with representative stickers, Weed taught them how to fight.The first move was how to set a verbal and physical barrier. "Stand tall, arms outstretched with your palms facing the creepy guy," Weed instructed. "Make sure you have a wide stance with one foot in front of the other." She told the girls to use de-escalatory language such as "Stop. Leave me alone. I don't want any problems." This communicates a message without further angering a potential threat. It is important because when that border is crossed, it is time to fight. The next move taught was the "palm, knee, knee" - palm to the face, knee to the groin, knee to the face. Weed stressed in her demonstration that the move is more than a little knee action."It's more like my lower thigh going in and crushing both his testicles so sexual assault is no longer his top priority," she said.The former sorority president's last demonstration focused on how to get away from various grabs. This involved either rolling out "like a steam roller" and getting into a kicking position, or using "the booty" to bump oneself free. Women in the audience learned the techniques quickly."Normally (these kind of presentations) are kind of daunting," sophomore Christina Karas said. "But this was really good."Sophomore Megan Strader agreed."It was nice that she was young, not some older person," Strader said. "We went into this already having a connection."

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