Something strange happened to me this morning. I was cycling to an appointment over on the posh part of town (Maliesingel, in Utrecht). There were two older men cycling in front of me, the one at the front slowed right down to negotiate some street furniture at the roundabout, the man behind him cursed him for slowing down.
As I passed the man cursing a few metres further, I said as I passed him in dutch "Complaining and moaning! chill out!" The man got angry, overtook me and stopped in front of me and grabbed my forearm hard and clearly wanted to remonstrate and demonstrate his manly superiority. How dare I call him up!
I pulled away and turned into a complete banshee. I was terrified and angry. I shouted and swore at him for grabbing me "don't you effing touch me!" He kept coming after me and I kept screaming and swearing at him in English and even threatened to poke his eyes out. I was flooded by fear and I all I wanted to do is scare this guy away. I wasn't going to go quietly.
I stopped at my destination just a few metres further, he carried on coming for me until he saw there were witnesses and dropped it and went on his way.
As a 6 foot tall woman who never really considered myself as vulnerable, I was reminded that however I think I come across as a woman, we really know that even this man, shorter and older than me, he was strong and believed that "might" should be right.
I think my strategy was right, bring out the banshee, it drew out the witnesses and he knew he wasn't going to get to punish me for my crime of pulling him up for being an anti-social road user. You never know how you will react when attacked, some freeze, some get angry. There's clearly a banshee in me when threatened, which is good to know, I think.
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