Do you feel safe in your neighborhood?

Because I don't--whether I'm in Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Miami, Sarasota, NYC, ... Perhaps because I am a woman I will always feel more vulnerable and susceptible than men when it comes to being harrassed, mugged, raped, or in any way, shape, or form attacked (as long as I live in a patriarchal society, that is).

This is probably because most offenders are male, and because most women haven't been educated nor do they educate themselves on the martial arts, nor do they carry a gun or even Mace on their person (something I've been planning to acquire for a while now, and it's time for me to get it already, and keep it on me whenever I leave the apartment if I'm walking more than 5 blocks, say).

The safest I've ever felt is when I took karate lessons (I went as far as a purple belt--halfway to black--before I had to move and never took it up again). I beat guys up no problem. I was never afraid on the street: I pitied the fool who would take me on. And I was only 14. Never mind that I had a god[dess] complex because of my physical abilities--a large part of the point is that I felt safe in my own skin, whereas I currently feel frail and feeble. Lifting weights doesn't do it, yoga never will, nor killing myself on the elliptical machine or kicking everyone's ass on the tennis court.

And yet I'm sure that most men, whether or not they're scrawny and weak, feel pretty damn confident about being able to fend off attackers; nor, I bet, do they ever feel anxious about getting raped. I blame this partly on conditioning: women are taught , from childhood, that they are weaker than men, and that men are the protectors ("Honey, there's a cockroach in the kitchen!! Please, you big, strong man: come kill it for me before I faint!")--and the attackers as well. [Most] women have been stuck between a rock and a hard place since kindergarten.

I'm not sure what to do with these thoughts at this juncture, but I consider it a topic worth discussing, so bring it on.