Heh.

I wait for the bus a lot, and I often wait for the bus in
inclement weather.  More than once while waiting for a bus,
at what is pretty obviously a bus stop, I have been asked my
price by guys with more money than brains (not that that makes
them well-to-do, you understand).  I have always been a large
woman.  When waiting for the bus I tend to wear baggy corduroy
trousers, big water repellent woolly capes that look like horse
blankets, and bobble hats.

Really.  I look like an ambulatory burlap sack of potatoes.

"What was she wearing?"  Ho.

April.
Put out the cat.

Good for her!  I wouldn't describe that as being a "bitch" though, myself.  
"Bitch" makes me think of cattiness, mean spirited behavior for no reason.  
Your daughter wasn't being mean at all, she was defending herself from a
jerk, a possible predator.

being capable of defending yourself doesn't make you a bitch.

I wish MY mom had taught me to be a bitch.  When I was 13 I was walking home from
school when a man pulled over to ask me directions.  I told him I had no idea
where the street was that he was looking for.  Then he told he that the way I
wore my dress he'd like to stick his tongue up it!  I was SHOCKED.  I told him to
go to hell and quickly walked away (I would have run, but I was probably trying
to be sophisticated).  I then went to a pay phone to tell my mother what had
happened, desperately needing reassurance -- she was upset because I told him to
go to hell (it wasn't clear if she was made because I swore or because she was
afraid of what he might have done because I swore) and said I would always have
to deal with that kind of thing because, like her, I had "bedroom eyes".  Sigh
... he came up from behind -- it wasn't my EYES he was looking at and I wasn't
doing anything but walking down the street and he was REALLY old (he might even
have been as old as 30 :-)  Every time I think of the recent videotaped
kidnapping/murder of Carly Brucia (the 11 year old in Florida) I remember this
incident and realize I lucky I was.  

When I was 15 I was a live-in nanny for about 4 months for a woman who owned and
lived in a 4-plex.  Each morning I would see a pair of young newlyweds come out
of an upstairs apt in the 4-plex next door.  The woman was always in her bathrobe
and walked him to the curb to kiss him goodbye.  I was SOOO jealous because I was
very pregnant, but my fiance, whom I loved with literally every breath I took (as
only a 15-yr-old can), had died when I was 4 months along, which absolutely
DEVASTATED me -- these lovey-dovey newlyweds seemed to have the life *I* wanted.  
I wistfully watched them and saw off and on during the day how contented she
seemed to be and how happy she was when he came home from work.  We waved and
said hi occasionally.  A few months later I read in the paper that the woman had
been murdered in her apartment after she had said goodbye to her husband when he
left for work.  She had been brutally stabbed to death.  Someone who knew her
routine had waited for her to walk her husband to the car, and slipped into her
apt to lie in wait for her.  *I* knew her routine, and I could EASILY imagine how
it must have gone down.  I've never forgotten that and ALWAYS locked my doors,
even if I was just going downstairs and around the back to the laundryroom for a
few minutes.

Shortly after I turned 18 I was riding my bike through a mall parking lot when a
man in a car tried to force me to look at him by slowly and deliberately cutting
off my available space.  When I finally DID look at him, I saw the he was jacking
off.  It REALLY unnerved me.  So much so that I started smoking again (I quit for
good later that year).  

FF to my early 30s.  I was trim, had long curly hair and was driving a red RX 7
with the stereo blasting.  I went to the grocery store and noticed a car that had
been waiting for me to go by earlier had also turned in and parked a few spaces
away.  I noticed it mostly because of the way the driver had looked at me as I
made sure not to hit him if he pulled out too soon.  He was driving a pretty
crappy AMC Gremlin with only patchy primer on it, which also stood out in my
mind.  In the parking lot, the guy was STILL watching me, which made me
uncomfortable, but I ignored him and went on about my business.  In NO WAY did I
encourage him.  When I came out again, it was dark and I was immediately on alert
because the same guy had pulled up one car length into the NEXT row.  There
weren't very many cars in that particular area, and it was FARTHER from the store
-- there was no reason WHATSOEVER for him to have done that, so it was VERY
suspicious.  As I approached my car, keeping an eye on his, I saw that he was
still in it.  I quickly unlocked my car to jump into it as he opened his door
slightly, causing his interior light to go on.  At that point I realized that he
had carefully chosen that position PRECISELY so I could easily see into his car.  
By the time I frantically put the key into the ignition, he had opened the door
all the way and was jacking off specifically for my "benefit".  There was no
QUESTION that he had deliberately TARGETED me.  I was TERRIFIED!  I had no IDEA
what he might do NEXT, and it wasn't clear at first if he was jerking around a
penis or a GUN!  I hightailed it to the front of the store and let them know what
was going on, then I stopped at the nearby police station to report it.  When I
told my mother later, she said I should have just laughed at the guy and told him
how small his penis was.  She just didn't GET IT (and probably STILL doesn't)!  
He was a PREDATOR and I was his PREY -- there wasn't anything funny or sexual
about it.  That's how Ted Bundy started out.  Besides, who KNOWS what someone who
would do that might do if he were humiliated or belittled?  There is (mostly) a
BIG difference nowadays on how different generations of women perceive and handle
things, but the fact that they happen all too frequently is something that will
probably NEVER change.  

That's all stuff that happened as I was going about my business, not in bars or
even at work.  I had some difficulty at work, too, though, when someone suddenly
became my manager.  That turned out okay, because I kept silent, it was
questionable, and I eventually got another manager, but it COULD have gone very
wrong.  It DID go very wrong for another woman with the same man later down the
line.

I have long had a theory that NO woman makes it to the age of 20 without being
sexually accosted in one manner or another at LEAST once and probably more than
that.  We are HUNTED for at least half our lives and we KNOW it.  THAT is
something that will always be diffcult for men who are not aggressively hunting
us to truly grasp.  YOU may not have noticed it happening that much, but by the
time we women are adults, it's INGRAINED in us.  With so much information coming
at us from all sides now (and observing how obnoxious and aggressive some guys
can get on-line and how they sometimes talk about women as a matter of course),
is it any wonder we're skittish or downright hostile when someone makes an
advance?  

When I was fatter, I no longer got looks or come-ons.  There IS a certain safety
in that.  In fact, much like Jane Goodall or Dian Fossey, I could, unbeknownst to
the predator since I didn't even factor into his radar, simply outright observe
his public mating rituals and hunting strategies; it was very eye-opening.  Being
fat, however, I DID feel more vulnerable to being mugged, because it would be
tougher for me to get away.  I'm not saying that overweight women don't get
preyed upon sexually, but we generally don't make nearly as desirable a target.  
I DO understand the dynamics of this aspect of getting and/or staying fat.  Now
that I'm older, I think my concern for my health will outweigh (no pun intended)
my underlying fear for my safety.  

I believe that is absolutely true.  I flirt whenever I get the chance,
because it is fun.  And it takes two to flirt continously.  If both parties
aren't involved, well, then it becomes something else....

Gosh....I'm glad you had an "inner bitch" to rely on.