Here’s a short piece I wrote about my encounter with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam, whom I did not kill. And my friend Jennifer and I wrote about Classic Film Heroines who Suck at Personal Safety. DrewĪt The Hairpin, I’ve written The Shark has Pretty Teeth, Dear. Threat Assessment and Risk Analysis for N. Midterm Exam On Kelly, The Woman With Whom My Husband Had An Affair NFL Players Whose Names Sound Vaguely Dickensian, and the Characters They Would Be in an Actual Dickens Novel Secret Service Emergency-Response Protocol 1127B: If the President Falls Down a Well

All the columns are indexed here.Īnd here are some other things I’ve written for McSweeney’s: I’ve written two columns-Bitchslap and Fear, Inc.-for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. “If you freak out and limit your teen’s freedom, they’re not going to tell you.Some bits and pieces from my far-flung media empire: How parents react when their child tells about unsafe situations they have experienced or are dealing with can shut down communication, she said. They should learn verbal skills, and then - as a last resort - physical skills that allow them to escape to safety.” That no one gets to touch them without permission, including peers. In their book, Snortland and Gaeta write: “We believe that kids should have jurisdiction over their own bodies. “There’s a consequence to asserting themselves that boys don’t have… When men say ‘no’ it’s ‘no.’ When women say ‘no’ it’s the beginning of negotiation. Many times girls are called names when they assert themselves, she said. People who intend harm “are emergencies,” she said, “which is one way to describe everything from mild bullying to physical assault.” “You practice what to do before the fire is happening.”

In teaching and training sessions, Snortland’s approach is similar to being prepared in case of emergencies, such as a fire, she said. “Often times, (the assailant) is someone they’re acquainted with or a family member - if so, it’s under-reported even more.” “One in three females will be assaulted sometime in their life, according to the World Health Organization,” she said. The danger of physical attack is just as real. People prepare for auto accidents and, in California, for earthquakes, she said.

“Yet no one ever talked to me about self-defense. I was raised in a loving family,” she said. “I am well-educated, well-read, well-traveled. Snortland, a lawyer and film producer in Los Angeles, is author of the book, “Beauty Bites Beast.”Ī self-proclaimed “proud Dakotan,” she was raised in South Dakota and spent summers with her family in Bismarck where her uncle, Howard Snortland, served many years as head of public instruction for North Dakota. “Most of us never got the basics in terms of setting boundaries, so it’s a good read regardless of (the reader’s) age,” she said.

Beauty Bites Beast by Ellen Snortland