The coffee house last night was amazing. It was very powerful to be in such a silent room, listening to women speak about their lives and their concern for the lives of other women. A women from our Vagina Monologues group read My Vagina was a Village. She started to cry half-way through the reading. I was crying before she even started.

What was even more incredible to me was the impact we (I mean women who gather together and speak about our rights and experiences, aka feminists) have had on a particular man here in Victoria.
He likes to come to every "feminist" gathering to intimidate anyone who participates. He stood outside the cafe and asked women as they walked by,
"Hey, you're good-looking, are you single?"
This is a BIG man. He does not ask this question in an inviting way either.
When I first saw him I thought the organizers of the event had hired security. I was quite confused for I had asked him to exuse me while I tried to move some heavy speakers into the building. He glared at me and wouldn't let me pass easily. I figured out quickly that he wasn't a welcome presence there.

Curious and disturbing isn't it? What exactly is he tring to prove? What happens when he feels that he isn't getting his point across? Does he try to be even more intimidating? Violent?

I drove the van to a legal parking spot and walked back to the cafe. I walked through two prostitute areas and passed one strip bar. Each place I passed I was approached either by a car which had slowed down to talk to me or by a bunch of guys gathered around having a cigarette.
Being approached isn't the crazy part. I wasn't frightened by any of these guys - although perhaps I should have been.
Yet, when I was approached by this man standing outside the cafe, it was different. He wasn't interested in my availability at all. He was interested in making me feel small and powerless. It worked for a second, I wasn't expecting it. I was there for a welcoming, accepting gathering of concerned people.
I'll know that the next time I see him, it won't work. But I'm glad that I was surprised, that I didn't expect it. It's not normal in my world to be attacked for what I believe in.
I appreciate that.