women and knives, are we freaks?

9

9mmbladechick

Joined
Oct 21, 2004
Messages
45
I'm a normal female who carries on my person at least two knives at all times. One of which is concealed and one that is clipped to my waist band or pocket.

My issue lies with all the ignorant people out there who think that a woman with a knife is a freak. That we are something to be feared and something to be ridiculed or made to feel stupid. ( I have an indepth posting about this w/ in the Spyderco forum: titled knives and women who carry them. Should you want more detail about my story)

The question I have is why are we any different then a man who has a knife? Why are we "freaks" when we pull out our knife to cut open a bag of jerky? Can we not take care of ourselves? Funny, its ok for us to use "kitchen" knives, to cut onions for dinner, steaks for our family.....but God forbid we "carry" a knife and use it outside of the kitchen!!
 
I think I'd be speaking for many, many of the males here when I say that far from being "freakish," a woman who carries knives would be viewed as exceedingly attractive, for two reasons:

First, you obviously know the practical reasons for carrying knives.

Second, you won't freak out when we show you our collections. :D
 
Bladechick,
I think it would be cool for a lady to carry her own knife. I think sometimes the knife gets a person's attention. I also carry at least 2 knives most of the time. I feel like I am naked without at least one. Remember if someone is going to ridicule you or call you names ; he or she will probably find something to criticize about you or your personality. Sometimes I think I am a knife freak myself. Welcome to the club and glad to have you here with us
 
Not freakish at all, but mighty cool. A lot of us have worked and are working really hard to get our wives and girlfriends to accept our knife habit, so a woman who likes knives automatically gets an extra star or three in our books.

If anyone gives you a funny look, ask them why they have a problem with other people using tools.

James
 
I don't think any of us here would consider that strange. However, most of us here are considered strange ourselves (and some of us like it that way). :D Bottom line IMO is to answer to yourself first, and not let those 'normal' people get in your way to the best of your ability.
 
I'm thinking of buying my girlfriend a knife. She is a vet. but has a cop for a brother, (and me for a boyfriend), so is used to guns, knives, etc. She is not freaked out by it at all, just a little annoyed when i pay more attention to S30V threads than anything else. I think it'e pretty cool. What kind of knives are they anyway?

Charlie :cool:
 
I gave my sisters all knives. Only one of the actually carries it though...

But no one calls her a freak, or any such similar thing. She realizes the importances of having a nice too handy, hopefully her friends do or will as well.
 
9mmbladechick said:
My issue lies with all the ignorant people out there who think that a woman with a knife is a freak. That we are something to be feared and something to be ridiculed or made to feel stupid.
Click to expand...
Freak? No. Something to be ridiculed or made to feel stupid? No.
Something to be feared? HELL YES!!!...and out on the mean streets, that is a VERY GOOD thing! You do what you need to do girl, and don't sweat foolish perceptions.
 
I'm not sure I know any women who don't carry knives. In most cases that means a small SAK in the purse, but a few of them do carry larger tacticals. My wife carries a custom folder clipped (3-1/4" blade) and another female friend keeps a Spyderco Lum Chinese in her purse and a Spyderco Jester on her keychain.

I think women tend to be less romantic about knives than men are, but that very pragmatism means that a lot of women keep some kind of blade handy.

--Bob Q
 
My wife gets the same thing where she works. One day she pulled out her Gerber AR 3.00 to open up a package. One of her co-workers (who's a volunteer fireman!!) looked over at her and said "Wow, who are you planning to kill with a knife like that!" That didn't go over too well with her. She is a woman who will NOT take any kind of crap from anybody. Especially stuff like that. She tore him up one side and down the other and by the time she was finished, she had him questioning his own masculenity for not carrying a knife of his own! :eek: Considering how small the AR 3.00 is, especially compared to some of the knives in my collection (Spyderco Civilian, Endura, Matriarch, Emerson CQC7, Cold Steel large voyager) his comments really sent her off.

On a side note, her team from work were having a picnic in a local park about 2 weeks ago, and she was the only person (9 other women and 3 men) who noticed a really scuzzy guy lurking around. She watched him watching a police car circle the park. When the cop went around another block, he stepped around the tree he was leaning against and walked right for the pavilion where they were having the picnic. Everybody had placed their purses, jackets, briefcases on one table away from the food, and this guy make a bee-line for that table. Until he saw my wife watching him. As soon as she knew he had seen that she was watching him, she pulled her Gerber out of her pocket. He then made a right angle turn and headed across the park. When one of her co-workers noticed that she had her knife out, they asked her why. She told them about the guy. "Didn't you see him? He was heading straight for our purses." "What guy?" Nobody had even paid him the slightest bit of attention.

After she told me this story, she told me how glad she was that we had spent some time about a year ago, going over how to maintain alertness and carry yourself in "condition yellow" at all times. I, of course, told her how proud I was of her and her actions. I also told her how much I love her. :D


So, 9mmbladechick, I guess the moral of this story is: most people don't know what's going on in the environment around them, and most people tend to fear or ridicule that which deviates from their version of the norm.


Flinx
 
Around here I don't think you are going to find anyone that thinks you're a freak for carrying knives. I sure as heck don't. My wife carries a knife at all times and I am darn glad she does.

It is not just women that are looked upon in the way you mentioned. Over the last couple of decades knives have come to be looked at as evil by a growing number of people. Men that carry knives are also ridiculed and thought of as people to be feared.
 
9mmbladechick said:
I'm a normal female who carries on my person at least two knives at all times. One of which is concealed and one that is clipped to my waist band or pocket.
Click to expand...
So, uh... what are ya doing next Friday? ;)



9mmbladechick said:
That we are something to be feared and something to be ridiculed or made to feel stupid.
Click to expand...
They're ridiculing someone with a knife?! That's pretty stupid. Don't listen to stupid people.



People have had less-than-positive things to say about me carrying a blade, so my guess would be that it's not necessarily a case of gender discrimination so much as it's a lack of foresight on their behalf. If you know any of these people personally, wrap the heck out of their Christmas gifts and don't offer your knife :D.
 
Freak? Hell no. We get freaks here all the time. Freaks aren't very interesting to us anymore (even FoldingFreaks*).

However...

A woman packing quality knives? Much more interesting than a freakshow.



*do a search
 
From my point of view, you are a sensible and prepared woman and a very long shot from being a freak!
Carrying a knife(s) (and a gun as you mention in the other post) is just common sense if you ask me!
Unfortunately both women and men who carry knives are often viewed as freaks by people who just don't understand!


Bo Hansen
 
A woman with a knife certainly is not a freak. If you carry one because you like it, find it helpfull (for work) or for selfprotection? Fine, GOOD. Do it. Other people's critical opinions about it? Let them, its your life. I am used to that kind of critical aclaim also. I live in the Netherlands where even a pair of tweezers might be considered a weapon. So carrying a blade makes me a fullblown criminal/terrorist/idiot/psycho-and-whatever-else i have heard over the years :grumpy: Well, whatever. I carry them and i use them. Period.
Welcome in our middle and keep 'em sharp and stay sharp yourself :D

Shrogran
 
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