This question has come up quite a bit lately. Actually, when people hear that I make my living by making bullwhips they often get a weird smile on there face and say something to the effect that I must keep my husband in line.... wink wink, nudge nudge. This is not a good way to impress me as I have heard the joke a million times.
Lets take a moment and talk about what a whip is. A whip is a tool, plain and simple. A tool for signaling, for herding live stalk, and for entertaining and competition. There is this whole big world out there filled with people practicing new tricks and cracks for sport competition or as part of a show. There are many people who have a whip and it is a toy. Just something to give them fun, exercise and pleasure. Then there are a great many people who study the whip for martial and combative purposes. Yes, they have big competitions too.
Seriously though, 99.9% of all these people will never use their whip as a weapon in a "real life" senerio against an aggravated attacker. Thank goodness for that.
Any one who has ever picked up a whip and cracked it knows about the awesome power generated. Anything that breaks the sound barrier needs to be respected and handled with care. Much like any tool, it could turn into a weapon given the right circumstance. If you think about it, there could be martial purposes for the rolling pin, the curling iron, a bottle of wine..... and every other benign tool laying around the house.
I personally use my whips as my therapy, my meditation, stress relief, exercise and livelihood. I don't think of them as weapons at all. When I have the luxury of playing with my whips, I am alone in my bubble dancing with my whip... not fighting an imaginary foe. ((It is more fun that way))
Lets take a moment and talk about what a whip is. A whip is a tool, plain and simple. A tool for signaling, for herding live stalk, and for entertaining and competition. There is this whole big world out there filled with people practicing new tricks and cracks for sport competition or as part of a show. There are many people who have a whip and it is a toy. Just something to give them fun, exercise and pleasure. Then there are a great many people who study the whip for martial and combative purposes. Yes, they have big competitions too.
Seriously though, 99.9% of all these people will never use their whip as a weapon in a "real life" senerio against an aggravated attacker. Thank goodness for that.
Any one who has ever picked up a whip and cracked it knows about the awesome power generated. Anything that breaks the sound barrier needs to be respected and handled with care. Much like any tool, it could turn into a weapon given the right circumstance. If you think about it, there could be martial purposes for the rolling pin, the curling iron, a bottle of wine..... and every other benign tool laying around the house.
I personally use my whips as my therapy, my meditation, stress relief, exercise and livelihood. I don't think of them as weapons at all. When I have the luxury of playing with my whips, I am alone in my bubble dancing with my whip... not fighting an imaginary foe. ((It is more fun that way))
With all that said, let me share with you the true story of the one day that my whip was a weapon.
It happened in the summer 5 or 6 years ago. Three young men parked there camper right next to my property. They pretended to be broken down so that they could have a free camping spot. (not that unusual in a tourist town)
The first day as I was watering the flowers and garden there was a few whistles. No big deal, I've been a girl all my life and know that it is best to ignore these kinds of things. The next day there were some cat calls. Still not a big deal. As the days went on though, the things they yelled at me got more and more vulgar to the point that I didn't want to go outside and didn't want my daughter to play in the yard.
I told my husband that I was uncomfortable with these men but because he never witnessed what was happening he didn't take me seriously. He said something about the trials of being a "cute blonde" and laughed it off.
The next morning, after he had gone to work it started again. I was out watering and this time one of the young men crossed over onto my property and exposed himself to me and started urinating in front of me. I'm a proper lady, so I just went inside. I could hear them laughing at me and could see that the other two were on their way over the fence.
Then my beautiful daughter, who has autism, came into the kitchen. We have big windows with a full view of what these men were doing.
Just then, something DEEP inside of me snapped and the Mamma Bear in me stood up. I looked at my Angel girl and looked at my whip on the table and I knew this was going to end because my daughter has a right to be safe in her home and doesn't need to see penises out every window.
I grabbed my whip and marched back out. By now the men were right up to the house. I stood as tall and confident as I could and stated "No Trespassing! Get off my property!"
This led them to so much laughter at my expense and now to my horror all three were waggling willies all over the place.
The original flasher called out to me "What are you going to do? Call the cops?" followed by more laughter.
This was the one and only time in my life that the exact right words came out of my mouth at the exact right time. And I said calmly "No, Today, Free Circumcisions." Then I let off a good over head crack because those are the loudest. That set me up for a flick that tagged the closest one on the hip. I started rushing at them with the whip slashing back and forth in a horizontal figure 8 pattern. Believe me, they ran as fast as you can with your pants down. One fell by the fence and I know there is all kinds of goat-heads and cactus right there. ((karma))
I went back up to my yard and found a spot that they couldn't see me and made the whip sing out loud so they would know I was still out there somewhere and ready for battle. It took them about 3 minutes to pack up and leave.
I went inside and called the sheriff, who is a personal friend, to confess. I told him the Whole story and then said that if they arrive in the ER, with a lacerated bum and goat-heads embedded in the genitals, telling a story of being chased by an Angry Cowgirl.... that was me.
10 minutes later the Sheriff was able to stop laughing enough to tell me that he would send someone over to take a statement from me. I learned that, in my state, whips are considered ranching equipment not a weapon. This was considered no different than if I had run them off with a broom.
I have no way of knowing if these men would have eventually intruded into my home and raped and pillaged. All I know is that their behavior was escalating every day at a very quick pace. In that moment I feared for my daughters safety and decided to put an end to it.
I'm not telling this story to brag or to promote whips as a weapon. In fact, the smarter thing would have been to call the sheriff first. What I'm trying to get across is that there isn't a cut and dry answer. Anything could be a weapon given the right timing. I'm glad that for the most part whips are just tools and that is all.
It happened in the summer 5 or 6 years ago. Three young men parked there camper right next to my property. They pretended to be broken down so that they could have a free camping spot. (not that unusual in a tourist town)
The first day as I was watering the flowers and garden there was a few whistles. No big deal, I've been a girl all my life and know that it is best to ignore these kinds of things. The next day there were some cat calls. Still not a big deal. As the days went on though, the things they yelled at me got more and more vulgar to the point that I didn't want to go outside and didn't want my daughter to play in the yard.
I told my husband that I was uncomfortable with these men but because he never witnessed what was happening he didn't take me seriously. He said something about the trials of being a "cute blonde" and laughed it off.
The next morning, after he had gone to work it started again. I was out watering and this time one of the young men crossed over onto my property and exposed himself to me and started urinating in front of me. I'm a proper lady, so I just went inside. I could hear them laughing at me and could see that the other two were on their way over the fence.
Then my beautiful daughter, who has autism, came into the kitchen. We have big windows with a full view of what these men were doing.
Just then, something DEEP inside of me snapped and the Mamma Bear in me stood up. I looked at my Angel girl and looked at my whip on the table and I knew this was going to end because my daughter has a right to be safe in her home and doesn't need to see penises out every window.
I grabbed my whip and marched back out. By now the men were right up to the house. I stood as tall and confident as I could and stated "No Trespassing! Get off my property!"
This led them to so much laughter at my expense and now to my horror all three were waggling willies all over the place.
The original flasher called out to me "What are you going to do? Call the cops?" followed by more laughter.
This was the one and only time in my life that the exact right words came out of my mouth at the exact right time. And I said calmly "No, Today, Free Circumcisions." Then I let off a good over head crack because those are the loudest. That set me up for a flick that tagged the closest one on the hip. I started rushing at them with the whip slashing back and forth in a horizontal figure 8 pattern. Believe me, they ran as fast as you can with your pants down. One fell by the fence and I know there is all kinds of goat-heads and cactus right there. ((karma))
I went back up to my yard and found a spot that they couldn't see me and made the whip sing out loud so they would know I was still out there somewhere and ready for battle. It took them about 3 minutes to pack up and leave.
I went inside and called the sheriff, who is a personal friend, to confess. I told him the Whole story and then said that if they arrive in the ER, with a lacerated bum and goat-heads embedded in the genitals, telling a story of being chased by an Angry Cowgirl.... that was me.
10 minutes later the Sheriff was able to stop laughing enough to tell me that he would send someone over to take a statement from me. I learned that, in my state, whips are considered ranching equipment not a weapon. This was considered no different than if I had run them off with a broom.
I have no way of knowing if these men would have eventually intruded into my home and raped and pillaged. All I know is that their behavior was escalating every day at a very quick pace. In that moment I feared for my daughters safety and decided to put an end to it.
I'm not telling this story to brag or to promote whips as a weapon. In fact, the smarter thing would have been to call the sheriff first. What I'm trying to get across is that there isn't a cut and dry answer. Anything could be a weapon given the right timing. I'm glad that for the most part whips are just tools and that is all.
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