When watching this scene, i was thinking that yep maggie was uncomfortable and the guys advances were unwanted. But do you think he actually intended to rape or sexually harrass her? It kind of looked like he was just a bit of a dumbass that didnt get the hint and then freaked out that she thought he was a psycho and initially ran after her to try to set it straight and then things got crazy...
sharealways trust your gut instinct, better safe than sorry. especially if a guy is going to grab me and throw me on a car, i'd definitely push him off, that's all she did, and he slapped her. i don't think she overreacted.
shareoh definately... when it got to that point she didnt over react. i just think initially she did, if she had tackled it differently from the start of the scene i think it could have been avoided.
sharetrue, but at the same time i think in that situation, the whole dark parking lot and everything, i think i'd probably run too. i'm a pretty cautious person though so knowing me i would have just said no to the drink :) depends on the person i suppose :)
shareReasonable, safe guys do not make advances (at least not continue to make advances when it is made obvious that they are unwanted), on women in dark parking garages. If he didn't intend harm then he would not have ran after her, she would not have had to push him off of her, and he would not have slapped her.
shareHell,naw---the guy definitely intended to assault her--there was NO mistake about that---in his mind she owed him some just for taking her to get her car, but her big mistake was stopping to get drinks with some guys she barely knew in the first place--she should have just had them take her to get her car straight away,instead of hanging out with them 'til they got drunk. She was right to react and fight back the way she did,but it was a close call--not a situation ANY woman should place herself in, for her own safety,anyway.
shareweellll they were going there anyway to get their own car that had been impounded i think? But i guess the point i'm trying to make is that if you're are chick in a situation like that, there's different and more practical tactics to get yourself out of it. But then again, in the heat of the moment your rational mind doesn't always work at it's best.
shareShe did owe them some, just not necessarily sex.
shareI don't think he intended to harass her, since he drove to the impound lot while he could have taken her anywhere. Of course he did expect a reward afterwards and he got frustrated when he realized that wasn't going to happen.
That whole episode in the film just serves to illustrate how Maggie has changed.
Maybe they thought that boozing her up, would make her easy or something. It seems as though he felt they were owed. I don't think his intentions were to get rough with her b/c he probably thought he wouldn't have too, but when she denied his advances then he decided to grab her. BTW, if you've ever watched Parking Wars, in Philly, they don't just let you walk over to your vehicle and pay them later.
sharewell what confused me was all the guy said was "hey you have to pay for the car" and then she starts running. Which isn't that true if they tow your car you have to pay to get it right? I think maggie was trying to stiff the bill and just leave it on the guys to pay for and they were gonna stop her and just say hey you have to pay for your car and then it escalated to that whole ordeal.
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But i guess the point i'm trying to make is that if you're are chick in a situation like that, there's different and more practical tactics to get yourself out of it. But then again, in the heat of the moment your rational mind doesn't always work at it's best.
I don't think that panicking is ever the most rational course of action to take in a situation. Sometimes it's the one that people will do more often, but certainly not the most 'rational'. And at no point did i see the 2nd man portrayed like he was going to assault her in any way, in fact when Maggie started running he yelled out to his friend "What are you doing?!". I think it would be safe to assume that she was dealing with one man, not men.
I read in a magazine once an article about a woman who was about to be assaulted by a man in an isolated carpark. She remembered a self defence class she had taken, and although she doubted she'd be physically capable of stopping him (it's actually taught in self defence classes to not physically attack first unless your positive you would win if it came down to combat), she remembered it was more about confidence and not appearing like she was easy prey, so when he grabbed her and ordered her to be quiet... : she calmly said she was going to kick the sh*t out of him before he could do anything. He saw that she wasn't going to be an easy mark (or maybe she just suprised him) and left... With men that assault women, it's usually more an issue of power. Anyway i like that example, but firstly i would have just told him that it wasn't gonna happen so get lost, his intentions really were ambiguous at this stage and i beleive she could have backed him off easily verbally. Even though his advances weren't welcome, she wasn't actively showing him this! I think the guy was just a loser that didn't pick up on her tiny little cues that she wasn't interested. In the car on the way she should've slapped his hand off her and flat out rejected him, WE may have seen that she wasn't comfortable but did neanderthal man see this?? no. Panicking and bolting would have to be the worst thing she could have done as the guy immediately gave chase. His friend was left behind that seemed to be the more reasonable one (he was shocked anyway that his mate was running after her), plus she was running away from the entrance (where lights and the impound lot attendant was) into the darkness.
This wasn't a case of run for your life or get raped.
There isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to what you should do when confronted with potential danger, but when your fight-or-flight instinct kicks in, sometimes it really is best to just run away. In fact, putting distance between you and your potential attacker is the most important thing. Yes, being confident is important too, but don't just "stand your ground" if that involves standing next to a dangerous person--especially if it's someone much bigger than you. If you need to physically defend yourself then do so through whatever means necessary but it's smarter to run away or yell for help then to engage the attacker.
And to the OP, no of course she did not overreact! If someone is threatening you then the smart thing is not to just be polite and hope that it's a misunderstanding. You need to get out of there.
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In the original post, i never implied that Maggie should have just been polite and hope it was a misunderstanding. I wondered as to her alternatives that would have prevented the situation from escalating like it did.
As another poster mentioned, it certainly didn't seem premeditated. If his intention was to rape/assault her then they would've taken her to a more practical place for that purpose. The impound lot had an attendant and there could have been others around. PLUS, if they wanted to get their car then wouldn't there have been paperwork to be filled and ID sighted? There would have been records that they were there. Wouldn't make much sense to rape a woman and then proceed to prove that they were at the scene of the crime.
What he whispered in her ear, i'm sure was just something sleazy. Saying something intimidating would've been counter productive to what he wanted out of her. If she was too freaked out to stand her ground and tell him she simply wasn't interested, she should've saucily whispered in his ear that she didn't want to get it on in a seedy impound lot and then give him a sexy invitation to ditch his mate after they get their cars and then to come over to her apartment where she would blow his mind and then fob him off with a fake address. Problem solved. She had the whole sex kitten seductress thing down pat, i'm sure she would've given a convincing performance.
So, the "correct" reaction would have been to lead him on and hope that it worked out just as she planned? I'm sorry I've heard techniques to diffuse situations, but leading a strange dude on has never been one of them. She was in a very vulnerable situation, but I think making clear that she wasn't interested is absolutely the right approach.
shareI don't think Maggie over reacted. I think she did what any sane person would do in that situation. It's much better to be safe than sorry.
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um, no, I definitely got the sketch-vibe from him. I thought it was stupid of her to even get in the car with them in the first place. It almost seemed staged, the car being in the lot. Like they were just waiting outside for her or something. And then being virtually alone in a dark, tucked away lot...I would have reacted the same...well, no, I wouldn't have gone with them at all.
sharei think you're missing a crucial point when he whispered in her ear while they were in the truck. Clearly he said something to her that made her uncomfortable. And like a poster said how it's every girls nightmare to get sexually assaulted, i think you go with your gut and if you think you're about to get sexually assaulted or raped you have that right to shoot first and ask questions later. better safe then sorry.
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