I am 16. I've been taking isshinryu karate for a year and a half. I've never been in a really dangerous position or had to use what I've learned. I got involved in martial arts after I was naped' by a guy at our local park two years ago. Long story short, I bailed out of his car when turning a corner to leave town. Now I am extreamly giddy around guys I don't know. My question is: how do you know when to use karate as self defense? How far is too far? Some people don't understand that their teasing is really making me feel uncomfortable. When I ask these people to quit and they don't I don't know how to read it. What should I do? I don't want to hurt anyone who's intentions are innocent, but I also don't want to be taken advantage of because I am too timid to "make" them stop touching and hurting me. Please help.

Teasing is verbal, there is no touching. Teasing doesn't involve physical injury or physical pain.

Once they lay hands on you and don't stop after 1 verbal request, once they inflict pain -that falls under an attack-deal with accordingly.

My suggestion, find people who are really your friend. Friends don't torment you, friends care about you.

Nekogami is right.

Keep practicing karate and hopefully after a while you'll grow some more confidence. Other than that I can only recommend that you read some books on comedy and then make fun of the people teasing you.

Try not to think of it as a code. I always used to worry about "Is this a good enough reason to fight?" well.. it is if you think it is. Do what you want. You are a morally righteous enough person not to stomp someone's head in for looking at you wrong. If someone makes you feel uncomfortable then that is unacceptable. Deal with it however you want, if you want to tell them to stop tell them to stop. If they don't stop and you want to do something about it.. do something about it. The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men/women to do nothing.

My only advice is... don't do anything that you aren't willing to accept responsiblity for.

Thanx guys.
But, my friends aren't the one's who are doing this to me. It's a little more sensitive than that. It's family, cousins and uncles. What about that? There are more feelings at risk here than just mine and those doing this to me. I'm trying to be sensitive to aunts and other family members.

My brother-in-law is an idiot. He use to mess with me all the time-until he "accidently" got kicked in the groin and almost got thrown head first down the stairs.
He then learned his lesson.
Remember, we only hurt the ones we love. [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG]

Seriously tho',
If you need to, discuss the situation with your parents. Tell them how uncomfortable your various family members actions make you feel, how inappropriate you feel their actions are. I never allow my daughter to be harrassed, taunted(beyond what I think is good natured joking) or injured-no matter who is doing it.

Yeah my brother is an aggressive bad tempered bastard. He always used to beat the hell out of me including use of chairs. Until one day i dropped him with a kick to the chest, hes never tried anything since. Hes still a bad tempered bastard and will say some nasty stuff but it never gets to a physical level because he knows he'd never stand a chance. He'd never let anyone know though, he acts like hes the baddest mofo in the world, but really hes just weak and scared.

My advice would be have a real serious chat with however is tormenting you. Let them know in no uncertian terms that you dont like what they're doing. If they dont quit then teach them a lesson.