Why “Women’s Self Defense” Programs Don’t Work!

by Paul Oddi

This may sound a little unusual coming from a guy, but I have always found ‘Women’s Self-Defense Classes’, or any other Women’s martial arts class to be condescending to women.

Some of you may be saying/thinking things like “These classes empower women.”, “They teach women to defend themselves.”.

To some extent that’s true, but these classes intended only for women assume they are weak, less capable of defending themselves or doing the same training as men and therefore need different methods from men to counteract violence. Essentially saying that women need ’special treatment’, because they are inferior. I can’t think of anything much more sexist, demeaning or condescending to women than that kind of thinking.

Having any self-defense class which only consists of women also makes little sense in the real world. As crime statistics continue to show many of the violent crimes against women are perpetrated by men, so how can women expect to learn to defend themselves against a male attacker if they don’t practice techniques with men? The idea that women can learn to defend themselves against men, without training with men, is simply false, and quite stupid.

You might say that some women are intimidated and/or uncomfortable (which are just other word for ‘fear’)  having men in the class. If a woman is so intimidated by men, that she will not even take a self-defense class with men, how in the hell does she expect to survive if she was ever attacked by a man? Sorry to say that a man dressed in a Red Man suit at or near the end of the class/course is not a very accurate representation of an attacker, merely a target. Until a woman can prove to herself the techniques work on a man, she has done nothing to help her get over her ‘fear’ of men.

Does this mean that men and women should be treated exactly the same with regard to self-defense? Not entirely. There are invariably certain types of situational tactics that need to be taken into account and addressed, as men are generally less likely to be put into physical positions that are involved in rape, and/or sexual assault.

From a technical training standpoint if a technique is effective for women it would be equally effective for men. Is there a different way of gouging someone’s eyes if you’re a man or woman? So why would an instructor teach different techniques to men and women?  If it helps a smaller person against a larger person why wouldn’t it be taught to everyone regardless of sex? There is always someone bigger, stronger or faster you regardless of your sex.

You might want to think hard about how honest these kinds of classes really are about providing self-defense training for women, and the kind of message they send.

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