How a Real Feminist Should Hit on Guys…. for Self Defense
During the recent pageant, Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez (now Miss USA) created controversy by suggesting that women should learn self-defense in order to prevent or avoid being sexually assaulted. Sanchez is a fourth degree black belt in taekwondo.
Jennifer Kabbany, Associate Editor at The College Fix, shares her own self-defense training experience in an outstanding review of this controversy and what it means for today’s “feminism” as promoted on college campuses.
….Self defense is real feminism. Learning how to fight back enough so that you can survive or stop an assault is way more empowering than taking to Twitter to whine about the rape culture or walk around the street in your underwear and bra while demanding “no means no!” (Yes, that’s a real thing, it’s called a slut walk).
I’ll show you no means no, with my foot kicked straight up your nether region.
Will learning Krav Maga save my life if I am attacked? Maybe. I sure have a better fighting chance than women with zero training. You have no idea what you didn’t know about self defense until you take these classes. It will open your mind to a whole new level of protection.
Today some college campus officials advise women to throw up or urinate on their attackers, or tell their attackers they are on their period or have an STD. That “pens, peeing and puking” defense is the most unempowering advice ever. That is essentially telling women they have to beg for mercy from a maniac.
I don’t have to beg for mercy. I have the tools to fight back. So do all the women who take the classes alongside me. Easily one-third of the classes I take are comprised of women. Our main instructor is a young gal who is about 5’4 and a buck-twenty, but I promise you, you do not want to get into a fight with that feisty black belt.
Krav Maga is what the Israeli Defense Forces – which includes women – is taught to protect and defend themselves. It’s not the typical martial arts, it’s how to survive a street fight. I spent an hour this morning learning how to counter someone trying to stab me with a knife, for example. My 6-year-old daughter will soon be enrolled, and my teenage son already is.
Is self defense “icky”? Yes, after a class I am dripping with sweat. Yes, my required pants make me look like a sack of potatoes. Yes, there are times when I have to simulate defensive moves against big, sweaty, hairy guys “attacking” me.
But my life is worth it…
These women who spoke out against Miss USA Nia Sanchez and presume to speak for modern feminism are completely out of touch with reality.
Don’t Be Afraid To Hit On Guys: In Defense of Miss USA, Common Sense, Kicking Butt (The College Fix)
Comments
Hopefully no one will delude themselves that a single “self-defense” class will really help them. Being able to fight unarmed requires a lot of practice. And if your opponent has 6″+ in height and/or 50+lbs on you you **will** be at a severe disadvantage. Look to youtube for examples of trained fighters, one man and one woman, have at it. There’s not much of a contest. And a single class is **not** training.
Compare that to a few classes with handling and shooting a gun. There’s a reason Colt used the marketing slogan “God made man, but Samuel Colt made them equal”.
Good for her. She at least has the right attitude.
People are constantly being reminded that if two people tangle and have roughly equal skill levels, the larger usually wins. Still, not all men have any fighting skills at all, and rely on being larger to defeat smaller women (or men) who have the same, non-existent, fighting skill level.
tphillip is right. A gun is better, and comes closer to giving the woman a 50/50 chance. Few predators care for those odds.
Self defense (unarmed or armed) is to personal security as cars are to commuting. Government policies which address violence are to personal security as mass transit is to commuting. Academics overwhelmingly prefer the policy that generates more jobs for consultants and managers.