Self Defense Classes: Teaching Women to Submit

Presenter Information

Jessica Soebbing, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU 202

Start Date

21-4-2008 1:00 PM

End Date

21-4-2008 2:30 PM

Student's Major

Gender and Women's Studies

Student's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Mentor's Name

Cheryl Radeloff

Mentor's Department

Gender and Women's Studies

Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Description

Recent studies have suggested that the majority of assaults on women are preformed by acquaintances. Self defense training courses typically teach women to defend themselves against stranger assault. Through content analysis, two self defense teaching manuals were evaluated to identify the problematic promotion of women reacting to assault with submissive behavior. These manuals illustrate how women might defend themselves against stranger attack. The research findings suggest changing course curricula to reflect empowering defense techniques to prepare women for acquaintance assault. Implementation of empowering feminist perspectives to reflect the current methodology in self defense teaching manuals is recommended.