Feminist self-defense brings together a set of self-defense practices that have been established in feminist circles for several decades. These practices aim to empower women.
Some Honors
Feminist self-defense should be distinguished from martial arts, combat sports or female self-defense. Martial arts refer to a set of traditional practices derived from military combat techniques. This is how Morihei Ueshiba founded aikido from martial techniques. Combat sports differ from martial arts because they incorporate rules of competition. Among the most popular combat sports today, there are different styles of boxing, such as English boxing, or even mixed martial arts (MMA). Several martial arts have also become sports today: judo or karate for example.
Self-defense brings together a set of martial practices adapted for civil defense intended for professionals or ordinary citizens. Among the methods of self-defense is modern jiu-jitsu. Today, one of the most popular approaches is krav maga, derived from Israeli military defense methods. Self-defense methods differ from combat sports on several criteria. Self-defense is not intended to be implemented within a regulated sporting framework, but within the legal framework of self-defense. It includes a prevention of aggression and upstream negotiation part. It implies compliance with the regulatory framework of self-defence. It is oriented towards the possibility of facing one or more attackers, armed or not. It also involves post-aggression management.
Self-defense classes actually often take on the appearance of physical activity classes where you mainly learn physical defense techniques. This means that the public tends to be predominantly male, but older than in combat sports classes.
Feminine self-defense and feminist self-defense
Female self-defense can refer to a self-defense system more particularly suited to women. For example, this is the case of “Amazon Training” developed by Eric Quequet in France. There is also a therapeutic type approach aimed at women who are victims of violence. This is the case of “Fight for Dignity” created by karate champion Laurence Fisher.
For its part, feminist self-defense is not a method of self-defense. It differs from it in several ways. Feminist self-defense includes three dimensions: mental self-defense, verbal self-defense and physical self-defense. It comes in different currents, such as Wendo or Seito Boei. Above all, the main difference with female self-defense is that feminist self-defense includes an analysis of the reality of violence against women and the sociological explanations that can be given to them in connection with a critique of the patriarchal system.
Many female self-defense media highlight situations of aggression that are actually statistically unrepresentative of the reality of physical violence suffered by women. This is the case of the assault by a stranger in a dark parking lot. However, the reality of assaults suffered by women is above all made up of spousal violence or sexual assault by relatives.
Combat sports or self-defense
In the United States, for several years, MMA specialists have been criticizing self-defense techniques and in particular female self-defense techniques. These combat sport champions claim that the self-defense techniques taught to women are ineffective and simply give them the illusion of being able to defend themselves. For them, only the practice of combat sports would allow a person to develop the ability to defend themselves against physical aggression. They take as argument the cases filmed by video surveillance cameras of street aggression.
We are here at the heart of the misunderstanding that we find among men practicing combat sports who talk about female self-defense, as among most (male) sellers of female self-defense methods. Indeed, these discourses do not start from the reality of the aggressions experienced by women and their reactions to these aggressions.
On the other hand, the particularity of feminist self-defense is to start from the sociological reality of the attacks experienced and the reactions to these attacks. It aims to help women react – failure to react to an assault, under the effect of amazement, being interpreted by the legal system as consent.
Irène Pereira is a sociologist and philosopher by training, her research focuses on popular education. Co-founder of IRESMO, Paris, https://iresmo.jimdo.com/
