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By Angela of Cleveland
ABCF
As a woman growing up in this
society, I have been taught two very important lessons. The first comes
in stories that I hear most every day about [a friend, a sister, an aunt,
a lover, a mother, a grandmother...] who was raped/attacked/beaten. I
cannot keep track anymore of all the women in my life who have been very
personally touched by sexual assault and domestic violence. These - in
conjunction with what I have faced in my life - pound in my brain every
minute of my life... and tell me to live in fear. In fear that anytime
I step outside my door, walk alone, sleep in my bed, do most anything,
I could be attacked. This fear bounds me and controls all of my actions.
The second lesson varies for
women - depending on their cultural background and economic class - but
does effect most women in one way or another. As women are "the weaker"
half of humanity, we are often forced to be dependent upon others to protect
us. Being able to protect oneself is not a part of being a woman, and
we are often, not always, but often socialized to not consider this a
part of our life skills.
When I became involved with
politics seven years ago, I began to seriously challenge the first lesson.
While the reality is that women face sexual assault and domestic violence,
it does not always have to be that way. I do not want to live in fear
and I do not want my [friend, sister, aunt, lover, mother, grandmother...]
to live in fear. I got involved with work to educate about sexual about
sexual assault and domestic violence and to challenge men to get involved
with ending it.
But then what about the second
lesson? I began to challenge the assumption that women had to be dependent
upon men and that women had to live in fear and that the police and government
were there to protect the populace. I began to realize that everyone should
know how to defend and protect themselves. As women we need to learn how
to protect ourselves from sexual assault and domestic violence. As people,
we must learn to protect ourselves from any attacks. And as human beings
working towards liberation, we must not be dependent upon the police and
the government to protect us. Learning self defense is an important step
we can all take for personal and political reasons.
Self defense is multi-faceted.
It included intuition, confidence and assertiveness. Learning to defend
ourselves begins with trusting ourselves to know when we feel unsafe,
feeling that we are worthy to defend and learning to speak up and assert
ourselves. Self defense includes both armed and unarmed self defense.
It is a challenge for many women to begin self defense because we are
socialized to not be confident, to not assert ourselves and not to trust
our intuition. The tools of self defense - both our bodies and our weapons
- are not looked at as something to be used by women. We must challenge
these ideas in order to prevent attack and to protect ourselves when it
does happen.
Over a year ago, I went to
a shooting range for the first time. I had never touched a gun before
and was always bothered by the existence of a gun in my parents' house.
It was hard to think of wielding so much power in my hands. I did/do not
like guns but I recognized the importance of learning how to use one.
I watched as others shot their guns and attempted to build up the courage
to try it myself. Once I did, I approached the gun timidly and with much
trepidation. I squeezed the trigger and squeezed my eyes as I fired at
the target downrange. Then, I sat the gun down, walked away and attempted
to hide the tears that had collected in my eyes.
While I was scared to fire
a gun, my fear of being raped was greater. It was hard at first to be
assertive with the gun - aggressively standing, poised to use the gun.
Imagining the target downrange as a potential attacker, however, helped
me to gain confidence and assertiveness with the weapon. While I was not
very comfortable with the idea of firing a weapon, I was less comfortable
with the idea of being a victim of sexual assault.
With the high rates of violence
against women, I would argue that women do not have any choice but to
learn self defense. We must be able to defend ourselves. We must be able
to defend our loved ones. We must teach men that they can not get away
with this violation. "Our task... is to make abuse of women more
and more risky, something men can't get away with."3
Recognizing the violence in
our everyday lives and realizing that fighting back is a viable option
is a start. But only when we effectively learn how to fight back can we
view self defense as a possible solution to the violence that we face.
Self defense is a combination of knowledge - of laws, weapons safety,
when to use the appropriate level of force and more; of mental strength
- confidence, assertiveness, intuition and self esteem; and proficiency
with our weapon of choice - be it our body, a weapon, or both. "A
woman who carries a gun on the street should not think that its mere possession
will dispel the dangers that made her buy it. She may feel less fearful
and more confident, but just because she carries a gun doesn't mean it
is safer for her to walk the streets."4
Effectively fighting back
is not something that is learned overnight. Going to one self defense
class, or even one intensive week cannot take the place of consistent
practice and training. We also can not put off learning self defense until
tomorrow when we could be attacked tonight. Enrolling in a class and learning
how to effectively fight and/or use a weapon could save your life. Once
we know how to use our bodies or weapons properly, we will have a range
of options available to defend ourselves - fight with our fists, protect
ourselves with a weapon, or flee.
Emphasis should be placed
on particularly encouraging women to learn to protect themselves. As part
of working for women's liberation, we must work to empower women and teach
women self defense. Everyone, however, benefits from learning it. Self
defense training for ourselves and our communities should be a part of
our work. As we empower ourselves, we must also stop being completely
dependent on government agencies for protection. As we create anarchist
infrastructure in the shell of the old to support ourselves and counter
the current government and system, we must also prepare to defend ourselves
and our people. "... A dependent, defenseless people is an enslaved
people."5
Learning personal protection
and tactical self defense is important for everyone in our communities.
To attempt to empower people to work to change the current system while
not empowering them to defend themselves is forgetting an important aspect
to liberation. We must end compulsory dependency - of women and men and
of all people on the government. I encourage all to take up self defense.
I encourage all women to take it upon themselves to learn self defense.
Take your mom to class, get your friends involved, teach your girlfriend...
When you learn to fight back, you are not just fighting back for yourself
but fighting back for all of us.
This is for my mother, this
is for my sister, this is for myself, this is for my niece, this is for
my aunt, this is for my friend, this is for my lover, this is for the
women who was raped last night, this is for all women who live in fear.
Women who fight back fight back for us all.
Suggested Readings:
The Truth About Self Defense by Massad Ayoob
The Principles of Personal Defense by Jeff Cooper
Self Defense: The Womanly Art of Self-Care, Intuition and Choice. by Debbie
Leung
Effective Defense: The woman, the Plan, the Gun by Gila May Hayes.
Armed and Female by Paxton Quigley
For More Information:
AWARE Arming Women Against
Rape & Endangerment www.aware.org/
Perpetrate My Fist http://eserver.orgs/bs/22/rentschler.html
Assault
Prevention Information Network http://www.jumpnet/~judith/APINintro.html
1. Jacksonville/Orlando ABC.
The Revolutionary Politics of Self Defense
2. Kaye Melanie. "Woman
and Violence." Fighting Back: Femminist Resistance to Male Violence.
Ed. Frederique Delacoste and Felice Newman. Minneapolis: Cleis Press 1981.
160-163
3. Ibid. Page 161.
4. Quigley, Paxton. Armed
and Female. New York: St. Martin's Press 1989. 10.
5. Jacksonville ABC. The
Revolutionary Politics of Self Defense
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