From: CA.FER@forsythe.stanford.edu (Jennifer Gates)
Subject: Re: women, training, && violence
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 19:53:32 GMT

Warfie
I thought I would give you my 2 cents on this one. I practice Aikido
and used to teach Modle Mugging. That is where my experience comes
from.

>        I've often wondered why you don't see more female martial
>artists, especially given that one of the main concerns I've heard
>women voice is fear of assault.  I've often wondered why when you do get
>them into a dojo (martial arts training place) they seem to leave at a
>higher rate than students of that other sex...

I think that most martial arts are designed for the type of training
that most men (pardon my generalizations) need. Most men will hit
you hard if you tell them to (and you convince them that you mean
it). Very few women will. Men need to start with control and then be
allowed to add power slowly. (this is the teaching style of most
MAs). Women have good control so they do well as beginers in MA but
then when they are expected to add power have no idea how to do
that. Very few MAs have a clue how to teach women this and most
women leave in frustration as intermediate students feeling that
they just couldn't cut the mustard with the men....
>
>        Let's take my own dear Sugar Magnolia as an example:  Anita is a big
some deleted for brevity...
Remember that many men don't want to practice martial arts either,
even though many of them profess to being afraid of being beaten up.
I think that you have to really want to practice MA to do it. It is
not a quick fix.

>
>        So, my questions are "What can be done to help people, and female
>people in particular, get over this mental block of hypertrophied pacifism
>so that they can benefit from learning to deal with violence, and is my
>perception that women are more subject to this...confining...point of
>view accurate or colored by my personal experience, and does anyone agree
>that the first step to taking back the night might be to stop having to be
>afraid of every half-assed punk with a gleam in his eye" ?

Ahh, this is the essential question. I have wondered long and hard
when I talk to women I meet who are terified of being attacked. They
go to great lengths to avoid being alone or vulerable. So, I suggest
that they take self defence (Model Mugging is a short class and can
make a big difference). I am astounded at how few of these women
actually do anything about it.

One thing is that they don't really believe that there is anything
that they can do to get over the fear... And, they cannot imagine
not being afraid. For myself, I would have denied vehamently that I
was afraid at all. IT was only after it started to lift that I
admited that it was there....

Annother issue is the idea that they really shouldn't have to do
this. IE in a perfect society there would be no violence. I think
that this is like thinking that a perfect person would never be
angry... Anyway they get into thinking that THEY (those bad men)
can't make me spend my time parcticing something I don't want to...

Well, anyway eventually, if the issue of doing something about one's
fear keeps comming up, several of my freinds have ended up taking
self defence or MA and having good experiences with it. However,
most do not...

This is my first posting on the network so try to give me a benifit
of a dought... OK???

Fer