From: rhb@world.std.com (Robert H Brueckner)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Women's and men's safety
Date: 23 Dec 1992 05:44:25 GMT
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Distribution: world
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In article <1h7f7hINNreh@agate.berkeley.edu> dwelch@devnull.mpd.tandem.com (Dan Welch) writes:

  MUFFY BARKOCY? [or someone] WRITES
   >3. Women are less likely to be trained in defense.  My brother was sent
   >to self-defense training; I was not.  Certainly, I *could* take such
   >training, but how many people really do?  A lot more men learn to fight,
   >one way or another.  Not all attackers have guns, after all.  The guy
   >who tried to snatch my purse didn't have any weapons at all.

   This is the crux of the matter, IMHO.  You ask "how many people really
   do?" and the answer, certainly, is very few.  But it shouldn't be.  The
   main reason men feel safer is that they feel more confident of their
   ability to defend themselves.  Women can gain that confidence, but so
   very few do that it's distressing.  Many don't want to even think about
   it, but just accept their status as "targets".  For the life of me, I
   don't understand that.


I think this is a dangerous misconception. NO ONE, not even Rambo,
should feel "confident" about handling a mugger. It takes so little
time for someone who is armed and really doesn't give a damn to do so
much harm to you. For better or worse, avoiding the situation is still
preferable. However, it *is* useful to have self-defense training for
situations you can't avoid. But you don't want to invite trouble, and
you don't want to fight if you don't have to. Remember, it's not like
in the movies. In real fights the person who gets in the first punch
usually wins. Period. But you have to get in that punch, and you have
to make it count. *Most* women, even with training, don't have the
strength to deliver a disabling blow, especially if the assailant is
possibly armed, even with something as rudimentary as a club or a
piece of pipe. You can be crippled for a long time in just a fraction
of a second. Fights happen so fast they make your head spin. 

Maybe this makes me sound like a wimp, but I always believe in the old
ounce of prevention. I'm 6'-1" tall, weigh close to 200 lbs., and I
work out and have studied martial arts -- and *I* would rather run
away and live to *not* fight another day.

Of course, for a woman about to be raped, or anyone who is in a
life-threatening situation, all bets are off. Then you have to do what
you have to do. But my point is that it is better to avoid such
situations, if you possibly can, and not be "confident" you can handle
yourself. You very probably cannot. That goes for men as well as women.

RB
-- 
|"The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who  |
| have loved it." -- George Santayana  // Opinions expressed here, when |
| clear and persuasive, are my own. --Rob Brueckner (rhb@world.std.com) |



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