As I continue to teach self-defense, I see how politicized and controversial teaching women to stand up and fight for themselves can be. Self-defense teaching is an activist pedagogy. Students leave our self-defense classes with skills and information to change their perceptions of violence and their responses to it. The tools we give women endure, because these women no longer accept violence in their lives. Our bodies remember what it feels like to be strong, to hit a padded target with power.
Physical agency becomes political agency when women leave the classroom and disable their attackers.
In this way, self-defense is political on an everyday level. It gives women the ability to cope with certain experiences of patriarchal control. For example, women can learn how to respond to harassment, catcalls, unwanted advances of any kind, domestic arguments, being followed, and physical attacks. Self-defense gives women options for assessing a situation's level of threat and fighting back. Despite the systemic nature of violence against women, we must remember that people have always acted against domination.