While searching the information super highway this morning for a topic I came across this story here. I could not believe what I was reading. I mean men were so threatened by women learning self defense they wanted to take the classes so women could not learn the “secret stuff” and beat them up?

While that is certainly humorous to think that, I think more is going on here. This men’s group seems to be an equal rights group for men. Maybe they are planning on suing to make some money because in some places men even go after ladies night promotions. I’m not so sure of the motivation in this case though.

In this post I’ll speak about self defense classes for women and why I think sort term women’s self defense classes should be gender biased to have the best chance at effectiveness.  First some comic relief from the onion.

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I have been asked why I seem to write so much about women’s self-defense. The reason I always give is men seem to have a better fighting chance out of the gate then most women. True some men do get beat up when attacked but often times they still manage to get away while getting a few licks of their own in at the attacker.

Many girls and women have not had the experience of fighting larger boys and men or any fighting at all. Added to this are the fact that women are often victimized by perverts. I have always tried to teach women how to even up the score some if they had to fight their way out of a bad situation.

In this post I’ll talk about how girls and women CAN use effective self defense to their advantage. Understand I am not talking about beating a man in a fair fight (although that is possible for highly trained fighters) but rather doing what it takes to avoid and if unavoidable – use self-defense to get away! I’ll review a girl that kicked an assailant to get away as well as a women that managed to employ an eye gouge and escape.

But what about a women fighting a man and winning? Is it even possible for a lighter man to beat a heavier man? Here is an fight with an extreme weight difference to open this topic.

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I’m sure that you have heard about the rash of girls attacked in Southern California lately. Is there any one answer? Is it safe for girls to go out of the house anymore? Is is fair that girls can be victimized like this?

There are far too many of these questions that people think of to rationalize their view – so the world still makes sense if you will. While I generally think that girls and women that go out running alone with sparse people around, are at higher risk. I still tend to think that the vast majority of these girls and women will not get assaulted.

This is of no value to the girls that do get attacked. First off it is not fair that girls have to take more precautions then boys do. Boys have to be careful too but seem to take more chances then girls do and end up ok more often. This is a feeling I get and have not validated it statistically (based on my own experience.

In this post I will talk a bit and like to stories of the recent victims. I will talk about women’s equal rights and expectation of safety in a free society and how this should be mitigated by reality. I will stress that none of they girls did anything wrong. There are just some bad people in the world. I will talk about how I try to stay safe and the precautions I have to take and how girls and women might adjust their safety plan to decrease their exposure to risk. Here is one video of recent events to start the dialog.

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As often happens in my search for exciting topics to write about, I was channel surfing and I came across (by accident) this girl, Dallas Jessup, speaking about a free DVD that teaches girls to stay safe and fight back! I got the web address and checked out the movie here.

Now I am a big proponent of women’s self-defense and I think any effort to pull together all of the facets in a successful defense are good. The problem with women’s self-defense normally are many girls and women think and feel like they are powerless against a bigger, stronger, and meaner male attacker!

In this post I’ll speak about the fallacy of this view that girls and women are powerless and examine this movie, Just Yell Fire, for you perusal. Here is a quick video trailer of the move. I encourage all to visit the website (http://www.JustYellFire.com) if you have any women in your family (most families have some) that might benefit.

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A major recurring theme of this website is reviewing some real life actions that have helped some people escape the worst of an attack! In this post I will look at attacks from December 2009, in the US, Canada and Uganda to demonstrate what is possible.

These three attacks while very different, have one common thread – The women or girls fought back! The main question running through most women’s minds in an attack is probably how do I get out of this alive?

By the time an attack happens, a woman has exhausted everything she has been taught about how to avoid or get away from an attack and is left with the fact that it is really happening. Let me just say before launching into my review, that the decision to act or not act is a personal decision. You (the victim) will have to live with your decision (assuming you survive) so please consider the possibility that fighting back in some form can work and make an educated decision to SAVE YOUR LIFE!

Here is a related video to set the stage from Erin Weed (Girls Fight Back).

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As you know we here at MySelfDefenseBlog.com do not shy away from the tough questions. My first experience with the concept of a modern serial killer was when I was basically homeless and living in my instructor’s karate studio. My instructor, Dick Willett, let my broken down car live in his parking lot and allowed me to “watch over the place” in the evenings. Why he even suggested and loaned me a book entitled, “The Michigan Murders.”

My routine was simple, after a day of teaching karate lessons, I walked down to Lavicios Delli and bought my favorite sandwich – a British Submarine! I’d walk back to the school and turn on the desk lamp to save money and start reading. The book was fairly scary because the sociopath, John Collins, was the boy next door – a real clean cut college student. Before long I had all of the lights on in the school and word got back to Dick that his studio was lit up all night!

It was not that I wanted to be an ungracious tenant but rather I was not thinking and was kind of freaked out! Mind you that I was a brown belt at the time and already a fairly good fighter. I quickly apologised and mended my ways.

In this post I will examine serial killers and I will concentrate on how women can try and stay safe. No promises here but I have some ideas that make sense. Also I have a treat as my wife, Sylvia has written a good overview of Ted Bundy and how some women were able to avoid or get away from that monster. Here is a overview video of the Michigan Murders that scared me 33 years ago.

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I have been watching too many youtube women’s self-defense videos and reading the chatter on the web lately and seem to keep finding a familiar theme. An alternate universe where karate instructors seem to be pumping up the egos of women, trying to pretend they can go toe to toe with men!

Now before you (if you are a 21st century woman) start screaming at your computer screen, let me assure you that I know women CAN defend themselves against men. But do I think just because a woman has attended a self-defense course and generally buys into equality, that she understands what she is in for?

I may have worded this a little too strongly but please understand that I think realism should be injected into any woman’s fighting strategy… rather than the dribble that I see so often put forth as empowerment for women (in the form of self-defense)! I spoke to my step-daughter to try and get an understanding of why equality is bandied about so freely when speaking of self-defense and she told me that for some women – it is more important to “feel” that women are equal to men in every way.

Ok here is what I am going to do in this post:

• Point out how to overcome a stronger attacker
• Point out that women have to use strategy (i.e. surprise, explosiveness, run, awareness, or weapons to win)
• Women in the martial arts can overcome a size/strength advantage by superior skill.
• That many men attacking women will strike hard to disillusion a woman – make her more complainant.
• Woman should expect to have to fight for their lives – become an animal if they expect to survive!

I hope I have not lost you but let me open with this video and then I will go into more detail. The good news is if you are a woman – YES you CAN defend yourself against a stronger, larger man but you will have to be smart about it!

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