Women's Self-Defense Sucks

[ermghoti]

Is there some sort of fetish subculture that involves attractive teenage women (or older) grappling/fighting with men?

Of course there is, why would you ask such a ridiculous question? (Protip: any question that begins "is there some sort of fetish" is ridiculous)

[BKR]

Zardoz pretty much called it in this situation. The gun is good, the penis is evil. The most effective means of "women's self defense" is a gun.

Holy smokes, so there is another person here besides me who has watched Zardoz?

[Omega Supreme]

Holy smokes, so there is another person here besides me who has watched Zardoz?

I've watched it, I just forgot all about it.

[BKR]

Of course there is, why would you ask such a ridiculous question? (Protip: any question that begins "is there some sort of fetish" is ridiculous)

I'll consider you the SME on that topic from now on!

[BKR]

I've watched it, I just forgot all about it.

Of course you have !

[gregaquaman]

I've watched it, I just forgot all about it.

Some sort of big flying head or something

[gregaquaman]

I'll consider you the SME on that topic from now on!

The answer is always yes to that question.

But in the vein of womens sd and the question of can a girl beat a guy in a fight? And so you google girl beats guy in fight. And apparently quite a big market for that sort of thing.

[MTTKDGUY]

Another failed wannabe spokesmodel/martial artist/life coach/guru's self-defense

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aScnBlEtRhs

[MTTKDGUY]

Holy smokes, so there is another person here besides me who has watched Zardoz?

Zardoz rules...James Bond in a diaper...that's some high concept shit there...

[Holy Moment]

[Holy Moment]

Is there some sort of fetish subculture that involves attractive teenage women (or older) grappling/fighting with men?

[Wounded Ronin]

Holy smokes, so there is another person here besides me who has watched Zardoz?

I thought everyone who went to college has watched Zardoz. It's practically the exposition of the Jungian archetypes underpinning the psyches of ensconced academic types and naive college kids who temporarily worship them.

[MTTKDGUY]

I thought everyone who went to college has watched Zardoz. It's practically the exposition of the Jungian archetypes underpinning the psyches of ensconced academic types and naive college kids who temporarily worship them.

It may be interesting to note that Zardoz in John Boorman's (the director) follow-up to "Deliverance." I mean...how do we go from "squeal little piggy" to men in diapers with guns and bandoleers floating around in a giant head? There's something Freudian there we're supposed to get...I think...maybe not...

[goodlun]

I am going to drop this in here because of the bear claw

[MisterMR]

me

I think that it's true that women self defence is a psychological thing, so the simple training of punching the aggressor in the face (or poking the eyes) seems a good starting point.

Goodlun

What what? No, self defense is more than an attitude. Its more than just being aggressive.
Its more than being aware, its more than all that tripe.
Women start at a disadvantage even against an untrained male.
They need to have technical competencies that let them get out of a bad situation and punching someone in the face needs to be backed up with real skill.

Omega Supreme

Oh god, we've hit maximum stupid here. I don't know you would you mind giving me a bit more of your background to explain such a ignorant opinion? Or would you prefer the term "naive"?

Ermgothi

That's a pile. The average woman taking a self defense class is in a different physical world from even the average untrained man. Men grew up playing pickup games of football and roughhousing. Even that tiny bit of violence memory is a huge advantage over people who have simply never done these things. I'd agree that determined aggression would turn back an untrained and unmotivated man, I have no idea what percentage of assaults involve such people. Random rapists? Date rapists? Abusive partners? That has to be the bulk of the situations in which a woman would actually have to apply violence to make an escape, and I'd think at least half the time, a shoddy physical defense would only escalate the situation, which is backed up by the FBI's Crime Victimization Survey.

So it seems that my opinion wasn't really popular, huh.

First of all, I will point out that if a woman starts with the assumption that she just CAN'T win, she will never learn any method of self defence, neither good methods or bad methods, so the psychological/cultural thing precedes any technical concern.

Second, I believe that it is true that a lot of wannabe rapist/aggressors start from the assumption that the woman will not defend, so not all of them are motivated badass fighters. I said "I believe" because it is just my opinion, I have nothing to prove this. However I was pointing to a book of an academic that reaches this same conclusion (though I didn't read the book, just the summary and the comments on amazon)

Finally, my background, since I've been asked: I don't think I have any specific background on this, I just have many years of amateurish martial arts (judo and Nippon kempo, as written in my profile). In these years I made these observation:

1) A lot of beginners have absolutely no idea about how tho "fight", so even the simpliest things (punch straight, don't give your back to your opponent) are important for a beginner. Even more for women, who as Ermgothi says have less "physical experience" overall than men.

2) A lot of beginners simply aren't that aggressive, and this becomes a problem for them even during training. This happens more often to women (although there are also plenty of women who are aggressive).

So from this "background" I say that the psychological element is the most important thing, because without this psychological element you can't have the other, also very important, element of good training.