Women Aren’t Weak or Crazy!

One of the most difficult things for people who take or teach women’s self-defense to comprehend is the lack of attention to self-defense against sexual assault in scholarly literature and activist work on women’s safety and prevention of and resistance to sexual assault. Seemingly unconsciously accepting old ideas that women are weak or crazy, anti-violence activists and scholars often assume women are incapable of self-defense or that if women do learn to defend themselves that they will unthinkingly beat-up any man who crosses their path.

Martha McCaughey and Jill Cermele have co-edited a Special Issue of the scholarly journal Violence Against Women in order to bring self-defense into the international and national conversation about stopping sexual assault. They have assembled five research articles and four reflection pieces in Violence Against Women Special Issue: Self-Defense Against Sexual Assault: March 2014; Vol. 20, No. 3 (available through a university library). IMPACT Chicago will feature one article a month for the next nine months. The Table of Contents is below along with the month when a summary of an article will appear on the IMPACT Chicago blog.

Violence Against Women Special Issue: Self-Defense Against Sexual Assault

Special Issue Editors: Martha McCaughey and Jill Cermele

June Does Self-Defense Training Prevent Sexual Violence Against Women? Jocelyn A. Hollander

July Resisting Rape: The Effects of Victim Self-Protection on Rape Completion and Injury Jongyeon Tark and Gary Kleck

August Self-Defense Training as Clinical Intervention for Survivors of Trauma Gianine D. Rosenblum and Lynn S. Taska

September Exploring the Intersection of Race and Gender in Self-Defense Training Lisa Speidel

October The Group Dynamics of Women’s Self-Defense Training Leanne R. Brecklin and Rena K. Middendorf

November Reflections on Researching Rape Resistance Sarah E. Ullman

December Empowering Self-Defense Training Martha E. Thompson

January Self-Defense or Undermining the Self? Exploring the Possibilities and Limitations of a Novel Anti-Rape Technology Deborah White and Gethin Rees

February From Gun Politics to Self-Defense Politics: A Feminist Critique of the Great Gun Debate Jennifer D. Carlson