Max - The article I linked to is very long and repeats itself a lot, but the general thing I picked up from it is that the main threat to women is not being attacked by stranger in a dark alley, but being manipulated into something 'bad' or a bad situation by a man they already know - who may be a family member, friend or even martial arts instructor. No BJJ technique will save her here, we're in the realm of psychology and the mind, and dealing with predators and their manipulative behaviours, the expectations of society on females, etc..... I don't know how you teach defence to that in a jiujitsu seminar...
Jessica - good point that the article never mentions at any time that the student has a responsibility to own the material, rather than just take everything the martial arts instructor tells them as gospel. The modern trend is to avoid "victim blaming" in our response to sexual assaults - i.e. "why tell women to be more careful, why not just teach men not to rape!". This is a valid response to daft things people say like "she asked for it because she was drunk", however the flip side of this is that the pendulum has swung too far the other way and it's no longer socially unacceptable (on the Internet at least) to say that people should assume any responsibility for their own behaviour at all. Fact is, if you keep doing risky things, bad things will happen eventually. There needs to be more balance in respect to personal responsibility vs not blaming the victim. Hope that gives you some ideas for your seminar
Jessica - good point that the article never mentions at any time that the student has a responsibility to own the material, rather than just take everything the martial arts instructor tells them as gospel. The modern trend is to avoid "victim blaming" in our response to sexual assaults - i.e. "why tell women to be more careful, why not just teach men not to rape!". This is a valid response to daft things people say like "she asked for it because she was drunk", however the flip side of this is that the pendulum has swung too far the other way and it's no longer socially unacceptable (on the Internet at least) to say that people should assume any responsibility for their own behaviour at all. Fact is, if you keep doing risky things, bad things will happen eventually. There needs to be more balance in respect to personal responsibility vs not blaming the victim. Hope that gives you some ideas for your seminar
Bookmarks