General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: ‘Men’s rights’ group claims free self-defense classes for women are sexist [View all]Threedifferentones
(1,070 posts)I think you are absolutely correct, a lot of women could benefit just from pretending they are under attack and putting themselves into an aggressive/angry state of mind that may not be familiar to them. It makes sense to me that in such a case they would be much more comfortable starting out in a setting where there are not a bunch of men around to chuckle at them and call them cute.
But in the long run my points are not really disputable. Speaking from experience, people only master physical skills by using them over and over. When it comes to fighting, that means if you want to get better you need to fight.
Of course self defense is not learning to fight per se, since fighting implies a desire to hurt and thus a rough balance between offensive and defensive techniques.
Still, since a woman's real life confrontation is almost certain to pit her against a man, the techniques she hopes to employ to hinder and escape from her attacker need to be practiced against men, or they will not be of any use when her adrenaline is spiked and she is forced to rely on her instincts. The instructor cannot spar with all the students, so if these women want to really internalize effective defensive maneuvers they will need male classmates to practice with.