self-defense

Self-defense–the practice of preventing, defusing, and minimizing the damage caused by violent attacks against oneself–is especially important to women and gender-expansive people. Acts of physical self-defense are widely considered legal even if they injure the assailant. The most important step in ending violence against women and gender-expansive people is for men to stop using violence and threats of violence to get their way. Even so, , learning self-defense can boost our physical and psychological self-confidence along with keeping us safer. Feminist self-defense classes, often referred to as “empowerment self-defense,” typically include assertiveness training, physical conditioning, martial arts, using our voices powerfully, and information about gender-based violence. In empowerment self-defense training we incorporate into our bodies the knowledge that we are worth defending.