Mathilde Blézat, is the author of For feminist self-defense (Editions of the last letter, 2022). She returns to this specific approach to self-defense.
What is feminist self-defense, and where does it come from?
As a woman, we grow up with the idea that we are vulnerable. Feminist self-defense was born from an observation by women’s cause activists who were fighting against domestic, sexist, sexual violence… and who wanted to offer a tool to women before attacks. It really developed in the 1970s in North America, as a means of preventing violence against women. The practice we know today is a legacy of this.
What is the difference between self-defense and feminist self-defense?
Feminist self-defense is based on the principle that just because you master a martial art does not mean you will be able to defend yourself. There may be psychological control within the couple, we may not be able to identify that a limit has been crossed and that we are in danger… So many factors which would prevent us from retaliating, even if we knows how to fight. It is therefore not born from a sporting group; moreover, more than half of the technique taught is mental and verbal. The courses – which do not disseminate any form of feminist ideology – aim to access a trigger for mental self-defense, to feel capable of defending oneself and to give oneself the right to do so. The objective is to break women’s feeling of vulnerability.
Are self-defense courses suitable for various audiences?
There are lots of types of internships, for example for teenage girls, where we will work on issues of harassment and cyberharassment. But also courses for disabled or elderly people: rather than looking at physical incapacity, we look for what we can use to defend ourselves. For example, a wheelchair is a powerful machine, which can go fast, which can hurt the legs of someone who attacks us, giving us time to escape. We don’t just work on the physical, we also train to have a deep voice, to shout loudly to surprise the attacker who perceives us as fragile…
Why are these internships systematically single-sex?
Non-mixing can pose a problem in France, in the name of republican universalism. But it is not decided without reason: it is imposed because there is an unequal situation between men and women, particularly on the issue of violence. The goal of this non-mixing is to achieve equality, to provide tools to people who experience the same thing. If we have representatives of the aggressor group in the course, we will not feel as free to speak out…
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