April 25, 2017

To: RAD Instructional Team 

From: I. D. Claire, RAD Instructional Team

Re: Misfire with that Self-Defense Training Poster

Well folks, the votes are in.  People on campus–especially the feminists!–have been complaining about our poster that promotes RAD self-defense classes with the Susan B. Anthony quote, “Woman must not depend upon the protection of a man, but must be taught to protect herself.”

I told the development team to get someone hotter, and preferably nonwhite, on that poster.  But you didn’t listen.  Sure, most of what passes for “rape prevention” on our campus is victim services and an attempt to get victims to report offenders.  It’s up to us to promote the importance of self-defense training on campus.  We sure as hell know the sexual assault prevention office and the women’s center aren’t going to do it.  And the CDC still doesn’t want to embrace the data on the effectiveness of self-defense.  We also know RAD self-defense classes play a special role in offering something that is truly preventative, and empowering to boot.  

We want people to realize that self-defense is in line with feminism, not against it.  How did Susan B. Anthony take us off message here?  Time for a gut check.  Susan B. Anthony is not hot.  And she is associated with white feminism– in a time when we all have the vote already.  (Post-feminism, anyone?)  Plus, that old gal had no birth control so in order to stay free and have a lifelong career as a public speaker and feminist activist, she never got with a man.  That sends the wrong message in today’s era of birth control and hooking up.

They’re also saying our poster promotes victim blaming.  Certainly college campuses display posters that say if you don’t lock your dorm doors then you almost deserve to have your laptop stolen, and people don’t go hollering to the Dean of Students that this message is victim-blaming.  Maybe the campus feminists are just looking for a reason to dismiss self-defense.  Still, could we do more?  

Let’s be sure our posters show images of women fending off known assailants in the most likely ways.  No more street scenes where the money shot is the woman getting the thug in a headlock.  We’re teaching boundary setting, verbal self-defense and, when those fail, physical resistance tactics.  dare, can you turn that into a graphic?  Ditto: the most likely places we teach women they’ll defend themselves– their dorm room, on a couch, floor, or bed, at a party, &etc.  Rhyanna, for now, change the image of Susan B. Anthony to bell hooks (a young bell hooks!!).  Find a quote that captures feminism being pro-self-defense, but also pro-sex, pro-drinking, pro-choice, and pro-football.  Jessica, for a longer-term strategy, look through recent issues of Cosmo and Glamour for current celebrities who might have said something great about kicking ass.  Maybe Beyoncé.