Also on the Gender & Society blog  (copyright 2016 Jill Cermele and Martha McCaughey)

The 2014 White House Task Force on Sexual Assault on College Campuses has mandated that in order to continue to receive federal funding, colleges and universities must step up their game, including providing rape prevention education. The 2014 “Not Alone” report outlines the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) public health model of sexual assault prevention, and reiterates the need for evidenced-based programming to combat rape and sexual assault. The CDC’s public health model defines the terms and levels of prevention, and articulates what “counts” as primary prevention – namely, bystander intervention training and psychoeducation to shift rape-supportive attitudes. As we describe in detail elsewhere (see McCaughey & Cermele, 2015), despite the overwhelming evidence that self-defense (training and enacting it) works both to stop rape and to shift rape-supportive attitudes, the CDC does not discuss or recommend self-defense training in its public health model.

On the surface, the omission of self-defense training from the category of primary prevention is perplexing, considering the CDC’s own definition. Primary prevention is defined as thwarting violence before it happens, while secondary prevention includes strategies and responses that immediately follow victimization, such as counseling or medical care, to address the short-term effects. The CDC has consistently and openly argued that while teaching (often male) bystanders to intervene in and thwart sexual assault is an established primary prevention tactic, teaching women to intervene in and thwart sexual assault targeted against themselves is not.

This stance is flawed for two main reasons. First, both self-defense training and bystander intervention training target sexual violence at the same point in time – when a sexual assault is imminent or in progress. So while both meet the criteria for primary prevention, they differ on one important dimension: who is encouraged to intervene. Bystander training requires the presence of a (presumably) benevolent and engaged third party to thwart rape, contributing to the erroneous belief that the woman targeted for sexual violence cannot, or should not, intervene on her own behalf.

Self-defense training, on the other hand, disrupts the script of sexual violence by offering women a range of verbal and physical strategies to thwart rape, which, although it can include soliciting bystander intervention, does not require the presence of a bystander in order to prevent assault. Given that both methods of rape prevention education target sexual violence at the same point in time, with the same goal and even potentially similar methods, it stands to reason that they must be in the same category – they are either both primary prevention, or neither are.

Second, only one of these meets the CDC’s second criteria, that rape prevention education be demonstrably effective – and that is self-defense training. The data are clear—and reviewed in our article (McCaughey & Cermele, 2015)—that self-defense is effective in thwarting sexual assault. In addition, numerous empirical studies have documented that self-defense training is what the CDC calls a protective factor, and that women who have taken self-defense training are at less risk for sexual assault than those who have not, reducing risk of sexual assault by as much as 40%. Furthermore, self-defense training creates positive behavior and attitude change, including feelings of empowerment in women. Finally, women’s participation in self-defense training and the enactment of effective resistance strategies directly challenge the attitudes that permeate rape culture: that the safety and integrity of women’s bodies exists at the whim of men’s bodies. Women who learn to defend themselves learn to take themselves and their safety seriously in realistic ways, rather than simply following an unsubstantiated list of “don’ts” – don’t wear this, don’t go there, don’t be alone. Instead, they assess situations better than they did before their training, are more likely to identify situations that could be dangerous, and have the skills to respond if necessary.

We also reviewed the data on bystander intervention training (see McCaughey & Cermele, 2015), which are much less promising. There is some research demonstrating that participants in bystander intervention rape prevention education reported positive changes in attitudes and increased intent to intervene or increased self-reports of intervention. However, there is as yet no empirical data to suggest that bystander intervention programs are effective in actually thwarting rape and sexual assault. And yet, the CDC maintains its stance that bystander intervention training meets the criteria for primary prevention, and self-defense training does not.

This cannot continue. By the CDC’s own criteria, training women in self-defense is a demonstrably effective primary-prevention strategy in preventing rape and sexual assault, and is entirely consistent with the goals of a public health model in combatting the crisis of sexual assault on college campuses. At a time when so many organizations and task forces are looking to the CDC’s public health model for combating sexual assault, the CDC must begin to pay attention to the data and acknowledge women’s capacity for and right to resist sexual assault. Self-defense training belongs at the forefront of their recommendations for sexual assault prevention on college campuses.

Citation

McCaughey, M., & Cermele, J. (2015). Changing the hidden curriculum of campus rape prevention and education: Women’s self-defense as a key protective factor for a public health model of prevention. Trauma, Violence, and Abuse, online pre-print, 1-16. DOI: 10.1177/1524838015611674 tva.sagepub.com

In the effort to get men to stop raping, most activists and practitioners have settled for getting men to get other men to stop raping.  This, of course, helped avoid the old “man-hating” charge we faced when we tried to discuss how aggressive male heterosexuality had been normalized in our rape culture.  It’s so much easier to celebrate an idea of masculinity that does the right thing.  Celebrating the majority of men avoids imposing guilt and might explain why this video, dramatizing a group of eight male bystanders who stop two men from assaulting a woman, has gone viral:

Yes, we know.  We, too, wanted her to drop her books, put up her hands, yell, and run.  And we’re not convinced that “every religion protect women” or that “protecting women is religion.”  We also wondered how a woman in that situation would ever be assured that the other men encircling her don’t also mean to do her harm.  Of course, our version of this video would not go viral. (Nothing of ours goes viral.)

The video is a perfect example of the current strategy to tell men that good, masculine, and truly religious men do not rape; and it’s the men who fail to follow these norms who disrespect and attack women.  But as U. of So. Cal. Prof. Michael A. Messner points out in his new Gender & Society article, the effort to change rape culture by framing the problem as one of a few bad apples is a major break from the feminist movement that challenged rape to begin with.  As Messner puts it, in the 1970s feminist women and pro-feminist men thought that

“. . . successfully ending violence against women would involve not simply removing a few bad apples from an otherwise fine basket of fruit. Rather, working to stop violence against women meant overturning the entire basket: challenging the institutional inequalities between women and men, raising boys differently, and transforming in more peaceful and egalitarian directions the normative definition of manhood. Stopping men’s violence against women, in other words, was now seen as part of a larger effort at revolutionizing gender relations.”

As Messner points out, the institutionalization and professionalization of anti-rape work since that time has led us to embrace a health model of rape prevention, which has medicalized the problem of sexual violence–and thereby, at least in some ways, de-politicized it.

This “rebranding” of anti-rape work, Messner says, re-individualizes the problem of rape and appeals to men’s sense of masculine honor and strength.

And, to Messner’s analysis, we would add that, as we pointed out in our Trauma, Violence & Abuse article, the strategy to teach good men that their role is to be intervening bystanders when bad men assault women also positions women as inherently helpless damsels in distress, and men as their knights in shining armor–solidifying one of the central myths of the rape culture we’re trying to dismantle.

Some advocates doing anti-rape work are aware of these tensions.  Seeking to link structural injustices to incidents of sexual violence, for Messner, is the way forward.  We think this also offers insight into how to avoid the charge that self-defense is an individualized, de-politicized solution to rape.  For when a woman claims an entitlement to defend herself, she is insisting on challenging embodied gender roles and fighting structural injustice. When Jane fights back, Jane’s making one small kick for woman, but one giant kick for womankind.  We know Jane can fight back.  We’d like to see that go viral.

The wonderful people at WordPress offer statistics to bloggers like us, and bloggers like us use the site’s administrative functions to see how many people have clicked on which blog posts, how many shares on Facebook a post on our site got, etc.  For instance, in 2015 See Jane Fight Back made 45 posts that enjoyed nearly 10,000 views from visitors across 109 countries.  Most people got to the blog from Facebook or Twitter.

One thing people might not realize is that WordPress also tracks the Internet search terms that landed someone on our blog.  As it turns out, given the contents of a blog on women’s self-defense, some who land here at Château Jane were actually looking for sex videos involving rape and girls fighting, the grabbing of testicles, and sometimes simply “hot slutty Jane”.

So, although we may have disappointed those Internet surfers by failing to provide an eroticized Jane or testicle grabbing, we like to think these folks got a little taste of the way in which women use self-defense to refuse the position of sexual object for men’s pleasure, and to have sex on the terms they consent to.  That’s our fantasy.

Any advocate of self-defense training could tell you that the skills they learn in self-defense are useful in daily life for taking oneself seriously, being aware of one’s surroundings, and setting boundaries in situations that are more common than assaults.

With all the recent talk on “microaggressions” it might be tempting to think that self-defense training would make you into that person who turns every little microaggression into a federal case.  Not so.  For complaints about microaggressions are typically complaints to a third party.  On a college campus, for instance, that third party could be a dean, a Title IX coordinator, or an Equity Office director.

Prof. Bradley Campbell, a Cal State-Los Angeles sociologist interviewed on public radio’s “Here and Now” show discusses his study of microaggression complaints and the moral status afforded to victims in today’s society:

“These microaggression complaints – what characterizes them is that they are appeals to third parties. They’re not something like vengeance where people just take direct action against the offender. Secondly, they’re complaints about minor things, which is what the ‘micro’ in microaggression means. And then also that these – the complaints – are about specific kinds of things. It’s not just any minor offense, it’s things that are said to further oppression, and mainly the oppression of minority groups. So we thought about like when do these things occur? So some of the social conditions we mentioned were things like, you know, the presence of authority and also the demise of communal groups. But one of the main things is actually the increase in diversity and equality. So it’s in settings where there’s already a lot of equality and diversity that you get these kinds of complaints.”

Complaints about microaggressions are actually more common where equality and diversity thrive.  A college campus is a perfect example.

We are not suggesting that sexual assault is a microaggression; let’s make explicit that we’d put that in a MACRO aggression category. But we are suggesting that Campbell’s insights about not handling microaggressions oneself, but instead relying on third parties to handle, offers some insight into the continued resistance to advocating that women defend themselves.  If we must rely on third parties to handle even microaggressions, then why would anyone consider training women to be prepared to handle larger ones?  Given that the victims of microaggressions are reporting the incidences to third parties, it is hardly surprising that campus rape prevention strategies typically emphasize reporting the incident and asking third parties–bystanders–to intervene.

Self-defense training prepares one to manage major and minor aggressions, both verbal and physical, and in a way that does not require third-party intervention.  It allows for agency while simultaneously acknowledging the experience, and impact, of violence and oppression, without necessarily requiring a culture of victimhood that positions women’s vulnerability as a moral high ground, and denies women their right to self-defense.

We know. We know. In the U.S., Halloween (chocolate!) and Thanksgiving (mashed potatoes!) preface winter holidays (cookies, pies, and cakes!) culminating in a liquor-soaked, buckets-full-of-popcorn, calorie non-counting extravaganza that we vow to turn around in the new year. Perhaps our self-defense message will reach more girls and women if it’s a new diet & exercise fad! Here you go.*

*This plan is not endorsed by any medical, fitness, or nutrition authorities.

Jane’s Self-Defense Diet and Fitness Plan for 2016

Diet:  The holidays are the time to indulge, but that doesn’t mean depriving yourself as of January 1.  Eat healthy, but happy!  Lots of protein, fruits, and vegetables, but carbs and treats in moderation are fine, too.  The body type of 2016 is strong and powerful, not weak and emaciated.  Ditch the diets – they don’t work, and they make us cranky.  Instead…

Focus on Fitness, with Jane’s Seven-Day Plan!

Day 1.  Firm your legs practicing round-house and ax kicks.

Day 2.  Tone your waistline and butt by doing stairs, two at a time, which is the EXACT motion for a highly effective knee-to-the-groin.

Day 3. Get those great ripped looking arms by practicing your elbow throws, eye jabs, and heel palms strikes.

Day 4. Get heart-healthy by fast-walking or running after stomping on an object. Shouting “NO!” and “911!” after you get to your destination improves lung capacity.

Day 5. Work those hips with arches!  Lie on your back, plant your heels, and thrust upward, fast and furious, first to one side, then the other. Improve flexibility and practice tossing off an attacker at the same time!

Day 6. Mindfulness – everyone’s doing it, and Jane is too!  Awareness is key – notice what’s around you, and practice focusing your attention – what are your instincts telling you?  Where is safety?  No judgment – notice, and go with your gut.

Day 7.  This is a day of rest and reflection. Think about and be thankful for what a bad-ass you’re becoming.  Oh yes, this is going to impact many aspects of your life. Claim it, baby.

Forget those fashion trends known as off-duty model, glamorous lounging, or heroine chic.  They only exploit women’s insecurities.  Now empowerment chic is in. Given how “femvertising” has taken off, we’re surprised that no one has thought of a fashion line in accordance. Geez, do we have to do everything around here?!

We present you with 10 trends and ways to wear them. We have also taken the liberty of selecting our ideal celebs likely to adopt each look. You can click the links or the pictures to see the look more clearly on a new page.

1. Weekend Warrior (Man Repeller fashion blogger Leandra Medine)
2. Go-Forth Granny (designer/model Iris Apfel)
3. Suffragette Sleek (teen fashion blogger Justine Crawford
4. Gonna Git You Sucka Casual (singer Tina Turner)
5. Empowerment-is-the-New-Black (activist/author Gloria Steinem)
6. Off-Duty Cop (comedian Whoopi Goldberg)
7. Slut Walking Slick (comedian Amy Schumer)
8. Sobriety Chic (not a waif? not on drugs? this might be the look for you!) (producer/actor Lena Dunham)
9. Third-Wave Trendsetter (Instagram fashion guru Eva Chen)
10. Underwear-as-Outwear-as-Fuckyouwear (singer Lady Gaga)

After all, what is fashion (or blogging) without a faith in the improbable?

1. Check our breasts for suspicious lumps
2. Wear seat belts in automobiles
3. Avoid swimming in shark-infested waters
4. Wear a heart monitor
5. Get our teeth cleaned
6. Have our cholesterol checked
7. Take vitamins
8. Get a pap smear
9. Install anti-virus programs on our computer
10. Lock our doors
11. Install an alarm system
12. Put safety lights on our bicycle
13. Wear a fluorescent vest while jogging at night
14. Drive with our headlights on
15. Carry an umbrella
16. Wear a winter coat
17. Wash hands to avoid getting the flu
18. When we see a raccoon in our garage awake in the middle of the day, with mouth foaming, do not pet it; instead call a neighbor who grew up in the country to come over and “take care of it”
19. Tell our mother-in-law that we would love to spend the holiday at her cabin just to save ourself an argument
20. Use birth control to prevent pregnancy

Dear See Jane Fight Back:

I object to your list of 20 ways women participate in victim blaming because some of those things are useful things any reasonable and responsible person—male or female—should do. For instance, many of us take vitamins and get our teeth cleaned. We also feel perfectly entitled to blame people who eat chili cheese fries whilst forgetting to take their Lipitor^®.

However, I can agree to items 3, 9 10, and 11 on the grounds that those things involve other people whose behavior should be better controlled by their parents, the government, or the criminal justice system. Let’s arrest people who throw chum in the water when fishing off ocean piers. Let’s prevent burglaries so locking doors and home alarm systems aren’t necessary. Let’s show hackers that we shouldn’t have to protect our files and our hard drives from their malicious plans. We have a right to swim wear we want, compute how we want, and live without fear of burglary. In fact, I’m going to leave my unprotected computer in my unlocked house right now while I go jump off the fishing pier for a swim. In the dark. And I’ve just had a huge plate of chili cheese fries (and my Lipotor^®)!  Now this is true empowerment.

Yours,

Etc.

Kate Harding is advertising her new book, Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture–and What We Can Do about It (2015, Da Capo Lifelong Books), with an excerpt in The Guardian.

This makes us feel really old.  First, rape culture has just risen?  As if.  Second, the hopeful subtitle “and what we can do about it” is not going where we hoped it might.  We’ve been through this so many times that we should have predicted that Harding would include self-defense in her lament about all the disempowering things women do, but shouldn’t have to, in order to avoid or otherwise protect themselves from rape.  Harding states in The Guardian:

“There’s something wrong with expecting women to remember that they should always go for the groin, or the eyes, or the armpit, or the upper thigh, or the first two fingers (I am not making any of these up), and that it only takes five pounds of pressure to rip off a human ear, and if you hit someone’s nose with the palm of your hand and push up just right, you can drive the bone into their brain and kill them.”

It’s too bad Harding does not say what that “something” is that is wrong with self-defense.  Maybe it’s that women are too delicate and pure to envision themselves doing such violent things.  Or perhaps it’s that women should not really be that vigilant about standing up for themselves.  Or maybe it’s that women shouldn’t have to worry their pretty little heads about the violence that is out there in the world.  After all, it’s hard for ladies to remember so many things (like when Barbie reminded us, back in the 90s, that math is hard).  Men are actually victims of violence more often than women are; would Harding say there is “something wrong” with men needing to know how to handle (de-escalate, resist, thwart, or otherwise survive) a violent encounter?

Harding goes on to state:

“By the time we finish high school, our brains are already filled with such rape-proofing basics as the appropriate skirt length for discouraging violent attacks (long); the number of alcohol units that can be consumed before one is thought to have invited sexual assault (one, tops); a list of acceptable neighborhoods to visit alone in daylight; another of acceptable neighborhoods to visit alone after dark (just kidding – there are none); and a set of rudimentary self-defense moves (“Solar plexus! Solar plexus!”).”

For Harding, encouraging women to learn any self-defense is akin to telling them to wear a burka–victim-blaming nonsense that restricts women’s freedom, blames women for rape, and, regardless of its effectiveness, diverts our attention from getting men not to rape:

“This ubiquitous idea that, by controlling our behavior, appearance and whereabouts, we can keep ourselves from being raped does nothing to help women (let alone potential victims who aren’t women). It merely takes the onus off the rest of society to seriously consider what we can all do to prevent sexual violence.”

We wish Harding would talk to women who teach and take self-defense classes.  If she did, she would learn that making women aware of their rights to defend themselves, and offering them training in self-defense skills, empowers women to move freely about the world and make the choices that are best for them – choices like how short to wear their skirts, or what beverages they consume, or which neighborhoods they frequent, or yes, whether to go for the groin or the solar plexus if someone is trying to assault or rape them.  Even though she published with a nonacademic press that is geared toward attracting a wide audience, we wish Harding would have done her research.  If she had, she would know that, unlike much rape-avoidance advice women hear, self-defense expands women’s freedom and, moreover, really does challenge the rape culture.