Major Study Shows Self-Defense is Effective in Reducing Attempted and Completed Sexual Assaults
Prof. Charlene Senn and colleagues did a major study on college women who were trained in empowering self-defense and compared their outcomes with those in a control group who had no such training but only access to brochures on sexual assault. The study, just published in the New England Journal of Medicine and reported on in the New York Times today, found that those who took the program called “Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act Sexual Assault Resistance” were victims of completed rape a year later significantly less than those in the control group (5.2% vs. 9.8%; relative risk reduction, 46.3%). The self-defense program also reduced the incidence of attempted rape (3.4% in the resistance group vs. 9.3% in the control group; relative risk reduction, 63.2%). In addition, incidences of nonconsensual sexual contact and attempted coercion were lower in the resistance group than in the control group.
Now, as we have been saying, the CDC’s public health approach to preventing sexual assault on college campuses insists that we use data-driven approaches that contribute to making population-level changes and that also change the cultural norms that support sexual assault. This new study and the press it’s getting make it impossible for the CDC to continue to suggest that there is simply no data on victim protective factors that will contribute to the prevention of sexual assault. Training women to resist sexual assault is a key protective factor. If the CDC ignores it and continues to stand by only bystander intervention training, then it will become obvious that ideological factors, not a lack of data, explain the CDC’s resistance to resistance.
The Hidden Curriculum of Campus Rape Prevention Education
With the new federal mandate that all colleges and universities receiving federal funds provide all new students and employees rape prevention education it’s critical that we examine what counts as “prevention” and ask why self-defense training is absent from the concept of prevention. This short video makes the argument that excluding self-defense results in a HIDDEN CURRICULUM we must challenge.
Bystander Training without Self-Defense Training: Teaching Protection of Others without Teaching Self-Protection
Video: One Photo, Six Words on Self-Defense
1 photo, 6 words: Self defense IS sexual violence PREVENTION! #seejanefightback We asked, you delivered! Here is our video –a response to the CDC’s “Veto Violence” video.
In March 2015, the CDC put out their “1 photo, 6 words”: #VetoViolence video, to tell the public-health story of preventing violence against women by stringing together some of the photos people posted under the hashtag #VetoViolence with six words about preventing sexual assault. While we agree with statements in that video such as “Violence against women is not cool”, “Gender equality should be the norm”, self-defense was COMPLETELY ABSENT from their story. But self-defense IS ABSOLUTELY PART OF the public-health approach to preventing violence against women.
Thanks to all of you who sent us your photo with six words about self-defense for #seejanefightback!!!
Watch our one-minute video here!
And, keep the images coming– just post to your own Facebook page with the hashtag #seejanefightback.
Your Official Bad-Ass Kick-Ass Warrior Name
If you already know your “porn name” (name of your first pet + name of the street you grew up on) or your rap star name, you probably ought to know your official bad-ass kick-ass warrior name, courtesy of See Jane Fight Back.
Start with The Great and then + the first 3 letters of your first name + zilla; then take the first 3 letters of your last name + titude.
And thus, Jill Cermele becomes The Great Jilzilla Certitude. And you really can’t get more kick ass than that. But your own name will be bad ass, too. Please let us know what it is or post it to Facebook. We’ll find it if you just include #seejanefightback.
xo
Don’t Say No, Say Bud Light; or, This Date Rape’s For You
Thank goodness reason and the 21st Century came to Anheuser-Busch InBev, and they dropped their Bud Light bottle label with the wide blue band announcing, “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night.”
Apparently, drinking Bud Light means you’re “#up for whatever” and the Bud Light bottle made it clear that you’re supposed to be up for whatever a man feels like doing to you.
Well, it’s over now. And no doubt somebody at Budweiser has now been fired. Too bad they hadn’t talked to us. We’d have been happy to come up with a slogan for the beer bottle label that would increase, not decrease, Bud Light’s share of the female market.
But perhaps our time would be better spent reaching out to companies that market energy drinks and energy bars. . . . May we suggest:
Luna Bar: THE PERFECT ENERGY FOR REMOVING ASSHOLES FROM YOUR PERSONAL SPACE FOR THE NIGHT.
#VetoViolence Should Include Self-Defense!
This week you can “consult experts and share ideas” about sexual assault prevention thanks to the #VetoViolence campaign. But self-defense is absent. Surprised? No. Outraged? Yes. And for good reason. This program, cosponsored by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center and PreventConnect, should know the research that shows how effective and empowering self-defense training can be. Would it hurt to include self-defense in their “Facts About Sexual Assault”?
Facts About Sexual Assault:
Most rape victims know the perpetrator.
Rape can occur in relationships, including marriage.
False reports of rape are very rare.
Most rapes are not reported to police.
Few reported rapes result in arrests, prosecutions, or convictions.
Nobody deserves to be raped because of behavior or actions. It is not the victim’s fault.
Rape is not inevitable & can be prevented. #VetoViolence
It’s also a fact that rape, even as it’s happening, does not need to be inevitable. But you wouldn’t know it from the #VetoViolence campaign. In fact, the video “1 Photo, 6 Words,” put out by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, compiled select photos that were posted with the hashtag #VetoViolence a few months ago. Our own photo with a self-defense message is (not surprisingly) missing.
Fighting back is an option and it’s an option more women consider once this option comes out of the closet and starts getting talked about and written into lists like the one above. So, help us bring self-defense out of the closet and into the popular discourse of sexual assault prevention. Send us a picture with 6 words that convey how or why self-defense is an important part of sexual assault prevention or vetoing violence. We promise to string it into a video with rousing instrumental music just like the CDC’s video! Pinky swear!
You can send your picture to us via this blog site or simply post the picture to your own Facebook page using the hashtag #seejanefightback
Looking forward to seeing your 1 Picture, 6 Words #seejanefightback
xo
The Golden Rules of Womanhood
Sociologist and well known masculinity scholar Michael Kimmel describes the four golden rules of manhood as:
- No sissy stuff
- Be a big wheel
- Be a sturdy oak
- Give em’ hell
We love critiques of masculinity, but we at Chez Jane tackle social constructions of femininity. Taking off from Kimmel’s golden rules, we therefore offer you the four golden (softened with 4% silver and 21% copper to a flattering rose hue) rules of womanhood. Take note, sisters:
- Take the back seat*
- Be a willow (weeping if appropriate, but soft and supple)**
- Contain the fury***
- Look pretty****
Of course, we could argue, as Michael Kimmel does, that these rules are the socially constructed products of a patriarchal, heterosexist rape culture, and that deconstructing socially prescribed masculinity and femininity would do wonders in shifting the ways in which individual, social, and structural rules about gender perpetuate the rape culture, not to mention do wonders in improving the quality of life for everyone, regardless of gender. But doing so would violate at least rules #1-#3, and probably #4, as well.
Dammit. (Oops – contain the fury. Contain the fury!)
________________________________________________________________________________
*Big wheels are for the boys, ladies. We know; we checked Google images. Unless they’re pink. But still.
**Everyone can’t hold their ground, you know. If manhood is about being strong, unflinching and unbending, someone’s got to yield, right?
***Because fury, however justified, is neither pretty nor hot. Reference rule #4.
****Or hot, depending on the situation and the requirements of your husband/boyfriend. But not too hot. Because that’s slutty. Unless he wants you to look really hot. But only for him. (Not sure how to negotiate that one – good luck.)
Way To Go, Harvard, Way To Go
Nothing dampens the mood at Château Jane more than yet another dismissal of self-defense as “victim blaming”—especially when it is followed by advocating “teaching men not to rape” (as if self-defense isn’t teaching men not to rape). And so, we thank Harvard for lifting our spirits with Meg Stone’s self-defense course on campus. Women in Stone’s class report feeling empowered, not responsible for sexual assault.
Joe, please read this email —
Dear Vice-President Biden,
Forgive us for calling you Joe, but when you sent Martha this email, you used her first name, and it was such a nice, personal touch, we thought you wouldn’t mind. We did read your email, and we found it compelling and clear, in intent and request. So we’re sending you one back (okay, this isn’t exactly an email, but you get the idea), and we borrowed the format (yours is on the left, and ours is on the right). We hope you don’t mind.
We read your email, Joe. Please, read ours:
| Martha — What do you want out of the next two years?Me? I want to finish President Obama’s second term strong and elect Democratic leaders who will champion priorities like increasing the minimum wage and strengthening Social Security.Barack and I are committed to advancing these priorities. But if we as Democrats don’t start working right now to make it happen, we’re in for a much bleaker future. One in which the Republicans in power serve only the ultra-wealthy, ignore the reality of climate change, and turn Medicare and Social Security into something unrecognizable.
Whether we can achieve success depends on what you do, right now. Will you help us fight for Democratic values and elect the progressive champions oftomorrow? Pitch in to the DSCC’s Back to Blue campaign by the FEC deadline in 96 hours. If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately: There’s a choice to be made: We can have strong Democratic leaders who fight for a progressive agenda — or a Republican president like Jeb Bush or Ted Cruz, with a GOP Senate that rubber-stamps each reckless decision. What’ll it be? Your actions right now will determine the outcome. Thank you, |
Joe – What do you want out of the next two years? [or actually, forever?] Me? I want all girls and women to have the opportunity to be trained in self-defense, by instructors who will remind them that they have the right to defend themselves and teach them how to do it. Self-defense advocates and scholars world-wide are committed to advancing these goals. But if we as concerned citizens don’t start working right now to make it happen, we’re in for a much bleaker future. One in which those who benefit from the rape culture will continue to perpetrate violence, and rob them of their basic human rights. Whether we can achieve success depends on what you do, right now. Will you help us fight for equal rights for women and girls by supporting self-defense training? Pitch in to start by including self-defense training in the recommendations of the White House Task Force on Sexual Assault on College Campuses. [Okay, here, you ask for donations. If you are interested in donating money in support of women’s and girls’ self-defense training, we will happily direct you to a number of excellent organizations.] There’s a choice to be made: We can empower girls and women, remind them they have selves worth fighting for and give them the skills and tools they need so self-defense is an option when they are faced with rape and sexual assault – or we can continue, however inadvertently, to perpetuate the rape culture that says that women and girls are there for men’s taking, that men and not women are the ones with power. What’ll it be? Your actions right now can help determine the outcome. Want to make sure that women and girls have the same rights as men and boys to? Then offer women the same rights to securing their own safety that you have suggested in other interviews that men should enforce for women – the right to “kick the living crap” out of someone who is trying to rape them. Because you’re right, Vice President Biden. It’s on all of us. Thank you, |
See Jane Fight Back 
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