James; Self Defense

In this article, James discusses self-defense from a feminist's perspective. She discusses her personal experience with assault and her process in learning and practicing martial arts for self-defense. Finally, she discusses how self-defense is important for self-esteem as well as safety for all women. She also discusses the difference between self-defense and violence.
I found the discussion of self-defense and violence to be very interesting. When practicing non-violence, there are many approaches to take, from inactive pacifism to violent resistance in the form of self-defense. I think that this range of responses to attack or injustice should all be considered to be non-violent, even if force is required. However, if one is using their self-defense techniques in a way that will intentionally harm the other person more than is necessary for escape, this is when it starts moving into the violent territory. It is, however, a difficult discussion because intent does not always lead to optimum results. Sometimes even when the intention is good, the outcome ends up appearing to be very violent. This is why it is difficult to discuss violent self-defense techniques in the context of non-violence.
Secondly, I found James' discussion on self esteem to be very interesting in the context of self defense. James explains that it is important to believe that one's life is worth preserving, and that women do not need to bend to a man's will, but rather can be confident and defend themselves should the need be present. Also, she says that being assertive is societally not the way that women are supposed to act, because society tells us that women are the weaker sex. In thinking about this statement, I think that it is becoming less and less true. Speaking as a woman of this generation, it is definitely still a prevalent problem, but it is becoming less and less taboo for a woman to speak about the same things as a man does, and to do many of the same things as a man does, including behaving certain ways that may not be considered “polite” or “ladylike”. I think that today, we still have a long way to go, but it is rapidly moving in that direction.