Teaching Resistance to Teach Resistance: The Use of Self-Defense in Teaching Undergraduates about Gender Violence

by Jill A. Cermele

Violence against women figures as a common topic in a variety of college courses, including those in psychology, sociology, criminology, and women's studies. The data on the risk of sexual assault for college women makes this a topic of particular interest and importance to many college students. Although it is fairly easy to find statistics about the risk of gender violence, it is often more difficult to find information and accurate data about the options women have in confronting and resisting sexual assault. Self-defense manuals and crime prevention sources tend to focus on strategies for prevention or avoidance while neglecting, minimizing, or ignoring altogether physical resistance as a response (McCaughey 50–53). Yet if we teach students only about the occurrence of gender violence or if we limit coverage of women's responses to issues of prevention or psychological intervention and neglect active resistance as a viable strategy, we perpetuate the myths that in the face of imminent violence women can and should do nothing.