Self defense classes for women have one, and only one, goal: provide an opportunity for the woman to escape.
Prevailing in an attempted rape, without being armed with a firearm, and holding the perp at bay until police arrive is not, and was never, the goal of self-defense classes.
Maybe its time to move them to the front line and let them get a taste of real combat. Let them go on the View when its over.
“There I was trying to scale this cliff with my 100 lbs. pack on and those a$$hole$ in my squad just left me there at the bottom. Can you believe that?”
“Self defense classes for women have one, and only one, goal: provide an opportunity for the woman to escape.”
Unfortunately for the past few decades TV and movies have promoted the myth of the female warrior who is at least as tough and fierce as her male counterparts. Its everywhere, women beating the hell out of men twice their size. Every depiction of a combat team has at least one female who is sexy but deadly. look for it. Its endemic and it normalizes the idea of women in combat. Reality is much much different.
provide an opportunity for the woman to escape
Yeah - and I agree with that. They'll buy a second or two, or convince someone who's just looking for an easy target to look elsewhere. So, they're not a complete waste. Like I said, Situational Awareness is everything... thugs are looking for people who aren't paying attention. Period.
But as with most lib sacred cows, the law of unintended consequences looks (to me, at least) to have reared its ugly head. Women - for the most part, certainly there are exceptions - can't go toe-to-toe with a male attacker, and should never, ever be encouraged to think otherwise. There's a huge difference between, say, some punk in a parking deck looking for an easy mark, and an ex-boyfriend breaking down the door.
But, I suppose, "Yeah, I'll kick the guy's ass" sounds much better than, "I'll calmly get my .38 and wait in the bedroom, putting the bed between myself and the intruder and using it as a support if possible, while I call 911. Gee, I really, really hope that he'll just go away so I don't need to shoot him."