Former roommates Abby Sourwine (left) and Chloe Miller (right) practice some self-defense moves they learned in the Women’s Self-Defense class at the University of Oregon. The “ready stance,” where you put your arms out in front of you and put your feet up if someone pushes you to the ground, creates distance between you and an attacker. “It’s a barrier between you and whoever might be coming near you,” Miller says. “It’s a signal to someone that you know what you're doing.”
of the Women’s Self-Defense class addresses how this social dynamic might prevent women from defending themselves during an attack. “The reality is that if the person who’s assaulting you is your friend, it’s really unlikely that you’re going to haul up and hit them in the nose or stick your fingers in their eyes or do any of those things,” Hollander says. Hollander also notes how behavioral expectations associated with gender can make self-defense difficult for women. Women are conditioned to be lady-like, polite and quiet, which can prevent them from taking action or speaking up when they experience unwanted advances. By learning about selfsilencing and being aware of how it can prevent self-defense, students are less likely to self-silence, Hollander says. Abby Sourwine, a University of Oregon student who took Women’s Self-Defense her freshman year, recalls a time before she took the class where she silenced herself in a potentially dangerous situation. During her senior year of high school, Sourwine and her friend were walking back to her car in their local mall’s parking lot. The mall had just closed, and before the two arrived at their parking spot, they both heard fast-paced footsteps behind them. When the two turned around, Sourwine says a man wearing all black, a hoodie and a black bandana covering his face was sprinting toward them. He promptly stopped in his tracks four feet away when the women turned around to face him. All Sourwine could do was laugh and say, “Oh! You scared me!”
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The man silently stared at them. Sourwine, her friend and the man stood in silence for a few moments longer before Sourwine and her friend ran toward their car. The man took a couple of steps after them before stopping again. He did not pursue them to their car. After having taken Women’s Self-Defense, Sourwine says she would’ve done things differently. “I knew that I had acted in a strange way. I talked to him like he was a friend of mine, but I didn’t know him. I had no idea what his intentions were,” Sourwine says. One of the first activities that Sourwine says her class did in the empowerment section of the class was practicing being loud. Sourwine says they learned how to project their voices and yelled, ‘What are you doing?’ and ‘Get away’ to let potential perpetrators know that they knew something was wrong. Sourwine also says that, in the situation she described, she would’ve run back toward the mall where there were other people instead of toward her car, where it was less populated. Through the Women’s Self-Defense class, students say they learn to live their lives without fear. Hollander says the empowerment side of the class not only makes students more aware of the societal barriers to self-defense, like self-silencing and the relationships women have with their attackers, but also guides students in reflecting on difficult topics in a setting without judgement. Chloe Miller, a University of Oregon student who took Women’s Self-Defense I and II during her freshman year, says the class’ empowerment section helped create a space where women could talk about difficult topics.
"You learn not to be scared .”