Product Description

An examination of women's self-defense culture and its relationship to feminism.

I was once a frightened feminist. So begins Martha McCaughey's odyssey into the dynamic world of women's self- defense, a culture which transforms women involved with it and which has equally profound implications for feminist theory and activism.

Unprecedented numbers of American women are learning how to knock out, maim, even kill men who assault them. Sales of mace and pepper spray have skyrocketed. Some 14 million women own handguns. From behind the scenes at gun ranges, martial arts dojos, fitness centers offering Cardio Combat, and in padded attacker courses like Model Mugging, Real Knockouts demonstrates how self-defense trains women out of the femininity that makes them easy targets for men's abuse.

And yet much feminist thought, like the broader American culture, seems deeply ambivalent about women's embrace of violence, even in self-defense. Investigating the connection between feminist theory and women physically fighting back, McCaughey found self-defense culture to embody, literally, a new brand of feminism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #195534 in Books
• Published on: 1997-07-01
• Released on: 1997-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 270 pages

Review

"..complex, densely argued, and original...'"

About the Author

Martha McCaughey is an Assistant Professor of Women's Studies in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at Virginia Tech. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
[Author Bio].
To read reviews on this book, go to
http://www.cis.vt.edu/ws/home/RealKnockoutsPage.html

Customer Reviews

A nearly flawless book on a fascinating subject
There have been plenty of how-to self defense books. Lots of pictures of techniques, lists of street-awareness skills, and recovery literature. This may be the first detailed treatment by an academic about what self-defense is what it does for the women who take it up, and why some people (including a disturbing number of feminists and government types) are so ambivalent about it.

Dr. McCaughey has done an excellent job of looking into the history of the self-defense movement, the philosophy behind it, and the people involved in it. She wasn't content to make grand pronouncements from behind her word processor. She went out, got involved in her subject, experienced it, and met the people who actually do what she writes about.

This book was written at least partially for an academic audience, so the general reader will have to wade through a little bit of jargon. The author leaves out a couple possibly useful points, and I do not agree with everything she says. But these are minor objections. The field of women's self defense finally has an inspirational scholar who treats it with the depth and seriousness it deserves.

A very good book for any woman to read
As a former federal agent and owner of a personal protection company that teaches full-contact self defense for women and police defensive tactics, I found this book to be very good. While I may disagree with some individuals Martha spoke with, her book brings out what those of us who teach serious women's self defense have known for ages - SELF-EMPOWERMENT IS THE KEY !!! Good job Martha !

Helpful reading
I would really recommend this book for feminists hoping to explore self-defense. So many feminists, myself included, have understandable ambivalence about self-defense, which has perpetuated some of the myths about rape we've been battling for decades. Still, this book does a nice job delving into theory and practice to show the difference between good and bad self-defense. I found the argument that self-defense makes feminism accessible for more women particularly compelling.

The main limitation to the book is that outside of the theory, it doesn't offer much for women living outside a major metropolitan area with many types of self-defense classes to choose from. Only in large cities can most women find an empowerment-based, female-only self defense class. What about the rest of us?