Got your attention, huh? No, this isn’t a misogynistic rant, and I haven’t lost my mind (well, I haven’t lost any more of it). This post is about the ubiquitous self-defense seminars proclaiming to “empower women”, and I am here to say, “that’s crap”. In a nation of shake weights and diet pills, I know that taglines like this tend to “work”, but as someone that takes very seriously what we do, I am tired of seeing them.
Let’s look at some synonyms of the word, empower: authorize, entitle, permit, allow, license, sanction, warrant, commission, delegate, qualify, enable, equip. Now, what woman do you know that needs a self-defense instructor to authorize, entitle, permit or qualify them, to do anything? I find this misguided at best and insulting at worst. Now, I am sure that most people that run seminars like this are well intentioned, but the reality is, the seminar becomes about them, not the women. By declaring that I will “empower” you, I connote that I have power of some sort…I don’t have power, I have knowledge. What happens with the knowledge that I have is up to the woman (or any other participant of our courses and classes).
Throughout our history, teaching all over the world, we have trained some very talented women. I’ve often told people that, in my experience and for a myriad of reasons, women make better fighters, in time. I contend that the women that have trained with us have done so well, not because we have treated them differently, but because we have not. It does not matter if you are a SWAT cop from Germany (hello, JÖrg!) or an accountant from Ballantyne Country Club, you will be pushed to be the best that you can be and driven to be better than you were last week. You will be compared to you, you will compete with you, but you will train with everyone in the building, and they will treat you the same as anyone else (at least that’s the culture we want to engender). I often exclaim in my classes, “This is why you’re here! This is what you came for!” I assume that everyone signed up to be pushed and to grow, not to be coddled by instructors or other students. It’s often a fine line, for sure, but the best instructors in the world can walk it.
Our goal is not to empower anyone. Our goal is to impart knowledge, to set an example, to lay a foundation for success and let our students be their own source of empowerment. Anything else is dishonest and is about us, not our students. Anything else is slick marketing. Anything else will ultimately fail, because it will be built on a false premise.
↧