Arriving at Studio La Danza on Holloway Road, walking up the stairs past brightly coloured adverts for poledancing and LGBT ballroom dancing classes, in the mirror-walled second floor studio I met our smiling instructors, Sian and Lydia, two students from Goldsmiths College.

We moved chairs into a circle for a quick discussion about the class, and what feminist self-defence actually is, while Sian handed round flyers such as ‘Your Voice Is A Weapon: How To Use It,’ and a cartoon diagram mercilessly depicting the weak, soft, vulnerable parts on any attacker.

Lydia and Sian had learned the techniques they were going to teach us when their student feminist society arranged for an instructor from Sweden to stage a practical demonstration at Goldsmiths. Feminist self-defence is an idea that has especially taken off in Sweden, the home of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the VPK feminist socialist political party, who are calling for feminist self-defence to be taught to girls in schools.

Sian watches while Lydia holds a boxing pad for class participant, Suzie.

Feminist self-defence, we were told, is a DIY grassroots movement of gender activists teaching simple self-defence techniques, “specifically tailored towards experiences of violence against women, trans and queer people.” We weren’t going to find competition-winning martial arts or ‘complicated Houdini style escapes’ here; this was about simplicity and practicality, using your natural reflexes to quickly get away, and maybe giving your attacker an injury or two to remember you by.

The most important part of this movement, and why I’d come along to the class, was that there would be no victim-blaming here. The Ladyfest programme asked ‘Are you sick of being told not to walk on your own at night? Tired of hearing that it’s our fault if we get attacked if we’re alone and it’s dark?’ Having had several self-defence instructors who repeated the same tired old bullshit of “Well, I shouldn’t say this really but it’s their own fault if they get attacked out on their own, I know you girls like to look pretty, but…” and having also been sexually harassed at classes, this class was a refreshingly new experience for me.

For once, there was the acknowledgement that the burden should not be on women to protect themselves from rape, that this is not how things should be. One student remembered the time she’d been heartened to see in her inbox, instead of that cheery chain e-mail of the type we often receive, ‘Women: how to protect yourself from rape! (Forward this to all your girlfriends!)’, the variation ‘Rape Prevention Tips for Men’.

We started the practical part of the class by talking about personal space. How close does someone have to get for us to feel uncomfortable? “We’re so polite in this country,” said Lydia. “We don’t complain.” We discussed how the size of our personal space decreases when we’re in a crowded area, on the train or at a gig, but what was emphasised was that although its size can change, we’re still entitled to our own space, and entitled to tell people to get out of it. Lydia and Sian pretended to be confident commuters bumping into us, while we walked around looking shy, and then we switched roles. Less of a ‘This Is How You Must Act In Order Not To Be Attacked’ than a lesson in where our personal boundaries lay, and a funny icebreaker for the class when we were allowed to ‘get revenge’ and barge into our instructors.

Something that especially impressed me was that our instructors acknowledged how practising for assault can be upsetting – that people might have traumatically experienced the situations that were being described. Participation in the physical aspect of the class was not compulsory, they told us – if we felt upset we could go away and come back again and no-one would judge us, and every part of the class was explained to us before we took part.

The instructors were even respectful of each other’s boundaries, and yet the atmosphere in the class was much more lighthearted and pleasant than many self-defence classes that I have attended – “May I strangle you, Lydia?” “Yes you may, Sian,” they laughed. There were horrible people and horrible situations out there, but we had the power to do something about it, and learning these techniques was going to be fun, too.

We practised shouting – useful for throwing an attacker off balance, alerting others who might help, and also something that can make your strikes stronger and help you to focus, in the manner of the Japanese Kiai. Here, Lydia did a pretty scary impression of her Swedish instructor shouting “Nej!!” – I’m surprised no-one came upstairs to see what was happening! – but we used the English, “No!” and practised hitting boxing pads. Our instructors again emphasised how polite we are as women or minorities in this culture, how we’re afraid of causing a fuss, and how getting past that fear can be one of the best things we can ‘unlearn’ to keep ourselves safe.

We were afraid to shout at first, but as our inhibitions dropped we became louder and louder. We shouted not once, but twice, and when we struck, we struck twice, because we were told, if possible, “do it twice,” as that way there’s more chance of getting a result. If shouting for help, Sian advised us not just to ask but to ask specific people – “Hey, you in the red bobble hat, this man won’t take his hand off my leg, please alert the bus driver!” works because picking on individuals is better than asking a crowd, where everyone might assume that someone else will help you.

As an attacker is likely to be physically stronger than their victim (unless the attacker is feeling a tad suicidal), we were told not to wrestle, not to use ‘might against might,’ but to find weak spots. We looked at the diagrams we’d been shown and practised using the strong parts of our bodies, the heels of our hands, our fists, our feet, against the vulnerable parts of an attacker’s, their shins, their solar plexus, their throat. This wasn’t karate, this wasn’t the Marquess of Queensbury rules, this was fighting dirty, and fighting for your right to go about your life unharmed.

Sian and Lydia explained that we weren’t just practising for that shadowy figure that jumps out of the bushes, we were also practising close-quarters techniques, where you might not have the space to deliver that awesome roundhouse kick you saw on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because sexual assault is much more likely to come from people we know (friends, acquaintances, dates) than from strangers, and can happen just as easily in your house, on your sofa, as in a dark alley somewhere. This is where a lot of the anti-rape advice given by many self-defence instructors falls down! It’s no good saying ‘don’t walk alone at night’ when it could be your date who attacks you.

My one criticism of this class would be that they could have explained a little more about the specific experiences of queer and transgender people, as these were mentioned on the programme, but as a one-hour starter class it was full of great, general advice for people from all walks of life on how to avoid sexual or violent assault from a stronger attacker.

The class overran, there had been so much to say, but as we all quickly cleared out of the studio to get to the next Ladyfest event we left our email addresses with Lydia. The nature of feminist self-defence, as a DIY movement, is that one takes what one has learned and passes it on. Lydia and Sian’s instructor had done so, and now the two of them were passing it on as well. They told us that they wanted to prepare another class in London, and would contact us with details. I handed round flyers for BadRep, having already mentioned I’d be writing about the class, and it was decided that our readers should contact Lydia and Sian if they were interested in another London-based class, or if interested in resources for starting their own classes elsewhere in the country. You can e-mail us at [email protected] if you’re interested, and we’ll put you in touch.

Meanwhile, here’s a little further reading…

• The F Word showcases a free, downloadable pamphlet by Isy, aimed at women and girls, which features some practical self-defence tips and diagrams.
• Pervocracy breaks down some typical ‘anti-rape’ tips – The Best Friend Test (note: this blog, if not this particular post, may well be NSFW for you).
• A report from the Metropolitan Police on rape statistics in London, including stranger rape vs. aquiantance rape, in PDF format.

RJ at RiotNrrd comics lays into a particularly awful self-defence instructor. Used with permission - www.riotnrrdcomics.com.