MT: Something I thought the ladies would appreciate

[Knowledge Bot]

Something I thought the ladies would appreciate By Andy Moynihan - Tue, 18 Sep 2007 01:35:17 GMT

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So there I was cruising MySpace looking at a friend's friends, and I come across a page dedicated to women's self defense( called, oddly enough, www.myspace.com/womens_self_defense ). Being a martial artist, I naturally took a look, and though the page owner seems to use it as humor, I couldn't help but be disturbed at what some quote-unquote "men" would sometimes send her.

See, in the blog entries, the page owner will sometimes put up an entry titled "Hatemail of the Week" and it's usually a misspelled, one sentence case of verbal diarrhea to the effect of "women cant defend themselfs" (original spelling unaltered ) or something equally intellectually bankrupt.

But what set my teeth to grinding the most was that in the discussion of the blog ( apparently it's open posting) is that among the several female friends on the page having a laugh at the aforementioned cranial-rectal inversion case, there appear to be a few sickly, mentally malnourished MISrepresentatives of my gender appearing to actually think they are DEFENDING the original point of view expressed in the hatemail.

I, not being one to directly post on anyone's blog who is not on my friend list, and not being a fan of arguing with idiots( a third party may not be able to tell the difference after all), but not willing to let this one go, I sent the following message of support to the owner directly:

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Just happened upon this page from my friend David's page and I'm not quite sure what to make of this: On one hand, I'm sorry, being male, that so many of the other men ( if "men" is the word I want, which I doubt) in this thread seem bound and determined to make us all out to be like they are.

On the other hand, I must confess I do still find it very funny that they'll post what they do, and just completely don't realize the only people they're hurting are themselves.

(Or is that humor the purpose of permitting open posting to begin with?)

So anyway the whole "women can't fight" business.

This is an incomplete argument to begin with because it assumes that there is only one way to "fight". Usually the argument goes something to the effect that because men are most often physically larger and stronger than women, that they cannot match the man in toe-to-toe, strength-against-strength combat.

By pure coincidence( note the dripping sarcasm) most proponents of this theory also are amazingly quick to claim that anything which is *NOT* a straight, toe-to-toe, strength-against-strength mutual fight is "chicken****", or "wouldn't work" on them. How curious.

To listen to them, one would think that in all of human history, a man had never had to deal with another, bigger, stronger man himself. That any form of systemized martial art, from anyplace in the world, exists, ought to be evidence enough for any logical person to see that this is not the case--why would entire systems, appearing in every human culture, devoted to defeating another person's attempts at aggression by applying one's strong points against their weak spots, if size or strength among all fighters was all the same? For that matter, why would there have arisen a need to build weapons to magnify one's ability to cause trauma if there were never a discrepancy in size or strength?

It would then logically follow, from this point, that if a smaller man could use these principles, or deploy a weapon, against a larger man, that a woman, possessing the same basic skeletal/movement structure as a man, could apply them to a larger man( for that matter a larger woman) as well.

But in this situation, given the argument the "men" in question initially presented, logic and reasoning are perhaps to much to reasonably expect of these particular specimens.

Speaking of specimens, that's another thing which causes me frustration: This is a site to help women gain the necessary mentall and physical skills to defend themselves.

I don't mind admitting I'm a little bit pissed at the comments and behavior of some of the decidedly less evolved members of my gender I saw respond to the thread.

One would think, to hear these "men" talk, that they somehow felt threatened by women learning to defend themselves. One wonders what their character or intentions would be, that such a thing would frighten them. But I will save that for another time.
On second thought, no, I won't, because I've wasted all the time on those particular "men" that I care to.

It is not coincidence that in reference to these lifeforms, I have used the word "men" in quotes. All that makes them "men" is that they happened to be born with the male chromosome set.

This is not how men act.

I realize I may be a bit old fashioned in my views, but when I was growing up( not so very long ago) Being a man was composed of very simple, if not always easy, criteria: A man was someone who does what is right, keeps his word, and takes care of his family.

Though not married and not dating, I consider "taking care of my family" to include making sure that *everyone* I care for, family, friend or otherwise--of both genders--absorbs as much knowledge of self defense as their capabilities and temperament will permit them.No animal intentionally harms or weakens a member of its pack, and no soldier leaves a weak link in their unit, so too should a family, blood related or not, be able to provide strength to its members. If I happen to see a female member of my "family" is under attack and needs assistance, I am going to GIVE it, the same as I would any male "family" member, in whatever way I am able--not because she is female--because she is FAMILY.

In any event I wanted to be sure to make clear that there ARE still men out there, without quotes, and I wish you all the best in growing your site and helping spread the knowledge you do.

Thanks

Andy Moynihan

www.myspace.com/andys_sanctum
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