I think not

I will ask in advance for your indulgence for what follows. Since I shuttered my own blog last week, I am now forced to vent about my work-related issues here at the OG. So...the Women's Center where I work periodically collaborates with our university's Public Safety Department to offer a self-defense course for women. Now, for reasons I'll get into in a minute, I'm not wild about this. And the fact that the program is called RAD, an acronym for "Rape Aggression Defense," does not help matters any. But the courses tend to be popular, which would seem to suggest that they are filling a (perceived) public need, and it's not like I am opposed to the idea of women learning to defend themselves from an attack, so I go along and keep my misgivings mostly to myself.

Anyway, an officer just e-mailed me to ask if we could get together and talk about turning the RAD program into--get this--a first-year seminar offered through Women's Studies. This, she reasoned "would be a great way to incorprate everything and allow us to touch on other subjects as well that women have to deal with." Oh. My. Gawd. Where do I even start with what is (so very very) wrong with this idea?

First, I am sorry, but this has to be said: A cop. Teaching Women's Studies. Um, no. And furthermore, NO! Let's face it--law enforcement does not exactly have a reputation as a feminist institution. (which is not to say that individual cops can't be feminists. who knows, maybe this one is.) But let's see...what's one of the institutions that contributes to making sexual assault such a woefully underreported crime (through their insensitive, victim-blaming, rape myth-reinforcing behaviors)? Oh yeah...law enforcement! This is not just an abstract possibility. Our campus safety folks have a reputation for being hostile to and dismissive of survivors. They utilize a very narrow and conservative reading of the Clery Act to justify refusing to take blind reports in sexual assault cases. The cops themselves have been accused of assault and harassment. So no, I'm not imagining a particularly productive dialogue about rape being led by a campus cop in a Women's Studies course.

(And don't even get me started on the ridiculous assumptions that are built in to this particular cop's idea of Women's Studies. I suppose she is qualified to teach a WMST course at a research I institution because, like, she is a woman and all, so she totally gets all those "subjects that women have to deal with." I mean, it's not like WMST is a real academic discipline or anything. Hence, we don't need actual content. We can just hit and kick things, then fill the rest of the time gossiping. Or bitching. Or whatever. You know, girl stuff.)

Second, while I have not personally experienced the RAD program, I'll just go out on a limb and make a prediction that this is not about feminist empowerment. Defining rape as a "safety" problem and offering self defense as a "solution" is deeply problematic. Suggesting to young women that self-defense certification will prevent them from being sexually assaulted is dangerously misleading. Making assault prevention (by whatever means) women's responsibility (as opposed to, say, making it men's responsibility to, I don't know, stop raping women!) is obnoxious and unfair.

There's almost nothing about this that feels right or good to me. Or even helpful, for that matter. 9 in 10 survivors are acquainted with the perpetrator in sexual assault cases on our campus. Alcohol or other substances are involved in more than half of all cases. So we're not talking about beating down the stranger who jumps out of the bushes when you're walking alone at night. Most of the time we're not even talking about a violent struggle. So for most women who are going to become part of that all-too-familiar "one in four" statistic, these skills will not serve them particularly well.

A first-year seminar structured around thinking through ways to dismantle rape culture? I'm there. A seminar focusing on creating healthy relationships and on getting and giving consent? Sign me up. A first-year anything that includes frank discussions about alcohol and assault? Definitely. But a first-year seminar that ignores all the root causes of violence against women in favor of learning to kick men in the balls and stab them with our car keys? No thanks. I can see that as a PE class. But a course in the Women's Studies curriculum? Not so much.