Women in the Martial Arts [working draft]

New York: np, ca. 1976. Photo-mechanical reproduction from holograph and typescript. Corner stapled packet, 5 pp. 8 ½ x 14 in. Very good. Item #10317

Working draft, with edits photo-mechanically reproduced from holograph, of an uncredited essay about the feminist self-defense movement.

The essay responds to and ultimately refutes the critique that the self-defense movement was a “macho trip” that reproduced cultures of violence. The essay quotes prominent women martial arts pioneers such as Nadia Telsey, who founded Brooklyn Women’s Martial Arts in 1974, and Roberta Schine, then teaching at Richmond College on Staten Island. Richmond College, now the St. George campus of the College of Staten Island, was a major center of queer organizing on Staten Island in the 1970s. Richmond College merged with another local school to become the College of Staten Island in 1976, dating this essay to the mid-1970s. The essay also promotes the Women’s Martial Arts Union, a prominent feminist collective of women formed in 1972 to promote self-defense and martial arts training.

“Is it a ‘macho trip’, or does it help women combat the patriarchal culture? Is it adopting the ‘violence culture’, or is it a necessity for curbing violence against women?”

A working document from inside the women’s self-defense movement of the 1970s, addressing a criticism made of the movement by other feminists.

Price: $150.00