Transplanting a Seattleite

So, as near as I can tell, McCaughey presents self-defense as a really important tool in dealing with rape, and fear of rape (sometimes as a result of past sexual assaults) as the primary motivator for women learning self-defense.

You -- if I understand you correctly -- perceive rape as more important than other kinds of violence perpetrated against women, but self-defense as not necessarily being an important solution to that problem. And I don't think you feel strong motivation to pursue self-defense for any reason. Please feel free to clarify, because I'm very uncertain about all of this.

I do not see rape as a central problem. (This would be yet another example of, as near as I can tell, a bunch of socialization went past me and ... missed.) I do think self-defense has some things to offer people who are working to reduce rape as a problem. My primary motivator for learning self-defense/martial arts was a desire to protect myself from property motivated attacks (mugging) and attacks that resulted from mental illness, as I intended to be out and about in an urban environment after dark. Rape was pretty low on my list of concerns and other reasons to attack me (someone had it in for me in particular) were even lower. My concerns have evolved over time, but the position of fear of rape in the hierarchy has, if anything, just dropped down even further.

And this is why I think a gendered perspective on martial arts cannot be framed in absolute terms.

ETA: And ranking issues using my feminist hat, instead of my martial arts hat, causes me to place things like equal pay, and comparable expectations of work around the house and child rearing and so forth, much higher than rape.