Comments
Teaching girls that they CAN defend themselves
I am interested in becoming a certified trainer for Just Yell Fire. I gained my Master's degree in Library Science last May with an emphasis in children's and youth services, and hope to find a job soon as a public librarian. With the amount of contact I will have in that field with young and teenage girls, as well as contacts with schools and other libraries, I would like to find out how to become involved and help promote your program.
I have been training in aikido as a self-defense art since June, and will be testing for my first rank soon. The more I learned in aikido, the more it made me aware of how girls and women in America are socialized about violence. Movies, television, and popular media seem to promote the belief that girls and women cannot win or escape in a situation where we are under attack by a man. Recognizing this made me interested in finding out what programs were already available to promote girls' and women's self-defense. I discovered Just Yell Fire by Googling "women's self-defense". I was thrilled to find that someone has begun a movement to counter that socialization early in women's lives, beginning with teaching the girls who are most at risk that they CAN defend themselves and escape an attacker, even if their attacker is much larger. I myself am only 5'1", and the techniques that eliminate an attacker's advantage of greater height are also especially applicable to me.
I live in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and I would like any information available on training for certification for Just Yell Fire, either locally or in neighboring states if necessary. Many thanks to you, Dallas, and everyone else involved with Just Yell Fire for your caring and hard work.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I have tried to involve both my children in role playing situations so that they can think about what they are empowered to do in any difficult situation - - to think outside the box and to throw "respect" out the window if they are in danger of another person.
Your video sounds terrific!! I plan to show it to my kids' friends (with parental permission, of course), their parents, girl scout buddies, my friend who is a realtor who I worry about since she is around so many strangers in vacant homes. I'm a teacher and I work with lots of women who need this. One teacher I work with was attacked in a fast food parking lot in the middle of the day. She was knocked to the ground and mugged before she knew what hit her. I can think of so many people who would benefit by this dvd. God bless!
I saw this video advertised in the In Touch magazine. What a wonderful idea.
I work in a junior high school with behaviour disorder kids, needless to say these girls don't live in the safest neighbourhoods. Although abductions happen everywhere, I worry that these girls I work with are at an increased risk of abduction, assault, etc.
Kudos to the ladies who thought of this, they are remarkable.
I have sent a link to the schools here and asked them to please consider showing it to the girls.
Thank you to all that put this together. Fantastic job!