01/22/2021
I have been withdrawing from the Martial Arts community to focus on my life and starting a new family, and when I considered going back to teaching, I went back to see how people are doing and I was surprised and sadden that many in the community still continue to treat women as unsuitable for training in self defense and criticize them. So, I just wanted to pull up some words shared from an inspirational woman that I would like to share with you to remind us of the sacrifices all women had to make to be safe.
- I am not a "disgrace to women" because I am training in Martial Arts. I do not feel my voice is "not heard" because I am a woman. I do not feel I am not provided opportunities in this life or in America because I am a woman. I do not feel that I "don't have control of my body or choices" because I am a woman. I do not feel like I am " not respected or undermined" because I am a woman. Im not fighting in Martial Arts because I feels like I should prove myself or to prove anything to anyone.
I AM a woman. A person with feelings and dreams, a friend, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a loved one, a mother.
I can make my own choices.
I can speak and be heard.
I can fight.
I can work if I want.
I control my body.
I can defend myself.
I can defend my family.
There is nothing stopping me to do anything in this world but myself.
I do not blame my circumstances or problems on anything other than my own choices or even that sometimes in life, we don't always get what we want. I take responsibility for myself.
I am a woman proud to be a female, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a MOTHER. I am not held back in life but only by the walls I choose to not go over which is a personal choice.
Quit blaming.
Take responsibility.
If you want to speak, do so.
BUT, do NOT expect for me, a woman, to take you seriously when you says I can't fight because it's "embarrassing" and a "disgrace" to your family and your honor.
If you have beliefs, and speak to me in a kind matter, I will listen. But do not expect for me to change my beliefs to suit yours. Respect goes both ways.
If you want to impress me, especially in regards to women, then speak on the real injustices and tragedies that affect women in foreign countries that do not have the opportunity or means to have their voices heard. I would have been off worse where r**es are brutal and women are left to die, or HIV infected and left to care for children alone; where women can not escape the torture of ge***al mutilation.
Pakistan, in tribal areas where women are gang r***d to pay for men's crime.
Guatemala, the impoverished female underclass of Guatemala faces domestic violence, r**e and the second-highest rate of HIV/AIDS after sub-Saharan Africa. An epidemic of gruesome unsolved murders has left hundreds of women dead, some of their bodies left with hate messages.
And that's just a few examples.
We will never know if one day we wakes up and all the good men are gone and we are left to fight back in defense. Or if our brothers, fathers, husbands, or sons are unable to get up to fight, then that's up to us to learn how to fight to protect ourselves, our children, and family.
* I hope that my daughter will follow and be inspired to make her voice heard and know how to defend herself. I can't always be there to protect her, but the least I can do is to lead by example.
