Break Social Stereotypes

Most women have heard at least one of these statements, or something similar once in her life. Very often women are socialized not to hurt another person, or fight back. Unfortunately, many women, even when they are being hurt or assaulted, will not fight back because of this socialization. Very often women who are being assaulted feel helpless, unable to defend themselves, and without the right to defend themselves. This is reinforced in countless movies and TV that show a woman offering a half-hearted or no resistance and then succumbing to the attack. This socialization can interfere with a woman’s ability to notice and act on her intuition.

For years, the “experts” have said that when being assaulted a woman should be passive and not fight back for fear of angering her assailant. IMPACT has always believed that everyone’s life is worth fighting for and we know that most assailants want an easy “target.” Offering ANY resistance is often enough for “target denial.” Now research is backing that philosophy; the Department of Justice has recently released statistics that indicate passivity is no guarantee of safety and that it is best to fight back, reversing decades of advice to remain passive. At IMPACT, we remind women that they have the right and ability to defend themselves and we encourage and foster their “fighting spirit.”

Conversely, men are often pushed towards fighting or aggression during a confrontation. Our training helps men learn how to de-escalate a situation without resorting to a fight unless he is physically threatened. We love teaching IMPACT to children because we want them to grow up with a solid understanding of their rights to a safe life.