In this short interview, a 22‑year‑old woman (Speaker A) recounts how a traumatic street harassment incident led her to enroll in self‑defense classes. She expected only basic physical tools for escape, but instead gained profound confidence, a changed posture, and the ability to set clear personal boundaries. The training altered how she moves through public spaces—she feels less like “prey,” is approached less, and can assertively say “no.” The newfound assertiveness also transferred to other areas: navigating a new city (Paris) without fluency in the language, communicating needs in relationships, and overall feeling more in control of her life. While she still knows practical techniques (e.g., jabbing a nose, kicking), she emphasizes that the most valuable outcome is the ability to verbally express what she needs and to live authentically without fear.
Chapters
When I started self-defense, I came because I had a few really traumatizing experiences with strangers on the street, where at one point a man reached up my skirt, and I've always been a person who doesn't want to offend other people, and I never knew how to stand up for myself without offending other people. And I also never knew the boundaries between what's going to seem like a threat and what's not. Stand my ground and what's going to be aggressive and make the other person aggressive. And so I came to self-defense because I wanted to learn those things. And I was expecting mostly just to get, like, basic tools to get away from someone or basic tools to say no. But what I ended up getting was a whole lot more confidence in how to interact with strangers in general. And I recognized that when I was walking on the street, I held myself differently and I was approached less. Because I didn't— I wasn't a vulnerable— I wasn't a piece of prey anymore, and I wouldn't let people touch me. And if someone did touch me, I would alert them that it wasn't okay, and I would say it wasn't okay. So when I moved to Paris this year, and I had a lot of aggression on the streets, I learned to stand up for myself, and I learned to hold myself differently. And I noticed also that it translated into my daily activities of being able to walk into a new place. not speaking the language fluently and to be able to say what I needed and what I wanted in that moment and to hold myself with confidence. And it also affected all of my relationships. I was able to, to say what I needed from people and to say what was going too far and where I needed to step back. Are you guys filming? And in general, I feel like I'm more in control of my life and I'm advocating for myself more. And so that was something really surprising I never expected from self-defense. Of course I have these techniques and And I know how to jab someone in the nose if they get too close or kick someone if I need to. But I feel like the most important thing is that I know how to say what I need and what I don't need in my life. And I feel like my life has changed drastically, and I feel like an entirely new person. I'm more like myself than I've ever felt. I'm more like I can just be myself without being afraid.
