Are You a Target?, av Judith Fein

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his book: "Are You a Target? A Guide to Self-Protection and Personal Safety" is one out of two written by Judith Fein on this subject. You can read about the other here: "Exploding The Myth of Self-Defense". "Are You a Target" is the first one of the two.

This book contains a lot of great information. Very often I do state that I don't like the physical techniques too much in this kind of books, but here they are quite good - simple, no-nonsense self-defense techniques. Many of the pictures remind me all to well why I don't miss the style of the early 80s for even a brief moment (the book was printed in 1981 for the first time), but that's something else :-)

Before you get to the pictures part you have been presented with information that makes this book into something more than a collection of ok self-defense techniques. The author presents myths and realities of rape, she goes into the stereotypes of victims and offenders, explaining how and why someone rapes.

In the second chapter Fein goes on to discuss the psychology of personal protection - claiming that women can prevent a rape - that's quite a statement if you ask me! But of course she goes on to argue how and why this is so. The interesting part is that Fein want women away from the passive mode and over to what she calls a resister. I would guess this is a twist of the word sister, but also someone who resists. I really like the fact that the author claims that prevention is the best medicine - mentioning strategies like awareness, body language, intuition, removing double messages and so on. Great stuff!.

More quality information is given where she points to the difference between a victim and someone who resists. She describes the traits of a resister, and how this can be done. Luckily she also states that sometimes it may be an option - maybe the only option - not to fight back using physical force.

Other great chapters shows the importance of self-defense, the fear of fighting, and anger as a weapon as well as a surprise "tool". In the closing chapter the author discusses prevention and various strategies in detail.

This is a very good book on the subject of personal protection and self-defense for women. It can be read and used to great effect by anyone interested in this subject.

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