Final Project - Martena Grace

      Martena Grace
      Final Project
   
       Discrimination against women goes beyond unequal pay and biased promotions. Women are often belittled and treated as inferior to women in all aspects of their life. Unfortunately, they experience sexual and verbal abuse constantly and no one shines light to it. My entire project was surrounding the idea of giving women the strength to take control of their life by taking control of their bodies.
      The self-defense classes I organized were a way for women to gain confidence in their lives and empower women to be as strong and powerful as they desire. I held 4 classes on Saturday from 2-4 pm every week and the women that attended were taught basic and semi-advanced self-defense moves. Superficially, this is a straight forward class in order for women to know how to defend themselves in dangerous physical situations such as attacks, rape, etc.. This is the foundation of the class but the benefits were as much physically as they were psychological.

This is one of the students that came to most of the classes.
Action Shot in one of the simulations

        A lot of the females that attended my classes had previous experiences in which they were attacked or sexually assaulted and saw this as an opportunity to better themselves. These classes are rooted in self-confidence because to take your opponent down, you have to believe deep down that you can do it. Once you have that spark of self-confidence and empowerment that you need in these classes, it ignites a fire inside you to wanna grow that confidence.
     These classes are an amazing resource to women as they thrive for equality. They are accessible to everyone as they are free of charge. You leave feeling empowered and not scared to stand up for yourself. Women often look down when a guy is looking at them or cross the street to avoid them. They can get too intimated to speak up and voice their opinion in a man dominated meeting. This is a baby step to looking that man right in the eyes and showing no fear or speaking up for yourself. This does not have to revolve around man and women power but also power in general.
      This was something that engaged the community in an injustice that has been around since the beginning of time and I saw first hand the influence of my classes in my conversations with women who stayed after class. After class, I received comments such as " wow I never thought I could do that" and " I feel so good". I had one person come to all 4 of my classes because she saw the potential change it can make on her life.  I am hoping this causes a ripple effect in their lives and they inspire all the women they know to believe in themselves.
       This project is something that I honestly fell in love with and will continue as long as I keep training
      An art project that inspired me and will continue to inspire my future women empowerment projects is a performance art about gender roles and how women are treated and expected to take the abuse. I watched this video a few times to get a good understanding of it but it is extremely powerful in its precise movement and facial expression to show dominance. It highlights how women are expected to be. As a ground fighting specialist, I would love to demonstrate some rape simulation moves in public to bring attention and eye to an issue that is considered shameful to many people. So people can see women in a different light. I only really got exposed to performance art two weeks ago and that gave me that idea but the weather has not permitted me to do a public class since then.
           


This is a PowerPoint link with the photos & videos from my classes that visually explain my project and the impact it had on my students.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11gf34hSyJa3n3mciWPfjlsihVcP_DcJ7cjkeiEMPtRI/edit?usp=sharing