Make the Right Move

This past May and June I taught self defense in India. Amidst a flurry of Press was this fabulous article in THE HINDU -- India's National (English) Newspaper. A big shout out to BHUMIKA for nailing the PRIMAL essence of my messages, means and unvarnished language. Check it out here!

Fighting spirit! Melissa Soalt believes that if attacked, women should become savage beauties

When “Dr. Ruthless” answers the phone, it’s a sweet voice with an even softer disposition that I encounter across the line. I’ve read about her, and the website of this women’s self-defence expert is dominated by phrases like “fierce and female”, “beast girl”, “go ballistic”, “use dirty tactics”, “take control”. I’ve seen fighting pictures of her and does she look formidable! And then when I meet her, I’m stumped by the contrasting package that Mellisa Soalt is. She’s about five feet tall, has a petite yet sinewy frame, and is quite comfortable kicking ass and wearing jewellery.

While I tell her that it is reassuring to see that such a tiny woman has become emblematic of physical power, she gives me one of her favourite lines: “It is not the size of the woman in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the woman!” Melissa’s approach to self defence is really about breaking stereotypes. That women are small, defenceless, don’t have it in them to put up a fight…

“It goes against the grain for most people, especially women, to resort to violence. I am a non-violent person and believe in the least harm. But if you are attacked, you have to become savage," she tells me at some point in the interview. “I take the cringe response out of you. Everyone has the killer instinct in them. I believe that half the population in the world should not live in fear of the other half.”