The Strategic Use of Shame to Counter Fear and Women's Self-Defence

Petersen and Liaras published a paper on the strategic use of emotion to counter fear in war in Journal of Military Ethics 5(4): 317-333. One of their strategic uses of emotion to counter fear in war is the threat of shame.

Shame and the threat of shame have been used since time immemorial to counter fear in war and to turn flight into fight. Honour, mateship, courage, cowardice, etc. are the mainstays of military strategies to counter fear in war in order to turn flight into fight.

WSD teaches ways and means to counter fear during a violent encounter, however, they do not use the strategic use of the threat of shame to counter fear during a violent encounter in order to fight because ... a main stay of reputable WSD courses is to emphasise that a sexual assault is not a woman's fault. They are not to blame. Self-blame is a post sexual assault precursor to post traumatic stress, depression, etc. If the woman is not to blame, there can be no shame and therefore the threat of shame is rendered impotent.


Just an interesting observation when using the core of all learning - the identification of similarities and differences (see my The Science Behind All Fighting Techniques) - to gain insights into WSD instruction.