This article poses the question of the relationship between self-defence and ideology. It situates self-defence in relation to several vignettes that seek to evoke salient aspects of contemporary masculinist ideology. In dialogue with Peter Katz’s recent work (especially his article published in this issue), I entertain Katz’s proposition that self-defence discourse may rest on an ‘epistemology of ignorance’ and may (like certain martial arts) tend towards fascism. Picking up this theme, I discuss two Hollywood ‘self-defence’ films, and propose that the proliferation of certain 'messages' about masculinity and self-defence constitutes a seam of ‘coercive mimeticism’, i.e., reiterated social ‘nudges’ that ‘tell us’ what we should ‘be like’. Connecting this back to Katz’s critique of the ever-present risk of emergent fascism, I problematise some of his worries, but conclude by reaffirming the need for critical vigilance about the ethics and politics that can emerge from (or ‘stick’ to) our practices.
Paul Bowman (Mon,) studied this question.