Wen-Do self-defense class empowers women in Ithaca

Kristi Taylor, the instructor of Wen-Do Women’s Self Defence program in Ithaca, gave advice I never expected to hear.

“If you are ever in danger, scream ‘Fire’ instead of ‘Help,’” Taylor said. “More people are likely to get involved.”

This caught me off guard coming from my self-defense instructor. I couldn’t imagine why that would have worked, but the other women in the class nodded as if they already knew.

The 2022-23 Enough is Enough Grant Program report from New York state’s Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence shows crisis service responses for college survivors rose from 6,384 to 13,125 individuals in one year. As a college student, this made me give a second thought to Taylor’s advice.

Taylor says a fire feels like a threat to everyone’s safety. A woman in danger? Not always.

I am one of nine women standing in a circle of yoga mats in the boardroom of the Henry St. John Building on The Commons, listening to Taylor’s advice. We are in the basement of this building in a make-shift classroom space. Desks and chairs line the walls, opening up the space from its normal function to our own Wen-Do studio. It is not glamorous, but it doesn’t need to be. The circle we formed with our mats transforms the space and fills the room with quiet determination. Everyone is here for a different reason, but we are all connected by the goal of learning how to fight back against an attacker.

After completing her Wen-Do Instructor Training in 2023, Taylor founded WenDo Women NY, becoming the first operational Wen-Do instructor based in the United States. Taylor runs Ithaca’s chapter of Wen-Do Women’s Self Defence, Canada’s oldest feminist self-defense program. Although Wen-Do has been empowering women in Canada for decades, it is a newer presence in the U.S., with instructors like Taylor helping spread their philosophy to different communities. During this class, I learned that the program is not about brute force; it is about awareness, confidence and learning how to respond when your physical boundaries are crossed.

Deb Chard has been a senior trainer and activist for Wen-Do Women’s Self Defence since 1988 and has witnessed the extent of the program’s powerful impact.

“On my first day, I felt like this program was revolutionary,” Chard said. “I saw women and girls change from the inside out. I changed from the inside out.”

Wen-Do was created in 1972 by Ned and Anne Paige in the wake of the infamous Kitty Genovese case from 1964, when a woman was murdered outside of her apartment while neighbors repeatedly ignored her screams for help. Although this incident took place in New York, the attack shook the public and inspired a movement in Toronto.

This program combines self-defense skills and feminist principles to show women of all ages that they are more powerful than they think they are.

“I would have never considered myself a terribly strong, physically capable person, especially if somebody was a lot larger than me,” Taylor said. “When I took [the class], it was life-changing for me.”

The April 8 class is filled with women of all different shapes, ages and abilities. I will not share their names and individual stories about why they are attending because they are not mine to tell, but each one stands with the goal of unleashing their untapped inner power. This was the first session of a five-week program we are moving through as a group.

The energy in the room starts off low, but it doesn’t stay that way for long. Taylor leads us in a series of guttural yells projected from our diaphragm to preserve our voice and create the most powerful noise we can. At first, I wasn’t sure I was even capable of creating that much noise. I felt that it was too loud and too much, however, that is the whole point. We are learning to take up space and turn our voices into power.

With every sharp “HUT” yelled, the group’s energy builds, amplifying a sense of shared strength and solidarity as we go against the societal norms that pressure women to shrink and feel helpless. It felt freeing knowing I have the capability to emit that kind of noise. I was not told to tone it back or make myself smaller. I was encouraged to be loud and to be firm. Through each yell, I felt a bit of reassurance in myself grow back with the newfound knowledge of my inner power.

We move on to the second half of class: strikes. Hammer fists, zipper punches and eagle claw are just a few we started with. The names may sound cartoonish, but these precise and intentional moves are designed to use stronger parts of our bodies to target weaker, more vulnerable areas on an attacker. This allows us — regardless of strength or size — to be able to defend ourselves effectively.

“The eldest woman to complete the 15-hour course was 93 years old, and she was my student,” Chard said. “She totally broke down all the stereotypes of who we’re supposed to be when we’re old and when we’re young.”

In class, we partner up and use rolled-up yoga mats as our targets. Each hit builds momentum. When someone lands a particularly powerful strike and the mat goes flying, the entire room alights with support and enthusiasm. There is a rhythm to it, a wave of encouragement that shows us we are capable of more than we thought — a feeling that strengthens with each yell.

At first, I hesitated when it was my turn to strike, feeling strange to hit something with my full strength. But once I allowed myself to use that strength and saw the support from my fellow classmates, pride washed over me. For the first time, strength didn’t feel like something I needed to try and harness, it was something that I already had.

One woman in the class, who has requested to remain anonymous for safety and privacy reasons, shared with me what the experiences in this class mean to her.

“I think it would be a very different experience if this were solo training or if it was on Zoom and you didn’t have that cohort of energy encouraging one another,” the Wen-Do participant said. “I think that just further adds to feeling empowered and feeling strong and feeling capable.”

Many women come to Wen-Do classes for a range of personal reasons and request to stay anonymous as they embrace their journey of empowerment and self-transformation.

Taylor explained how, prior to working at Wen-Do, she worked in community-based victim services with survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse who all have their own stories. She told me a story about a past student who disclosed they had been a survivor of significant domestic violence and how Wen-Do helped her through that experience.

“She said what she learned through the class is that her talking ability, her running away, her less physical forms of defending herself were always things that she had felt ashamed of, and she had always felt ashamed of how she reacted in those situations,” Taylor said. “After taking the course, she realized those were actually really powerful self-defense techniques that she could and should be proud of instead of ashamed of.”

A course like Wen-Do helps survivors learn that they have the tools to defend themselves in unsafe situations from those who tried to inflict harm.

Taylor reminds us that in Wen-Do, we are not focused on using strength against strength; we are not trying to overpower the attacker, we want to surprise and outsmart them. Each move we make comes from the hips — whether it be a Wen-Do fist to the chin or a back snap kick. Each move is performed with not only force but precision. The overall idea is simple but powerful: you don’t need to be big to be dangerous.

“What we want to do at Wen-Do is look at our entire toolbox of life, self-capability, and then be able to say, ‘What are the things that make me feel good?’” Taylor said. “‘How do I want to move through the world?’ and ‘What can I do to undermine some of those messages that I’ve been told?’”

Wen-Do aims to flip the narrative of women’s safety from one grounded in sexism and misogyny to one that empowers and uplifts women to move through the world with caution, but without fear.

“I think we work really hard to debunk and break down the lies and the stereotypes that we’ve been fed from the time that we were really little girls about who we’re supposed to be, what we’re supposed to be capable of, what we’re not capable of,” Chard said. “I think this program is about confronting the lies.”

Taylor doesn’t hand us a list of rules about where we can go, what we should wear or how to act to avoid danger. She dismantles those outdated, coded messages suggesting women’s safety depends on how well we behave. Instead, as a group, we discuss ways that we help ourselves feel safe in uneasy situations to learn that every form of self-defense is the correct response to an unsafe confrontation.

“I’ve been really excited to see how Kristi really encourages everyone to take this home and show your mom, show your sister, show your cousin,” The Wen-Do participant said. “I think that is the big thing with this: it is a knowledge base now that we can take and share.”

As we add these stories and exercises into our toolbox, we reclaim the power of running away. This surprised me almost as much as the advice to yell “Fire.” In class, we discussed how we are programmed to believe that running away is cowardly. However, Wen-Do teaches us that it is okay and even smart to sidestep danger when we can. Real strength is found in taking whatever steps are necessary to get to safety, even if that means walking away.

Throughout the classes, Taylor constantly reminds us that self-defense means using all the tools available to us, whether verbal, physical or strategic. Strength lies in trusting your instincts enough to act on them.

Wen-Do makes it clear that self-defense is about options. The freedom of choice gives you power.

This class does not teach us to change our behavior in favor of staying safe, it reminds us that we were never the problem to begin with.

I am only three weeks into this five-week program and I have not mastered everything; not the yells and strikes, nor the way I think about my own power. But I have taken a first step in embracing my strength, and Wen-Do reminds us that is what matters.

Wen-Do is not just a class, it is a process. It is a space where I am learning, unlearning and shifting the perspective on how I see myself. Being powerful does not mean being loud or fearless. Sometimes, it just means believing you matter enough to fight back.