Portugês

uma análise feminista crítica

Abstract

This article analyzes Bill 1813/2021, which proposes the teaching of self-defense as a measure to combat violence against women. The legislative proposal focuses on individual training, yet overlooks the structural roots of gender-based violence, shifts the responsibility for safety onto women themselves, reinforces the logic of individualizing violence, and disregards the complexities of implementation by proposing only a limited self-defense course. This study conceptualizes self-defense through a feminist and collective perspective of self-care. Drawing on a pilot project of feminist personal defense workshops combined with the researchers' autoethnography at a Women’s Reference Center, the study aims to demonstrate how self-defense—when integrated into a context of mutual support and self-esteem recovery under feminist methodology—becomes an effective tool for building autonomy, resistance, and a new self-imaginary, ultimately serving as an additional foundation for efforts to confront violence against women.