Self-defence as ideology: myth, masculinity, and the epistemology of ignorance

Bowman, Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2264-7596 2025. Self-defence as ideology: myth, masculinity, and the epistemology of ignorance. Martial Arts Studies Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

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 a certain genre of messages about masculinity and self-defence constitutes a seam of what Rey Chow would call ‘coercive mimeticism’, i.e., reiterated social ‘nudges’ that keep ‘telling us’ what we should ‘be like’. Connecting this back to Katz’s Foucauldian 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.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Journalism, Media and Culture
Publisher:	Cardiff University Press
ISSN:	2057-5696
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	23 September 2025
Date of Acceptance:	17 September 2025
Last Modified:	24 Sep 2025 15:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/181296

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