Unfortunately, these shared fears about safety are backed up by statistics. The survey found that one in five men feel unsafe walking alone in public places after dark. To take a firm stand against threats to women's safety and to reclaim their ability to exercise without fear in public spaces.The Good Place Actress, model and social rights activist Jameela Jamil will bring her fitness event series Move For Your Mind from the UK to the US.
I Weigh, Jamil's inclusive community ally platform, is partnering with Well+Good to highlight the current state of women's safety and how fear of violence can negatively impact an individual's physical and mental well-being. Living under the threat of potential violence can prevent many women from enjoying the physical and mental benefits of outdoor activities. The solution for Move For Your Mind? Help women get back into action in every space by equipping them with the skills and tips they need to defend themselves against potential attackers.
The Move For Your Mind event kicks off on May 20 in New York City with a fireside chat featuring Jamil and journalist, author, and former secret agent Evy Poumpouras. Attendees will then see a self-defense demonstration before embarking on a three-mile community walk across the city as a statement that women should feel safe walking alone in public spaces.
“There is very little being done to make us safer, so we have to take this into our own hands. We have to find a way to take some of this power back.” —Jamila Jamil
The May 20 event will be Move For Your Mind's second event and will follow the organization's guidelines. First event in London, which took place in January. Jamil started this event series to foster community through exercise classes and help people unlearn their toxic relationship with fitness, especially weight loss and body image. “This is the beginning of many community-building experiences we will undertake around the world to bring people together and move their bodies with intention beyond diet culture,” Jamil tells Well+Good.
For the upcoming event, Jamil wanted to expand I Weigh's mission to connect, empower, and amplify diverse voices in an accessible way, using self-defense training as a form of activism and a means of giving power back to women. . Just in time for Mental Health Awareness Month and As National Fitness and Sports Month, this iteration of Move For Your Mind will focus on an often underrated benefit of community exercise: safety.
“I have participated in a walking club with I Weigh in the past, and the appeal of it is meeting women. [be able to] Don’t look incredibly stressed or scared when you walk in the evening,” says Jamil. “I can see the woman enjoy “Let’s take an evening walk together.” In a perfect world, a woman should be able to leave her home and walk in public without fear for her safety, but Jamil admits it may be a long time before we get to that point.
Instead of focusing on violence prevention, blame is often shifted to the victims for wearing revealing clothing or not being home after dark. “Women are told not to wear headphones, not to go out late at night, and the responsibility is always on us,” says Jamil. “So little is being done to make us safer that we have to take it into our own hands. In the meantime, we must find ways to empower ourselves and reclaim some of this power.”
One way women can get back to enjoying the outdoors on their own is through self-defense, Jamil says. She is gearing up for the role of Titania at Marvel Studios. She-Hulk, Jamil says he needs to get martial arts training. Jamil, who learned how to defend herself through martial arts, says she gained new confidence when walking alone as a woman. She said, “A lot of my girlfriends have told me they've noticed a change in my gait, the way I walk. I walk with more confidence now that I know the basics of how to kick the shit out of someone.” she says “These little things changed the way I felt walking in this world, and it made me feel like I was a little less shitty,” she said. food.”
Another bonus of self-defense training? It's great exercise, says Jamil. “After a self-defense class, you get all those happy endorphins, you relieve stress, and you sleep better that night,” she says. And self-defense training combines all the benefits of exercise and mental health, she added. Confidence that you can walk alone and defend yourself from an attacker if necessary. And by Jamil incorporating her self-defense demonstrations into her Move For Your Mind, she believes women will have greater confidence in their ability to fight back. “Feeling empowered through technology only reduces the level of powerlessness,” Jamil says.
Reflecting on the success of I Weigh's London events, Jamil says the positive response to these community activism events has been overwhelming. “A lot of people have come up to me and said they’ve never felt that way. and– It’s a very self-conscious movement,” says Jamil. “They all felt much better than when they came in, and many said they had never felt welcome in a workout space.”
Want to participate in I Weigh's May 20th event? You can purchase tickets to Move For Your Mind at Racket NYC here.