Via Glenn Reynolds' blog and The Telegraph, I happened across an article at Jezebel entitled: "How to Kick a Guy in the Balls: An Illustrated Guide." Although the author of the piece is supposedly a self-defense trainer, and should know better, she writes:
Pretty ugly, isn't it? It makes me glad I'm a girl, frankly. I've spent 15 years training in karate, an art developed primarily by men and therefore obsessively concerned with protecting the testicles, so in some ways I feel like I have an honorary groin; I'm so accustomed to covering it every time I begin or end a drill. It's a huge responsibility, and I'm thankful I don't carry that burden in real life. I don't think I'd cope well with the stress.It will probably come as a real shock to her when she is eventually kicked in the groin that it can be more debilitating to a woman.
Contrary to depictions in popular culture (in which females are no more vulnerable in their groin than anywhere else), a strike or squeeze to the vulva or clitoris and ovaries will cause considerable pain and can incapacitate females due to the high amount of nerve endings in these structures. The pain associated with a trauma to the clitoris travels through the pudendal nerve and travels through the ovarian plexus for a trauma to the ovaries. In extreme cases, the female victim may vomit or black out. A strike to a female's genitals can be just as damaging and debilitating as a blow to a male, if not even more so due to the location of the pubic bone just inside the female's body, the immobility of the female genitalia and the higher amount and concentration of nerve endings in the vulva than the testicles. If delivered with enough force, a kick to the female genitalia can drive the highly sensitive clitoris up into the pubic bone, compressing the clitoris between the hard bone and the attacker's shoe. Potential long-term health problems can arise for female targets of groin attacks including nerve damage to the clitoris, the pubic bone fracture because women's bones are thinner (and the bone of the pelvis of women is thinner and may break off female pelvis [sic]), hematoma, vulvodynia and rupture of the ovaries (Ovarian apoplexy), which will lead to infertility.On top of this, a strike to a woman's breast can be almost as painful as a kick to the groin.
A kick to the female groin probably hurts more than a kick to the penis because clitoris is more sensitive and has a higher amount of nerve endings. But a kick to the testicles probably hurts much more than both, it is an exposed gland without any protection.
ReplyDeleteMenstrual cramps and a punch to the boob also hurts more than a kick to the vulva.
Good to know. I hope to never have to use that type of force against a woman. I would assume that it would probably be a bit iffy to get a good strike anyway. Groin strikes against men can certainly be devastating, but its easy to not get a solid blow or even just connect with the thigh.
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