Sunny Graff

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Sunny Graff (* 1951 in the USA ), born Alison Graff , is a German-American women's rights activist , lawyer and Taekwondo master. Graff has been committed to combating sexual violence in the USA and Germany since the early 1970s, and in Germany in particular for violence prevention in the form of self-defense and self-assertion courses for girls and women. As an athlete, she won various national and international titles in Taekwondo between 1978 and 1982.

Life

Sunny Graff was born Alison Graff in 1951 and grew up in Ohio. When she was 17 years old, a hitchhiking friend of hers was the victim of a murder . Graff was disturbed by the crime and the subsequent victim blaming in her environment.

Studies / Anti-Rape 1970–1980

Graff went to college at Ohio State University in Columbus . In 1970 she took part in demonstrations against the Vietnam War there, had been part of the editorial team of the left-wing magazine Columbus Free Press since 1970 and wrote under the pseudonym Frieda P. Pole from the end of 1971 on the subject of violence against women from a feminist perspective . In an article she wrote I am home alone and I am pissed off. I am sick and tired of being terrorized. […] I've seen women beaten, torn, ravaged and murdered. I've seen women who press charges against their attackers degraded and humiliated by male doctors, judges, attorneys, prosecutors, police officers and reporters. ... I am home by myself tonight - but I am not alone. I am with all the other women who feel my anger, who are tired of being victimized. ... We are growing stronger every day.

In 1971 Graff joined the newly established Women's Action Collective (WAC) . Here, too, she pursued the issue of violence against women, which she discussed with other women in a discussion group. After two women in the group were murdered, Graff and Caroline Sparks founded the group Women Against Rape (WAR) in November 1972 . WAR set two goals: on the one hand, to support rape victims and, on the other, to prevent rape and sexual assault. In February 1974, WAR launched a rape emergency phone operated by Graff. In the following years, WAR established offers to accompany victims during police and medical examinations, opened shelters, organized self-defense courses for women and carried out public relations work for the appropriate handling of rape victims and for legal reforms. In 1976, WAR received a $ 425,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to research strategies to prevent sexual violence. In 1978 the project group headed by Graff presented the brochure Freeing our lives: a feminist analysis of rape prevention as an interim result , followed in 1980 by the final report A Rape Prevention Program in an Urban Area , which is contemporary in the women's movement as “Nationally, one of the best rape prevention programs “, it is considered the first scientific study to examine the effects of a prevention program against sexual violence in women.

Martial arts 1978–1983

Graff has been practicing Taekwondo since 1972 . She is a student of Grand Master Joon Pyo Choi and fights in the Moogong Ryu fighting style developed by him .

After her first title win, the US Women's Championship in 1978, due to lack of support from the Taekwondo Association AAU, she was only able to travel to her first international tournament in Seoul in 1978 with the support of the Women's Action Collective , where she won the bronze medal. Her victory at the 1979 World Cup in Taiwan was the first world championship title for a non-Korean woman.

Between 1978 and 1983 Graff won numerous national and international titles and awards:

  • 1978 USA Taekwondo National Champion, USA National Team Captain
  • 1978 Pre-World Taekwondo Games, Seoul, Korea - Bantam - bronze
  • 1979 World Invitational Taekwondo Games, Taiwan -Bantam - Gold
  • 1979 USA Taekwondo National Champion, USA National Team Captain
  • 1979 USTU / AAU Taekwondo Player of the Year
  • 1981 USTU / AAU Taekwondo Player of the Year
  • 1981 USA Taekwondo National Champion, USA National Team Captain
  • 1982 USA Taekwondo National Champion, USA National Team Captain
  • 1982 Pan-American Taekwondo Games, Ponce, Puerto Rico - Bantam - Gold
  • 1983 All American Award from the AAU United States Taekwondo Union

Graff has been the holder of the eighth Dan since 2015 . On April 10, 2009 she was inducted into the Taekwondo Hall of Fame in recognition of her life's work . She was not only honored for her athletic and combative achievements, but also for her commitment in the areas of self-defense , self-assertion and violence prevention.

In addition to Taekwondo , Sunny Graff has mastered other martial arts. She has the ninth dan in Lapunti Arnis de Abanico , the fifth dan in Modern Arnis , the third dan in Shinson Hapkido and masters both Korean and Chinese Kung Fu . In 2012 she received the International Award from Lapunti Arnis for over 30 years of training in martial arts.

Self-defense for women - Frankfurt since 1984

Sunny Graff holds a degree in law. After graduating from Capital University in 1979, she received her Master of Laws in 1985 from Columbia University in New York. As an exchange student, she then came to Frankfurt, where she worked on her doctorate at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in 1988 and published a comparative study on female spouse murder as self-defense in cases of domestic violence in German and US law.

Trainer training (1984–1998)

Graff had offered self-defense classes to women in Ohio since at least 1978. Shortly after arriving in Frankfurt in 1984, Graff began a program to train female self-defense trainers for women under the title “Every woman can defend herself!”. The two-year training was the first of its kind in Germany, and by 2002 over 150 trainers had been trained. In 1997, Graff published the curriculum for the trainer courses and in 1998 handed over the management of trainer training throughout Germany to Regina Speulta in Karlsruhe. Together with the Wendo program, which is roughly equal in strength , the program contributed to Germany becoming a European leader in self-defense offers for women.

Women on the move (since 1985)

Location of the Women in Motion Association in Frankfurt

In 1985 Graff founded the “Women in Movement” association in Frankfurt to promote the idea of ​​self-defense for women. FiB became one of the first associations in Germany to devote itself to self-defense for women (the oldest is Self-Defense for Women in Berlin, founded in 1976). Women in Motion had 10 trainers in 2020 who work with around 370 female students. The association is financed through membership fees, donations and public subsidies.

Initially, the association held several self-defense courses and ongoing Taekwondo training with around 40 participants and six teachers every year. The concept provided for so-called confrontation training; In role play, everyday situations of "picking up", sexual harassment and the like were presented and reaction techniques were practiced. The association gradually expanded its offer, for example for migrant women, Muslim girls and women, for women with physical limitations, senior citizens and prostitutes of the Frankfurt street prostitutes. It also offers training opportunities for leadership trainers and self-defense trainers based on feminist and anti-racist principles. In addition, the association also organizes larger events, such as the biennial International Women 's Martial Arts Festival since 2011 , and from 2012 organized nationwide Taekwondo black belt tests, which were held by Graff's teacher Joon Pyo Choi.

In 1995 Miriam Frank stated : " Women on the move were an important center of the German anti-violence movement". Women in Motion has received several awards, including 2nd place in the Heinz Lindner Prize for Popular Sports from the State Sports Association of Hesse in 2015, 1st prize in the Strong Networks Against Violence competition of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) in 2017 and the ODDSET Future Prize for Hessian Sports .

Awards for Sunny Graff

Publications

Individual publications

  • Not with me! 3. Edition. Orlanda Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-936937-19-2 .
  • Sunny Graff: Battered Women, Dead Husbands: A Comparative Study of Justification and Excuse in American and West German Law , In: Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review 1: 1988, pp. 1-55

Community publications

  • Sunny Graff, Birgit Rieger: Girls are unbeatable: You can learn self-defense! Ravensburger, Ravensburg 2001, ISBN 3-473-35885-1 .
  • Denise Caignon, Gail Groves (ed.): Quick-witted women: Successful against everyday violence . S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-596-13876-0 .
  • Community Action Strategies to Stop Rape: A Rape Prevention Program in an Urban Area in: Signs, Volume 5, Number 3, 1980, pp. 238-241
  • Sunny Graff et al .: Freeing our lives: a feminist analysis of rape prevention , Women Against Rape, 1978, Columbus, Ohio

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ fr.de: Frankfurt: Sunny Graff receives Tony Sender Prize | Frankfurt . Accessed November 23, 2020
  2. ↑ a b Ken Wachsberger: Insider Histories of the Vietnam Era Underground Press, Part 2. Michigan State University Press, 2012, pp. 321-324, ISBN 9781611860313
  3. ↑ a b Lu Röder Prize for Anja Wolf-Blanke and Sunny Graff. Landessportbund Hessen, May 12, 2012, accessed on April 16, 2015 .
  4. ^ A b Anna Richey: Troublemakers: Feminist Anti Rape Activism in Columbus. Dissertation, The Ohio State University, 2016, pp. 29–41
  5. ↑ a b Ardith Allen: The Deradicalization of Columbus, Ohio's Antirape Movement, 1972-2002. Dissertation, Ohio State University, 2008, pp. 56-60, accessed Nov. 23, 2020
  6. ↑ Sunny Graff et al .: Freeing our lives: a feminist analysis of rape prevention. Women Against Rape, 1978, Columbus, Ohio
  7. ^ Community Action Strategies to Stop Rape: A Rape Prevention Program in an Urban Area. In: Signs. Volume 5, Number 3, 1980, p. 238
  8. ^ Bev Purrington: Introduction. In: Women's Studies Newsletter March 1981. 1981, Online
  9. ↑ Elizabeth A. Yeater, William O'Donohue: Sexual Assault Prevention Programs: Current Issues, Future Directions, And The Potential Efficacy Of Interventions With Women. In: Clinical Psychology Review. Vol. 19, No. 7, pp. 739-771, 1999
  10. ↑ deutschlandfunkkultur.de: Taekwondo trainer and lawyer Sunny Graff - “A day without screaming is like a day without sun” (archive) . Accessed November 24, 2020
  11. ^ A b Nicole Rudner: The History Of Moogongryu - Black Belt Thesis For Rank Promotion Test, Submitted to the Masters' Committee of Oriental Martial Arts College. Berlin, 2006, pp. 6-7, online
  12. ^ A b Anonymus: Send Your Sister to Korea. In: Sojourner , vol. 4, no. 9, June 1978, p. 5, online
  13. ↑ lacancha.com: OFFICIAL TAEKWONDO HALL OF FAME ® - Taekwon-do Hall of Fame , accessed November 24, 2020
  14. ↑ fraueninbewegung.de: Grandmaster Sunny Graff is testing for 8th Dan Taekwondo | Women in Motion eV Accessed November 25, 2020
  15. ↑ Sunny Graff Member of the Hall of Fame. Lacancha, 2009, accessed April 16, 2015 .
  16. ↑  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.lapunti-arnis.com
  17. ↑ Fraueninbewegung.de: About Us | Women in Movement eV Accessed November 24, 2020
  18. ↑ Sunny Graff: Battered Women, Dead Husbands: A Comparative Study of Justification and Excuse in American and West German Law , In: Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review 1: 1988, p. 1
  19. ^ Corinna Seith, Liz Kelly: Achievements Against the Grain: Self-defense Training for Women and Girls in Europe , 2003, ISBN 0-9544803-0-9 , pp. 30-38 & 60-68
  20. ↑ Peter Kaiser: Self-defense for women. “I don't want to be a victim anymore” , in: Deutschlandfunk Kultur, November 15, 2020, online
  21. ^ Report of the magistrate to the city council. Frankfurt am Main, September 7, 2020, Department: X Environment and Women
  22. ↑ Green Week 39/2019. Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen Frankfurt am Main, November 28, 2019, accessed on October 19, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Sonja Thelen: A defensive woman. Sunny Graff receives Tony Sender Award . In: Seniors magazine . No. 1 , 2020, p. 35 .
  24. ↑ Self-expression . In: Eva Brinkmann to Broxten, Claudia Fuchs, Elke Kiltz , Brigitte Schäfer, Brigitte Sellach in cooperation with WEIBH e. V. (Ed.): Without a net and a false bottom: Women's projects & women's politics in Hessen . Zypresse Druck, Frankfurt am Main 1987, p. 58-59 .
  25. ↑ Christian Stör: There is strength in calm . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . November 30, 2009, p. H 6 .
  26. ^ Sabine Schramek: Excellent female athletes. Against pickup and violence. Association "FraueninBewbewegung" receives prize for its training that is strengthening in every way . In: Frankfurter Neue Presse . November 27, 2017, p. 17 .
  27. ↑ Mareike Katerkamp: Martial arts in the prayer room. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. April 3, 2016, accessed October 19, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Ute Bernbeck: Laudation for Sunny Graff on the awarding of the Tony Sender Prize 2019. Women's lecture of the City of Frankfurt am Main, November 29, 2019, accessed on October 19, 2020 .
  29. ↑ Sabine Hockling: "When you suddenly realize how strong you are". Interview with Sunny Graff. In: The time. November 30, 2016, accessed October 19, 2020 .
  30. ^ Lu Röder Prize for Anja Wolf-Blanke and Sunny Graff. In: My South Hesse. Landessportbund Hessen, May 21, 2012, accessed on October 19, 2020 .
  31. ↑ Laura Wagner: Wall as a weapon . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . April 11, 2011, p. F 9 .
  32. ↑ Alicia Lindhoff: The Grand Master as a guest . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . September 17, 2012, p. F 9 .
  33. ↑ "Women in Movement has been an important center for the German anti-violence movement" , Miriam Frank: Lesbian Life and Literature: A Survey of Recent German-Language Publications In: Women in German Yearbook: Feminist Studies in German Literature & Culture , University of Nebraska Press, Volume 10, 1995, p. 234
  34. ↑ Awards. Women on the Move, accessed November 25, 2020 .
  35. ↑ 2nd place for “Women in Motion e. V. “at the Heinz Lindner Prize 2010. In: Women in Movement e. V. Retrieved October 20, 2020 .
  36. ↑ Excellent female athletes. Against pick-up and violence - the “Women in Motion” association receives prize for its training that is strengthening in every way . In: Frankfurter Neue Presse . November 27, 2017, p. 17 .
  37. ^ Courses offered by the "Strong networks against violence" campaign. German Olympic Sports Association V., accessed on October 20, 2020 .
  38. ↑ "Women in Movement - Martial Arts and Movement" awarded with recognition prize. Landessportbund Hessen e. V., October 23, 2019, accessed on October 20, 2020 .
  39. ↑ Basic gymnastics. Basic gymnastics, accessed April 16, 2015 .
  40. ^ Letter of honor for Grand Master Sunny Graff. (No longer available online.) Women on the Move, November 9, 2014, archived from the original on March 13, 2015 ; accessed on April 16, 2015 .
  41. ↑ Tony Sender Prize 2019, City of Frankfurt am Main
personal data
SURNAME Graff, Sunny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Graff, Alison (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American women's rights activist, lawyer, and Taekwondo master
DATE OF BIRTH 1951