Rating: 
Summary: Too Much Party Line Sales Hype!
Review: "Beauty Bites Beast" by Ellen Snortland is a book that pulls off a tremendous feat: it both informs while educating. Miss Snortland has written a book that should be mandatory reading for every young woman in America. Men, as well, have a lot to learn from Miss Snortland's work -- with a fascinating insight into the thought processes of women, Snortland relates real life events into her work. As a man, I had no idea that women walk to their cars in fear, but they do. The reason is that men attack women from behind, though men usually attack each other face to face. Yet this is one of many interesting facts straight from Miss Snortland's book.
This book is easy to read, informative, and necessary. During these uncertain times, Miss Snortland's point that women should not be afraid to defend themselves is vitally important. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Finally, a book that tells it like it is, with a common sense approach that I think one day should be made part of the curriculum for every high school student.
Rating: 
Summary: If I could give this book twelve stars I would
Review: "Beauty Bites Beast" is an incredible, funny, tough and smart guide to women's self-defense. According to author Ellen Snortland, women have been conditioned by society to believe that they are helpless in the face of attack. In chapter after chapter, Ms. Snortland systematically unravels and deconstructs myths, stereotypes and misguided beliefs which contribute to violence against women. With her biting humor and irreverent style, Ms. Snortland is able to make her points, share success stories, and urge women to reclaim our power. As a practicing martial artist, all I can say is RIGHT ON to Ms. Snortland and all others like her who strive to make this world a safer place for women, children and men alike. All girls, women, men, boys and everyone else who care about women's safety, or who just want to understand the origins of violence in our culture should have a copy of this book. Or several copies. This is an excellent, funny, well-written book about a deadly important issue. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Rating: 
Summary: Beauty Bites Off Too Much
Review: Buy a Girls Gotta Do What a Girls Gotta Do instead. Snortland's book is more of a feminist's political treastise on how males and females are raised and nurtured versus a pragmatic approach on skills to identify potential threats and strategies to deal with them. She does hype Impact training which sounds like a beneficial program. I bought it for my daughter, but read it first. Actually, I tried to read it; halfway through the book I decided to toss it.
Rating:
Summary: A How-Come Book for Women--and Men
Review: Ellen Snortland says she has not written a how-to book for women. She calls it a "how-come" book, but by virtue of the fact that humankind has a tendency to handle itself better when it understands a process, it becomes a how-to book. The quintessential how-to book.
This is a book that teaches self-defense and assertiveness and...well, you get the idea. It is mostly a book that helps women understand why we are "beauties" that must "bite" the beast and how that can be changed to benefit us all. The author is well equipped to give advice. She received her J.D. degree at a time when women attending her Loyola Law School were in a small minority. She is a self-defense advocate and instructor. She is an actress, a producer, and a director. She rails-humorously-against injustices each week as a columnist for the "Pasadena Weekly" and she is a professor of Communication Studies at California State University at Los Angeles. Communication is, in fact, the crown that "Beauty" wears that covers all of these pursuits. "Beauty Bites Beast" is the culmination of Snortland's abilities and need to communicate in an area that-even after several decades of progress-still has room for a whole lot of improvement. Oh! You should also know: It is absolutely entertaining-from beginning to end.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of "This is the Place"
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book for women and men
Review: I ordered and read this book after having a daughter. I wanted to learn how I can help her grow up strong and able to fend for herself and not become a victim of any sorts. For the most part this book was a revelation to me about the reality women face...a reality of danger, threats, bullying, discrimination, etc. It made me put myself in the shoes of the women walking to her car in a dark parking lot who fears for her safety and life due to potential dangers. Ms. Snortland shows how fear is often present in daily situations women encounter. She also indicates changes in attitude and lessons in defense that can improve a women's posture in the world. It has encouraged me to sign my daughter up for self-defense classes as soon as it is age-appropriate. I garnered a much better understanding of many societal attitudes my daughter will face as she grows up. It will really help me be a better father to her. A downside to this book is Snortland's political advocacy. It is clear where she stands politically and on certain issues she conveys the message that women who disagree are being duped by a male-dominated society. To me this is a totally different issue than what the book purports to focus on. She should stick to defending women not politics. The above criticism aside, the book is worthwhile for its main message and was helpful.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for women and men
Review: I ordered and read this book after having a daughter. I wanted to learn how I can help her grow up strong and able to fend for herself and not become a victim of any sorts. For the most part this book was a revelation to me about the reality women face...a reality of danger, threats, bullying, discrimination, etc. It made me put myself in the shoes of the women walking to her car in a dark parking lot who fears for her safety and life due to potential dangers. Ms. Snortland shows how fear is often present in daily situations women encounter. She also indicates changes in attitude and lessons in defense that can improve a women's posture in the world. It has encouraged me to sign my daughter up for self-defense classes as soon as it is age-appropriate. I garnered a much better understanding of many societal attitudes my daughter will face as she grows up. It will really help me be a better father to her. A downside to this book is Snortland's political advocacy. It is clear where she stands politically and on certain issues she conveys the message that women who disagree are being duped by a male-dominated society. To me this is a totally different issue than what the book purports to focus on. She should stick to defending women not politics. The above criticism aside, the book is worthwhile for its main message and was helpful.
Rating:
Summary: From An IMPACT Instructor
Review: I've been teaching IMPACT self defense training for 11 years at an all-girls school and I share several of the essays in "Beauty Bites Beast" with my students -- they love them! Especially the one about the word "bitch." Really changes the girls' perception of that insult and takes the sting out of it. Which is great, because too many women let the horror of being called a "bitch" stop them from setting boundaries and standing up for themselves.
Oh and just to set the record straight with regards to an earlier review: in IMPACT's training, we ABSOLUTELY teach students how to deal with incoming punches from an assailant. Always have.
Rating:
Summary: Much Needed Even Among Female Martialists & Feminists
Review: In 1987, while teaching self-defense and martial arts at Spalding University, I encountered the common problem of females suffering an apparently low sense of self-esteem. Not the first time I had seen it, but the first time I saw it in so large a number so close together, I began to study books dealing with the feminine roles, such as "WOMEN WHO RUN WITH WOLVES". Unfortunately, despite the fact that some of the most practical combative arts were created by women--such as Wing Chun, Chuka Shaolin, and Panandita "priestess-maiden" style of Pencat-silat--most women today have problems with truly expressing their own unique strength. Even in growing bold and loud, most merely adopt the false face common to so many weak-hearted men (far more likely to be lethal or harmful to the women than to those weaker men). SO SAID, IT IS WELL BEYOND TIME THAT SOMEONE STRIVE TO CORRECT THE DAMAGE THAT THE LESSER MINDS HAVE INFLICTED UPON A LARGER PART OF OUR COLLECTIVE SOCIAL SOUL.
Rating:
Summary: This Book Could Save Your Life
Review: It may sound dramatic to say that a book can save your life, but that's how I feel about Ellen Snortland's book, Beauty Bites Beast. Chapter by chapter, Snortland teaches women and girls how to defend their bodies and minds by awakening the warrior within. Snortland combines hard-core feminist ideology with hard-core wit. Her biting sense of humor had me rolling through most of the book, which I read cover to cover on my last plane ride. This book should be on every woman and girl's nightstand. Thank you, Ellen, for having the courage and brilliance to write this fabulous book. And for making my gift shopping so easy this year!
Rating:
Summary: a good place to start
Review: this is a good place to start for a woman interested in self defence- and more need to be. she is not as hard core as she could be, but i believe she is trying to ease into a defensive mindset, coming on too strong would put off many women.This book needs to find its way into as many hands as possible, people ingeneral need to wake up, real predators walk our streets every day, and if you are not aware, and mentally prpared to do maximum damage, you are in trouble,Snortland goes into this reasoning well, almost like she is trying to convince the reader to stand and fight. I would like to see her write a second book, dealing with weapons use by women, and how a family can train for self defence as a unit. It is this way that we can "breed out" the victim mentality in our society. Read it.She is dead on- mindset is most important.this is the sort of book that i would like to find on the nightstand of a new girlfreind, you have to respect a woman who will fight to protect herself.
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