May Whitley is the badass Depression-era woman showing ladies how to protect themselves in this vintage self-defense video. She lays waste to her would-be attacker and the notion of females being the “weaker sex” with one beautiful jiu-jitsu move after the next. Female empowerment was certainly not a common notion in those days, but that didn’t deter Whitley from showing her strength (while breaking a few stereotypes about women as well).

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