Why aren’t there more women in the martial arts?
I’ve mentioned learning Kung Fu to a few of my female friends recently, and their response has been overwhelmingly positive: “good for you”, “excellent”, and “wow, I’ve always wanted to do that” (surprisingly, this was the most frequent response). The lack of women in the sport doesn’t seem to be due to misconceptions or a negative view of martial arts among women, then (at least not in the tiny sample I spoke to). So what is the issue here?
While reading around the subject, I came across this article: On kickboxing, women’s aggression and self-defence. It talks about the subtle taboos in our society of viewing women as aggressive or violent, but most striking is the joy the author, Jessica Burton, finds in kickboxing. I recognised a lot of my own reasons for beginning a martial art in there, and was inspired by the rest.
I was also amazed at my body’s ability to respond to the demands the sport made on it. After three weeks, I no longer felt like I was about to die from exhaustion during class and after a year I had very well developed muscles all over my body. I was strong, fit and confident.
And this is one thing that I hadn’t anticipated: kickboxing made me enjoy my body as a sensuous and capable thing. Not only did I like being able to lift more shopping and open all my stiff jar lids, I realised I was allowed to enjoy my body, nurture it and its new demands (“Must have food! Now!”) and be proud of what I could physically achieve.
Makes it a thousand times more compelling than pilates, for me at least.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jane // 29th May 2009 at 8:31 am
Interesting… I kind of feel the same – I’d probably be one of the ones saying “good for you” ! I think what puts me off – and obviously this is not a purely female point of view – is the amount of dedication and commitment that I imagine is involved. I’d much rather drop in to an aerobics class, swim a few lengths, book a badminton court etc. because I know that I can just do it or leave it as I please. I can see the attraction of a martial art, but am unwilling to commit. Which may well be my loss :-)
2 Ys // 29th May 2009 at 11:22 am
I agree with Jane on this one – it’s a time/commitment issue. I’ve just got other things that need doing first. It is still on my To Do list though ;)
3 Pewari // 29th May 2009 at 11:31 am
I didn’t mean to imply that every woman *should* do it :) I realise that it’s not for everyone for a whole multitude of reasons – time and commitment being one of them.
But I wonder why the percentages aren’t more even between men and women, given that there obviously are women out there committed to other sports/fitness activities. We don’t blink at a woman getting really involved at the gym or running or whatever. Certainly, photos of marathon runners (for example) seemed to have a decent proportion of women in there.
I kind of agree with the author that we are subtly conditioned from a young age to assume that women cannot be fighters despite the progress we’ve made in other areas of society.
4 On Bruises, Martial Arts and Social Acceptance // 3rd Jul 2009 at 4:40 pm
[...] think I’m beginning to understand know why there aren’t more women in martial arts. I’ve been going for just under two months now and have got past the initial burst of [...]
The views expressed in these comments are not the views of the publisher. However, we believe in the rights of others to express their legitimate views and concerns. Any legitimate complaint emailed to pewari@may.be will be seriously considered and the post reviewed as desirable and necessary.
Leave a Comment