Fighting Gender Stereotypes: Women’s Participation in the Martial Arts, Physical Feminism and Social Change

Abstract

KEYWORDs CITATION DOI CONTRIBUTOR Maya Maor specializes in the sociology of the body, health, illness and social stigma; in the fields of fat identity and resistance to fat stigma, gender in the martial arts and social issues in gender and health. Maor, Maya. 2018. 'Fighting Gender Stereotypes: Women's Participation in the Martial Arts, Physical Feminism and Social Change'. Martial Arts Studies 7, 36-48.

“Being Mean” and “Spazzing Out:” Social Calibration and Gender in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Training

“…Don't worry, you're not going to hurt her." As important moments for countering notions of gender difference and encouraging men to see female practitioners as more capable, equal partners, such interventions offer one pathway for how mixed-sex training can work to "undo gender" (Channon 2014;Channon and Jennings 2013;Maclean 2019;Maor 2019).…”

“…Mixed‐sex martial arts and combat sports training in particular has the potential to challenge the primacy and naturalness of sexist, binary concepts of biological sex difference and (hetero)sexist conceptions of sexual relations and gendered social hierarchies (Channon and Jennings 2013). For example, in mixed‐sex training contexts women go through the transformative process of re‐discovering their own embodied capabilities and limits (Channon and Jennings 2013; Maor 2019) and learn to take up space and be loud (Maclean 2019). Male practitioners also learn first‐hand that women are tough, able training partners who may physically dominate a male partner if men hold back out of chivalry or fear of injuring women (Channon 2014; Channon and Jennings 2013; Guérandel and Mennesson 2007; Maclean 2016).…”

“…Maclean (2016) shows how the ongoing closeness of training interactions in martial arts settings enable men and women to develop emotionally intimate and respectful friendships in ways that they did not find possible outside of the gym. Maor (2019) argues that experienced male practitioners and coaches also learn to develop more nurturing, caring, and giving relations with (less‐experienced) female practitioners. In each of these examples, the interactions work to circumvent traditional hierarchal gender relations wherein women are understood to be objects for men's pleasure and become seen as agentic subjects also worthy of (non‐protectionist) care and nurturing.…”

“…Gendered scripts might take precedence over those of the sport, shaping the form and intensity with which men and women carry out techniques (Maclean 2019). Further, gender transformation within these spaces does not automatically lead to the adoption of transgressive or gender‐queer identities outside of these spaces (Maor 2019). Indeed, as Guérandel and Mennesson (2007) and Hamilton (2020) find, outside of training male and female practitioners may adopt behaviors and displays that reinforce traditional gender roles and perhaps compensate for transgressive practices inside the gym.…”

“…She can take it.” In other instances, coaches recognized that male partners held back against me during rolling sessions and prodded them with comments such as “Stop pulling your punches … Why are you holding back?” or “C'mon, really go for it. Don't worry, you're not going to hurt her.” As important moments for countering notions of gender difference and encouraging men to see female practitioners as more capable, equal partners, such interventions offer one pathway for how mixed‐sex training can work to “undo gender” (Channon 2014; Channon and Jennings 2013; Maclean 2019; Maor 2019).…”