 Two oddly related incidents happened to me the other day. One was cleaning out my room and discovering some old Avengers videos and the other was meeting my friend’s obnoxious new housemate. Why are these connected? They made me think about why I took up martial arts; and other peoples’ reactions to me practising Tae Kwon Do. For those of us on the wrong side of thirty, you may remember a world before Channel Five and Sky TV and the time that Channel Four first began. This new television channel brought the Eighties the little red triangle whenever anything racy appeared on screen, Jools Holland, Paula Yates and the Tube and most importantly for me, the weekly repeats of the sixties era episodes of ‘The Avengers’. As a young girl of about eight, I was completely captivated by the bizarre world of John Steed and Mrs Emma Peel, but the most important factor being that I was exposed to a beautiful and glamorous Diana Rigg hunting down the bad guys and using her skills in Karate to disable them. I too wanted to drive around in a sporty two-seater (I still do!) and perform graceful kicks and punches, whilst having perfect hair and looking cool in a polyester jump suit. In my opinion, the importance of this TV programme in relation to women’s involvement in martial arts cannot be underestimated as when Honor Blackman used Judo to throw the villain over her shoulder in 1963, we saw the emergence of the female action hero.
I first took up Karate when I was nineteen, after being persuaded by my neighbour in the halls of residence to go along with her. By the end of the first lesson, I was totally hooked and couldn’t get enough of learning new techniques, my favourite being kicking. The reasons why I took up a martial art were varied and changed over time. I have practised both Karate and Tae Kwon Do, at first it was a laugh and a way of meeting people at University, then I got more serious by gaining a few grades and entering a couple of competitions. I even thought it might be useful in case I got myself into any trouble. When I took up Tae Kwon Do at the age of 31, I wanted to vary a boring gym routine and as a result, rediscovered my love of martial arts to the point of me cancelling my gym membership and entering every competition I can. The point I’m making here is that the motivations for me starting a martial art were varied but at no point did I ever think of there being any issue with my being female.
With this in mind, I asked as many women as I could at my local club why they took up Tae Kwon Do. The responses I got came from women ranging in age from 19 to mid 40s and from colour belt to a black belt 3rd Dan. Some were:
“I wanted a bit more than just self defence”
“I joined in with my children”
“Fitness, and I liked the cool kicks in martial arts films”
“My brother started, so I joined in as well”
“I was being bullied at school”
“I was new to the area and wanted to meet people”
“I had nothing to do on a Monday night”
Funnily enough, when I asked around the men, I got a very similar response. I then took to looking at various web sites and looked at the main marketing aims. These mostly stated that their martial art was suitable for both men and women; that their version would control aggression in men and aid women in self defence for the dangerous outside world. These are all sound reasons for taking up a martial art, but what I thought was interesting was they assumed it was only men that needed to control their anger and women who needed protecting. After speaking to a friend who is a police officer, she informed me that you are much more likely to be physically attacked by a stranger if you are a young male and that a lot of juvenile crime is being committed by young females. Therefore, you need to be equally careful if you are male and walking home alone at night and women can have anger management issues as well. We all take up a martial art for a variety of reasons but the issue of our gender is not a major concern.
Now for the incident of my friend’s obnoxious housemate, for the sake of argument I shall call him Bob. My friend and I both agree that Bob is a bit of a saddo, not only is he the most tight fisted person I have met recently, but he also has the ability to talk total crap. After a glass or three of a very nice Chardonnay, Bob made the mistake of saying to my friend and I, “what’s the world coming to when they let birds do Tae Kwon Do.” As much as I wanted to come up with a sharp-witted answer, the most I could come up with was slapping my forehead with an extended thumb and forefinger and shouting, “loosseerr!!” My friend, meanwhile, dived behind a large pot plant to avoid laughing out loud. I can honestly say that this is the first time I have ever come across anyone who had an outright issue with me being both female and doing a martial art.
The only other adverse reactions I’ve come across are from work. As a secondary school teacher, and therefore in front of about 150 students and about 100 members of staff a day, I’ve had many different responses to my practising Tae Kwon Do and to the odd bruise that I’ve had during sparring. Thankfully, I’ve not yet had a full black eye, but I tend to get the odd mark on my arms and legs. Within our circle of friends at Tae Kwon Do, a bruise is common place but I was unprepared for the reactions from some of my colleagues at work. During the summer, when I was wearing short sleeves, a lot of people were showing concern that I had some marks and wanted to know why I continued to do an activity that appeared to hurt. I kept explaining that you barely notice when you do get the odd knock, and that they were purely accidental anyway. Much to my amusement, some kind souls dropped leaflets about domestic violence into my pigeon hole, unaware of the fact that I am the least likely person to tolerate a violent boyfriend! However, the comments that received a sharp reply were that from a senior teacher who said that I appeared unprofessional by having any bruises on my arms and legs and that practising a martial art wasn’t the best use of my leisure time. My response was that if I were injured playing hockey or squash, they wouldn’t have an issue with it, nor if I were male and competing in a sport. The senior teacher in question couldn’t think of a response to this but the issue did bring to light other women I know who have been reprimanded at work for having the odd bruise, unlike their male counterparts. It appears that as much as the world enjoys seeing women performing feats of strength and skill defeating an evil foe in the world of film or television, when real women performing real martial arts get the inevitable bruise or muscle strain, the outside world can nonetheless be squeamish when we get hurt. Martial arts are cool for women, as long as we still look pretty for everyone else’s viewing pleasure.
Finally, whilst in New Zealand (see my article Tae Kwon Do Down Under), I picked up a second hand copy of ‘Black Belt’ magazine from 1986. In it, there was an article called ‘Women of Karate, are they too masculine?’ It made very interesting reading but the most interesting point was that even in the late Eighties, it still seemed necessary to have a debate about whether women who practise various martial arts had a problem with their gender identity. There was a discussion about femininity versus masculinity but the overriding issue assumed the desired feminine trait was passivity. Is this true today? I’m not so sure, but judging by the women and men I have spoken to, women have as important a role in the world of martial arts as men, are as serious competitors as men and take up a martial art for the same reasons as men. Martial arts are fun and we look cool doing them!
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Fun and Entertainment 
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