Whilst waiting for my group to go up next at my black belt grading, I couldn’t help but notice that, including both children and adults, at least one third of the graders were female. In Britain, it seems that women are not exactly a minority in the dojang and along with our superior patterns (naturally!) and pony tails, we also bring with us our money to pay for our fees and equipment. So when I saw this new publication I was quite excited as I thought, ‘great, a martial arts training guide targeted at women for our specific needs’. Well, that’s what it said on the cover.
This book is in essence a philosophical and feminist discussion regarding the position of women within the martial arts world. Being written by two experienced female martial artists, it hits the mark in several places. For example, the authors speak at great length about the typical violence a woman would encounter, in that it is usually conducted by a man that they know and is often of a domestic nature. A lot of martial arts and self-defence courses are designed around the male oriented risk of “stranger danger” and the writers’ suggest that “reading and learning about sexual assault and domestic violence should be included in all self-defence instructors’ training.” They also offer other helpful suggestions to help female students who are victims of assault by having some instructors trained in rape counselling. However, as laudable as this may be, if your school isn’t big enough to find a female black belt prepared to train for this then perhaps just being able to refer them onto an organisation that could help them would be more useful. After all, most training halls are just for training in the martial arts.
The writers discuss at great length the position women take in a mixed-gender martial arts environment and tell several stories of encounters with obnoxious men. Yes, we’ve all come across sexist pigs at times but I do feel that the approach towards some men was overly negative and please don’t blame them too harshly for their “misguided complements”. If a male instructor were to pick up this book, one would assume that he wants to inform himself about his female students and their needs, which implies to me that he is enlightened enough to want to encourage the women in his club. The authors run the risk of alienating him and causing some offence by making him feel guilty for being a man who might just want to help.
This is one of the main areas that I feel this book doesn’t quite work. By all means, write a feminist themed book about your views on women in the martial arts, but say so on the cover. I felt there could have been more useful chapters about specific training issues unique to women. For example, where is the section about training during and after pregnancy, and issues on nutrition and fitness? This was an interesting book with some challenging discussions but slightly misleading for an instructor who wants to learn more about his female students’ training needs.
(0 vote)
