Gender-Jutsu": Grappling with Gender in Martial Arts Contexts
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'GENDER-JUTSU": GRAPPLING WITH GENDER IN MARTIAL ARTS CONTEXTS by CHELAN MARIE BAILLIE BA, The University of British Columbia, 1993 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL STUDIES ANTHROPOLOGY OF EDUCATION We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA OCTOBER 1998. © Chelan Marie Baillie 1998 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada DE-6 (2/88) ABSTRACT This is a critical, explorative thesis examining how ten female martial artists were attracted, challenged and empowered through their chosen martial arts training. Meanings and benefits of martial arts in the lives of participants were investigated through interviews, and the particular challenges encountered by females acting within largely male dominated sporting / martial arts spheres are situated within contemporary feminist sports theory analyses. Foci include gender constructs, practitioner agency and personal empowerment. Data gathering was conducted by recording and transcribing semi-structured interviews throughout 1996-97, and was inspired by conversations with female participants at martial arts seminars, special camps, training sessions and tournaments. Guiding the interviews were themes of initiation (how these women became involved in martial arts); motivation (the perceived benefits and reasons for years of continual training); and power dynamics (including the specific challenges of being a female in martial arts contexts, and how martial arts aids individual empowerment). Experiences are woven into the larger discourse on women in sports: how bodies are gendered through sports practices. Chapters explore the potential for martial arts as a transformative activity enabling self-knowledge and development both within mainstream male dominated martial arts organizations and alternative women-only or feminist dojos (training clubs). Advantages of both contexts are discussed. Martial arts are transformative sites on contested ideological terrain (Messner 1988: 66), wherein personal empowerment and the partial transcendence of cultural gender constructs are possible. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT II ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . V INTRODUCTION: KIME (JAPANESE) = FOCUS 1 STATEMENT OF THE FOCUS 4 CHAPTER ONE: READINGS UNDER THE CANOPY (LITERATURE REVIEW) 5 A MARTIAL ARTS TREE 6 ROOTS 7 BRANCHES 10 BARK AND LEAVES 13 PHILOSOPHICAL SAP: "LIFEBLOOD" OF MARTIAL ARTS 16 FERTILE SOIL ERODED? THE MARTIAL ARTS VS. SPORTS DEBATE 21 UNCOVERING FEMALE ROOTS OF THE MARTIAL ARTS TREE 22 SPORTS AND GENDER: GRAPPLING TECHNIQUES 27 SYNOPSIS: TREE CLIMBING 31 CHAPTER TWO: THE BASICS 35 METHODOLOGICAL MOVES 35 FOOTING: FORMATIVE QUESTIONS 37 DELIMITATIONS 38 LIMITATIONS 39 STANCE: PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE 40 GROUNDWORK: INTERVIEWS 41 CONFRONTATION: ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 42 PARTICIPANT SKETCHES: INITIATION AND MOTIVATION : 44 iii CHAPTER THREE: THEMATIC DISCUSSIONS 54 "GENDER-JUTSU" 54 POWER PLAYS AND REACTIONS 55 EMPOWERING ONESELF 72 TRANSFORMATIVE ASPECTS 79 THE ROLLING PIN: TOOLS OF THE TRADE 88 BLACK BELT "BARBIE" (WHATADRAG!) 101 FIGHTING FEMALES: COMBAT AND COMPETITION 106 PUNCHING LIKE A GIRL 118 FROM CATFIGHTS TO BRAWLING WITH THE BOYS: WOMEN ONLY & COED CONTEXTS 124 FEMINIST PRAXIS IN OUR FIGHTING PRACTICE 130 CHAPTER FOUR: GENDER-JUTSU IN REVIEW 138 RETURN TO RESEARCH QUESTIONS 140 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 148 REFERENCES 151 APPENDIX i: DOJO-KUN 160 APPENDIX n: QUESTION ROSTER GUIDELINE: 161 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I must thank numerous people for their assistance at various stages of this project. First, I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Dr. Deirdre Kelly, for her patience, guidance and suggestions throughout each stage of my thesis writing, and for her editing—beyond the call of duty. I would like to thank the members of my thesis committee for their critiques and encouragement, Dr. Patricia Vertinsky, for all of the suggested readings, and Dr. Dan Pratt and Dr. Shauna Butterwick. Their critiques made this a better product and their compliments kept me continuing. Next, I would like to acknowledge and thank all the participants in this study who took the time to participate in the interviews and discuss their experiences and insights into their world of martial arts. Next time around, this will be a visual exploration, so I can better capture their integrity, energy and vitality that words just can't portray. Thanks to each of your for your warmth, honesty and shared conversation. I wish you good health and good luck on your martial paths. Finally, my family and friends have lived with this project as long as I have, and I acknowledge their endurance and support. Thanks to my grandmother for providing a necessary ingredient, as Virginia Wolf prescribed, a room of one's own. I must thank my Dad for his unwavering support, which materially enabled me to make ends meet, and verbally gave me great encouragement. His genes enabled me to grind my teeth and complete the task. Thanks to Tyler and Carol for their open arms, a warm place to escape, and their ears—which I filled more than once. I must thank my Mom, for being a constant source of inspiration. Her thoughtful criticism sparked many new questions and her independence enabled me to find the words and to do it my way. Any creative genes I possess are just a scraping off her colourful palette! I would like to thank Jessica and Michael for their enduring friendship and interest—we have consumed an unhealthy quantity of coffee together over these years while I talked karate and they talked bikes. And a thank-you goes to Jake for the generous use of his computer while I was technologically behind the times. INTRODUCTION: KTME (JAPANESE) = FOCUS Technically, a strike may possess all the correct components: initiated from a solid stance with good footing and firm contact with the floor, energy moves from the feet, up the legs into a quick rotation of the hips and a twist of the torso that generates more power; an engagement of the shoulder extends outwards to the elbow in a straight, efficient line that activates torque in the forearm, and with a final thrust, the first two knuckles of the clenched fist charge the target—yet the impact is insignificant. At times, body dynamics alone are insufficient: the board is not broken; the heavy bag remains motionless; an opponent unflinchingly walks through the punch. The explanations are heard: "No heart... Lack of spirit... No kime." Why do notions that involve belief, confidence and even faith, enter into the concentrated effort of what may be textually described as a completely physical, technical series of body motions? Why is there more to such body dynamics than simply going through the motions? Though we may not completely understand why, we do make such qualitative distinctions. There are common variations of the phrases: "One's heart must be in it; You have to believe in yourself; Visualize; What you can imagine, you can achieve". There is described an emotional, mental and physical unity of faith so focussed that the feat seems already accomplished. There is "spirit" in your purpose. Without such total concentration and focus, a painter may fear the white canvas rather than engage in the process, writers may block at a blank page or screen before words can flow, and a dancer may suddenly become conscious of the audience and lose her centre of balance, or immobilize with stage fright. Similarly, in tameshiwari (breaking techniques), cement bricks, wooden boards, or baseball bats will not shatter if there is fear for one's knuckles, 1 or a preoccupation with potential shin pain. Finally, graduate students can't begin to write a thesis if they are prematurely anxious about the finished product or its defense! Focus, discipline, perseverance and the confrontation of fears are commonplace in martial arts. They are essential threads that link the ever-increasing plethora of styles and schools of contemporary martial practice. Within the following thesis, I pick up these threads, found within the articulated experiences of ten female martial artists, and I weave them together with strands from feminist sports theory, colouring all with my own experience and perspective as a female martial arts practitioner. The technical requirements of a conventional thesis shall be found, but because pure technique alone does not impact significantly—I add a little "spirit" to avoid a dry read. About qualitative work, it is said, "although our topics often are riveting and our research carefully executed, our books are under-read" (Richardson 1994: 517). Qualitative research depends on people reading the text, otherwise our efforts go stagnant outside our own self-knowledge and growth. The bland, homogenized academic style occurs through the suppression of individual voices. My voice enters this text—not as the omnipotent controlling analyst, but as a situated, inquiring, self-reflective