• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Allyson Quinney received her Masters in Journalism from the CONTRIBUTOR University of British Columbia and she begins her PhD at Florida State University in the fall of 2016. THE @UFC AND THIRD WAVE FEMINISM? WHO WOULDA THOUGHT? GENDER, FIGHTERS, AND FRAMING ON TWITTER ALLYSON QUINNEY DOI ABSTRACT 10.18573/j.2016.10063 Most professional sports, such as hockey, tennis, and basketball, separate men’s and women’s sports leagues. In 2013, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) disrupted this pattern by showcasing its first women’s mixed martial arts (MMA) fight in a once male-only fight league. While the UFC’s inclusion of KEYWORDs female fighters is a step forward for gender equality, the change does not come without issues. This essay focuses on the framing Martial arts studies, mixed martial of female UFC fighters on Twitter over a four year period. arts, intersectionality, feminist theory, Through an intersectional feminist analysis, it examines how framing theory, gender, women’s sport, Twitter users frame female fighters’ bodies in relation to gender, Ultimate Fighting Championship. race, class, and sexuality. It argues that there is an imbalance in attention paid to female fighters in regards to gender, race, class, CITATION and sexuality, and this constructs contradictory messaging about feminism, female fighters’ bodies, and the UFC on Twitter. Quinney, Allyson. 2016. ‘The @UFC and Third Wave Feminism? Who Woulda Thought?: Gender, Fighters, and Framing on Twitter’, Martial Arts Studies 2, 34-58 MARTIAL Gender, Fighters, and Framing on Twitter ARTS STUDIES Allyson Quinney Introduction age, and class for women in the UFC, and discuss the issues related to them. Further, I turn to Angela McRobbie’s theory of the post-feminist This essay examines the English language social media coverage of masquerade to discuss the conflicts that accompany the introduction of the introduction of women into the premiere Mixed Martial Arts women into the Octagon. I look at specifically gendered topics, such as (MMA) organization, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). beauty, space, and surveillance in regards to women in the UFC. Signing Ronda Rousey was the first step in the UFC’s inclusion of female fighters, which, I argue, is a step forward for female athleticism After this, I turn to my dataset of 303 tweets from Twitter to uncover and equality. As Matt Hern has argued, sports offer ‘a particular how female fighters’ bodies were represented on Twitter from January irreplaceable arena for radical social transformation’ [Hern 2013: 24]. 2011 to March 2015. The timeframe was chosen based on the nature Further, Amanda Roth and Susan A. Basow add to Hern’s claim by of the conversation that was taking place about female fighters in the noting that, ‘like education, work, religion, and family, the cultural UFC. In January 2011, UFC President Dana White said that women institution of sports has the power to affect women’s status in society, would never fight for the UFC. However, by February 2013, some of [although] not necessarily in a positive manner’ [Roth and Basow 2004: the most talented female fighters in the sport of MMA were officially 247]. For example, even though women make up nearly half of sports signed by the UFC, and by 2015, Ronda Rousey, then the Bantamweight participation, society still favours male dominance in athletics, and Women’s Champion,1 was (and still is) one of the most popular and women are often excluded from participating in some sports [Roth and profitable fighters in the UFC. While women in the UFC continue to be Basow 2004: 247]. embraced by UFC fans, that does not mean that female fighters are not represented in problematic ways on and off social media. By tracking Until 2013, women were excluded from the UFC. Now, female fighters and analysing the conversation about female UFC fighters on Twitter, make up some of the most skilled fighters in the fight league. However, I hope to highlight what some UFC fans and critics think about women the inclusion of women in the UFC does not come without issues, such in the UFC, and how these people represent female fighters’ bodies. as over-sexualisation and exploitation of female bodies. My research builds on the sports research of Channon [2014], Roth [2004], Basow [2004], and Jennings [2014], all of whom focus on the role of women’s sport, specifically combat sports, in promoting social change. I add to Literature Review their analysis by locating my research on the Twitter coverage of two hashtags, #Feminism and #UFC. My findings suggest that there is an Through conversations with colleagues and supervisors, as well as a uneven attention paid to female fighters that constructs inherently search of online forums,2 there appears to be some confusion about contradictory messaging about feminism, female bodies, and the UFC the difference between MMA and the UFC. The answer is relatively on Twitter. simple: The UFC is to MMA what the NBA is to basketball. Many consider pankration, a combat sport from ancient Greece that combined This essay is organized into four parts: Literature Review, wrestling and boxing, to be the origin of MMA [Seungma et al. 2008: Methodology, Discussion, and Conclusion. First, given the abundance 110]. MMA, like pankration, combines striking and grappling, although of ‘extreme’ sports in today’s sport culture, this essay provides a MMA has evolved over the last two decades, formulating strict rules definition of MMA. Currently, there is a debate about whether or and regulations [Spencer 2014: 232]. Today, many competitors not MMA is something more than sheer violence. I unpack the specialize in a particular form of martial arts, such as judo or boxing, violence debate by comparing the definitions of violence by national, and supplement their skills with at least one other fighting style (in international, and feminist institutions. Next, I highlight the long general, strikers often supplement their primary striking training with history of women in combat sports, and through L.A. Jennings’ work, I secondary grappling training and vice-versa). show that women have been in combat sports all along, but have been ignored [Jennings 2014: 17]. After looking at the definitions of MMA In the mid-20th century, the Japanese arts of jūjutsu and judo made and violence, and explaining the history of women in combat sports, their way to Brazil [Naraine 2012: 6]. The origin story of the modified I look at the intersectionalities between gender, sexuality, race, age, form of Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) has been contested [Snowden 2010: and class for female fighters through a feminist anti-racist lens. In a male dominated arena like sports, it is important to look at what could hinder women from participating and what obstacles they may jump 1 Bantamweight is the 135-pound weight class. over to continue. To accomplish this, I compare gender, sexuality, race, 2 http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-ufc-and- mma/ martialartsstudies.org 35 MARTIAL Gender, Fighters, and Framing on Twitter ARTS STUDIES Allyson Quinney 40] but most martial arts scholars believe that the increase in Japanese Is MMA Violence? immigration to Brazil after World War II led to the birth of BJJ. Scholars believe that fourth degree Kodokan judo black belt Mitsuyo The debate on whether or not MMA is violent has been around for Maeda, an emissary of Jigoro Kano (the man who developed judo on as long as the sport itself. Judith Butler looks at violence and the body the basis of several different schools of jujutsu) sent to spread judo in her book Undoing Gender wherein she claims that human bodies are around the world, deserves most of the credit for introducing the both dependent on and vulnerable to other people. For Butler, violence Japanese grappling arts to members of the famed Gracie family. Carlos is ‘a way in which the human vulnerability to other humans is exposed Gracie received direct instruction from Maeda, and Carlos, along with in its most terrifying way, a way in which we are given over, without his brothers, formulated what would come to be known as BJJ. Carlos’ control, to the will of another, the way in which life itself can be younger brother, Hélio, meanwhile, would further modify BJJ and craft expunged by the wilful action of another’ [Butler 2004: 22]. Matt Hern what would come to be known as Gracie jiu-jitsu (GJJ). Although there also defines violence in terms similar to Butler’s, emphasising as well are gaps in the historical timeline regarding the details of this origin the lack of consent and control; he claims that boxing is not violence story, most if not all stories about the birth of BJJ include connections because ‘violence is coercive by definition; it’s done to someone against between Maeda and the Gracie family. their will [whereas in boxing] you step into the ring voluntarily’ [Hern 2013: 26]. According to Butler and Hern’s definitions of violence, one BJJ was a major component in the creation of the sport that we now could argue that MMA is not violence because fighting in the ring (or call MMA. Like Maeda before him, Rorion Gracie (one of Hélio’s cage, as the case may be) is consensual and controlled. sons) moved from Brazil to the U.S. in the late 1970s as an emissary of his family’s BJJ. Rorion spent ten years proving to Americans the The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport defines violence as ‘behaviour effectiveness of his family’s martial art. At one point, his teaching – and, that causes harm, occurs outside of the rules of [a] sport, and is more pointedly, his continuation of the family tradition of the ‘Gracie unrelated to the competitive objectives of [a] sport’.3 According to Challenge’ – garnered so much notoriety that he was interviewed this definition, MMA is not violence because athletes compete within in Playboy magazine [Snowden 2010: 151].

Load more

  27

Copy Link