masculine hegemony in MA

Thanks. I wrote them down. I'll check them out on my day off.

What I find strange in women headed dojos or gyms is the macho attitude that she can't teach him anything and women thinking they don't want a female head instructor.

I personally don't think gender has anything to do with teaching a martial art. Just as a good martial artist of any gender can't garantee to make all their students good fighters or better yet good Martial Artist. Its the system and the hard work each person put into their workouts and goals. Gender doesn't make a difference, to the wise.

I do know some women that have a class full of women and men, but they are rare. A lot of silly men and women still see her as a woman and they thinks they can take her.

I'm fortunate. This is not my experience. I am actually titled a "head instructor" on the school marketing. I am only Nidan and in my opinion, the head instructors are all 4th dan. I think some of this has to do with the school. There were just a couple of iffy incidents where I had to educate people. No one is perfect. Overall, the school's attitude has been more accepting than my expectations. Part of it is the new generation. I find the males of the upcoming generation to be far more willing to learn from a female. Part of it is my attitude. My presentation of myself is confident. I believe things are getting better. There are only 2 female black belts in my school right now. That will change. There are a lot of females coming up. We probably won't make any new black belts for a 2-3 years but when we do, there will probably be at least 1 female. I feel pretty good that I have blazed a good trail for the younger women.

Senseihonor

And with all respect I must also disagree with some of your verbage.

The repeted use of the phrase "she'll be" is assumptive--and used in such a manner as to sugget something that WILL occur--not just a possiblity.

"Good" schools don't do those things----sadly the "marginal" "poor" and downright "bad" ones are much easier to find.
Always a challange to find a good school.

Also there are many reasons why a student might be "marginalized" that have nothing to do with gender.
And doing that to a student is often/mostly--but not automatically a "bad" thing--all kinds of weirdo's and timewasters in the dojo might well be marginalized for good reason.

(however, if your takeing their money--you should be teaching them--if their good enough to take their cash--you better be providing services)

People are often "descrimnated" against in dojo's--mostly for bad reasons such as perceptions being just plain wrong--that they are "lazy" "not serious" "weak" "lacking the "killer instict" "not following directions" "not practicing at home" not "training hard" not listeing." etc.
ie BOTH good and very bad reasons.

Maybe.

These are just a poorly and innacuratly applied to men as well as women.

Unfortuantly stupidity is not a gender issue --it seems to effect pretty much everyone at times.

Again, focusing so strongly on the assumption that women will be "discrimnated" and "marginalized"--IMO might lead to a sort of "self created" situation---where since one "expects" such thing to occur one "creates" the very situation they fear.

Another potential problem is the "easy out" a person can find by just chalking their problems up to "descrimnation" and "margeinlaztion."

They never have to consider their own actions and mis-perceptions and unrealistic expectations---and its an all too human trait to REFUSE any form of self reflection or personal responsiblity---as long as people have "reason" that permits them from taking any blame/responsiblity--they often as not, sadly take it.


Just some thoughts.

In response to why I prefer a male teacher:

Personally, I find that I have a different appreciation of mass. I took one course with a very capable woman much smaller than myself...and had no problem tossing her around. My male teacher, however, has size, mass and strength on me. Aside from that, there is the purely psychological advantage of having some kind of familiarity of confrontation with a male.

And do I think that the male 'hegemony' will change? No. And I don't really have a problem with it, as it would require the arts to change to accomodate the students. Perhaps...too much. My current training situation would probably be considered by modern karate standards as 'non-traditional'. This tailored training, to accomodate me, also precludes my 'moving up' in karate. Ergo...no change in the numbers of male/female.

Hi -

I have similar feelings about working with a female, but only for one segment of our training.

We periodically have an instructor visit who will teach us some ground work. I'm personally not too happy about being on the ground with my head stuck between ANYONE'S knees while they have me in a joint lock but if I have a choice, I prefer to do this stuff with a woman. From what I gather, SOME men in our dojo prefer working with a man for groundwork. Of course, the opposite can be true too!

Other than this example, I'd have to say that it mostly makes no difference to me whether it's a male or female instructor.

Also, I hope that as younger people continue to enter the MA's they bring their belief in equality with them.