I learned MMA for a few years. I never had any interest in competition, it was just a damn fun workout. I would point out there’s a big difference between sparring and fighting. Almost half our dojo was women, and some of them were pretty scary, but I wouldn’t describe them as “chest-bumping monkey dance”
Obviously I’m a mutant (or I wouldn’t be here at bOINGbOING) but I only like to fight. I take no enjoyment from watching. I try to watch other people fighting, but it’s stultifyingly boring to me. Ditto all professional sports, and all televised (or otherwise pre-recorded) amateur sports. It just makes me sleepy.
Sort of like golf or bowling. Fun to play, boring to watch.
Though I do enjoy MMA, not so much with boxing. I don’t really like to watch any pro sports except football. I think I like football because of the strategy and the plays.
As a kid I had many years of martial arts and got to meet many old-school black belts (usually multiple belt in various arts, learned in the hard-core old-school style) who were about the mellowest people you’d want to meet. Then as a adult I’d meet someone who was trying to establish authority over me who actually had little or no authority, and I’d be looking at this sweaty anxiety ridden little man and have the serenity to think “It is only my training that prevents me from dragging you outside and slapping you until you get a torn retina.”
I remember a couple of times when, because of my training, I avoided physical encounters because.I could tell the difference between a legitimate threat and mere posturing. The deadliest badasses I met were invariably the guy you wouldn’t give a second glance to because they just looked like a friend of someone’s dad.
" I could beat any girl in the world, any weight division, gi or no-gi, black belt and in any ruleset they want, in just pure Jiu Jitsu." - Rousey
What makes Ronda crave physical dominance over other women? Because she i̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶a̶n̶ has a world class judo champ mother who used to armbar her every morning.
What makes me crave wanting to watch?
that mineral 
Heard on the radio the other day someone talking about a male-to-female transgendered MMA fighter–anyone else catch this? Doesn’t exactly sound fair to me…
I’m continually fascinated by the notion of being in control of instincts we have had for several million years.
Gottschall’s book The Storytelling Animal was fantastic, can’t wait to read this one.
He spends a bit of The Storytelling Animal talking about the dark and violent world of little girls’ fantasy and play, and the ways adults tend to ignore this because it doesn’t match stereotypes about female children.
Does he explain the few of us (apparently) who are repulsed by it?
My view on why men fight is darker. It is about power, keeping it or taking it.
This is not to say there is not an established art form. In that context, including to the lesser degree of something like MMA public shows, it certainly is far less about power and keeping it or taking it. Often, like simply owning a gun or an airplane, for that matter, the power is simply inherent and not used.
Humbling someone is taking power from them. Being humbled is having power taken away from you.
There are ties in here to sexuality.
It is not “ultimate” power, and it does depend on context.
So, for instance, beating someone up in some contexts can lead to the person who did the beating getting far more disempowered then the person who got beat up. eg, Gandhi ‘soul force’, ‘turn the other cheek’ sort of tactic.
[quote=“gurglegurglebangbang, post:15, topic:55684”]
Humbling someone is taking power from them. Being humbled is having power taken away from you.
There are ties in here to sexuality.
[/quote]But not gender.
I’d be happy if this aspect of maledom would go away. I don’t know if it is how I look or act or what, but I seem to regularly provoke men into playing some weird power/dominance game in totally innocuous circumstances (e.g. in line for coffee). I’ve never been punched, but I have been elbowed, pushed, shoved, tripped, threatened, yelled at, etc. Frankly, it must be exhausting to play that game all the time.
That may have been me. I was stuck behind some lady who jammed the checkout doing some weird transaction with her debit card, and she was berating the female cashier trainee. After several minutes I said “Lady this is a supermarket, not your bank, and this teenager isn’t going to solve your problems.” She said “I don’t see how this is any of your business.” And I said “Well I’m the guy that’s stuck behind you.” she seemed to be the sort of customer my daughter always talked about.
Hormone therapy rapidly removes the male advantage in upper body strength. A friend of mine went through transition and was amazed at how much heavier a jug of milk felt after a few months on hormones.
The average transwoman will probably be taller/heavier than the average ciswoman, but that’s why we have weight classes.
Yeah, ditto. I’ve always had a negative gut reaction to violence. I was repulsed by The Godfather, or what I saw of it, and I’ve never understood–and am rather troubled by–others love of violence. I’ve spent most of my life feeling like I’m on the outside. Then again, sometimes it’s just like feeling like I’m on the outside of the monkey cage. 
