by Manon Soavi

Part 1: Getting Out of Denial

 

The Olympic Games have drawn attention on women’s sport, implicitly underlining the extent to which sport remains a competitive and aggressive world designed by and for men.

Ranging from the sexualisation of the body with compulsory tight and uncomfortable outfits, to the sexist and misogynistic rhetoric of the commentators, including the magnificent low-angle shots of the athletes’ buttocks, not to mention the veil ban for Muslim athletes, the sequence of the 2024 Olympics Games has spared us nothing.

Just for a few women who shine – and at what cost? – how many are broken, disgusted or discouraged? Reports of abuse by coaches, mentors or peers are, unfortunately, “only” the tip of the iceberg. Underneath lies a continuum¹ of violence that contributes to the domestication, objectification and annihilation of women. This abuse also affects amateur sport, as every year one in two women does not take part in physical activity despite wanting to².

As an aikido teacher and a feminist, I feel anger: the world of martial arts is no exception. As the bearer of a fantasy that equates fighting and virility, this world is a true preserve of masculine identity. Under the guise of martial efficiency, violence against women is silenced, their difficulties to gain access to the tatamis are denied, and criticism is rejected, when these practices could be used as emancipatory arts for the benefit of all, including women who are deprived of their benefits.

Don’t keep silent any longer

Nevertheless, some voices are being raised: that of judoka Patrick Roux, who has denounced³ the violence inflicted on children under the pretext of training. That of American aikidoka Neilu Naini⁴, who was drugged and raped by her sensei (an aikido master), with the complicity of a tatami peer. Founder of #metooaikido, she campaigns for safer dojos through prevention work. Or yet Djihene Abdellilah⁵, grappling and MMA champion, who keeps denouncing the traumatising violence inflicted for the sake of combat preparation.

It is time to rebel and to remind the world that martial arts are not a ridiculous display of sweaty virility, nor a free pass to violence, but millenary tools rich in philosophies of life: respect, body work, flexibility, breathing, pushing one’s limits, development of sensitivity and intuition…

Even aikido which claims to be universal and open to all is in crisis: numbers are in free fall⁶, practitioners are getting older and the number of women is still as low as ever: 20% to 30%. But any criticism of its androcentric orientation is dismissed as “feminist hysteria”. The old recipe: a pinch of gaslighting⁷ mixed with a healthy dose of mansplaining⁸.

When I set up a women-only aikido session in Paris⁹, I received – fortunately – a lot of support but also a lot of criticism from aikidokas: epidermal reactions warning me not to create divisions within this universalist art at the risk of provoking an unlikely disaster. However, I believe it necessary not only to denounce abuses, but also to take a closer look at the reality of women and what prevents them from engaging in sport and martial arts.

Systemic inequalities

Several studies have provided revealing figures in this regard. The Move Her Mind study¹⁰ is the world’s largest¹¹ research carried on gender inequality in sport.

The first finding of this study is the disparity between men’s views and women’s daily reality. 54% of men think that women have given up sport because they do not like it, and 56% believe that the main obstacles are physical complexes, fear of harassment and fear of being judged. However, lack of time is the number one barrier cited by the women concerned.

In fact, women worldwide are dissatisfied with their level of physical activity – 53% in Europe – and face systematic barriers to exercise. When asked, they identified five main obstacles¹².

Time (76%)

Influenced by gender conditioning, women lack time. According to them, the main obstacle is the distribution of domestic tasks and care work – care, education, care of dependents, emotional support – within the family¹³. According to INSEE¹⁴, when both parents work full time, 70% of women do at least one hour of domestic work a day, compared with 28% of men.

Costs (62%)

Men earn (on average) 32% more than women, which puts a strain on the budget the latter can devote to sport. In addition, mothers’ purchasing power falls after divorce: they lose 14.5% of their standard of living, while men increase it by 3.5%¹⁵.

Environment (43%)

The common – and daily – experience of being subjected to violence leads women to adopt strategies of self-exclusion from any situation that is perceived as unsafe. The paradox is that this inculcated fear makes them afraid of strangers outside, while they are in greater danger with their close relatives in familiar surroundings. As a reminder, 91% of rapes and attempted rapes are committed by family and friends¹⁶.

Women’s vulnerability, presented as a “natural” characteristic, leads to hyper-vigilance in the public spaces, fuelled by unpleasant, intimidating or humiliating experiences – punishment through sport as a child, violence by physical education coaches, compulsory swimming, etc. Unwanted comments will always call women to order, so that this male social control continues¹⁷.

Even in martial arts, the contempt shown towards women and beginners or occasional practitioners contributes to this vicious circle of lack of self-confidence. Traumatic experiences suffered from an early age have a lasting effect: ‘When I was twelve, the aikido teacher told me to lie down to demonstrate the strength of the hara. He stood on my belly. The pain was terrible, I thought I was going to faint. I stopped practising martial arts forever.’ ¹⁸

Female aikido beginners talk: ‘I got on the tatami for the first time, we did the salute, a man grabbed me without a word and I found myself on the floor with my nose against a stinking tatami. I never went back.’ Another: ‘After a 3-minute warm-up, my aikido teacher sets off for 20 minutes of techniques with a breakfall¹⁹. The ten beginners who don’t know how to fall in this way have no explanation nor any accessible alternative’.

This mistreatment also applies to older people. Between the ages of 40 and 70, women can lose 40% of their bone mass and are therefore more prone to fractures. A Parisian woman reports: ‘Starting aikido when I was over 60, I practised with a tall, burly man. I had never seen the proposed technique, but without any explanation he lifted me up, put me on his hip and threw me straight down to the ground (koshi nage)’.

A study carried out by the Women’s Commission of the French Aikido and Budo Federation²⁰ deplores the same situation in aikido clubs. Instead of putting all their energy into their art, female aikido practitioners exhaust themselves trying to protect themselves from the brutal behaviour of their partners: ‘I’m physically afraid, some of them slaughter your wrists, force you to take a breakfall, don’t let you fall safely. They don’t pace their force or hold back the blow’.

Under the guise of training, female practitioners are subjected to aggression: ‘I get real blows to the face on the pretext that I am in the wrong place and that it is natural for me to get them in the face’. When I visited another aikido school, I saw an older teacher, armed with a stick, repeatedly hitting a young girl in the plexus. She ended up with a bruise.

Djihene Abdellilah reminds us that there is no justification for beating and insulting people to supposedly toughen them up, and that being beaten does not create “warriors”, but victims. The violence she herself has suffered did not make her stronger, but normalised in her mind the physical and psychological violence she now denounces. ‘According to sociologist and sport & gender specialist Christine Mennesson’s work, some women adopt “warrior” attitudes not by choice, but in order to be accepted and respected in male-dominated environments. This dynamic creates an illusion of consent to violent practices’ ²¹.

Physical condition (42%)

The self-limiting beliefs due to gender stereotypes and to lack of female representation lead to feelings of exclusion. This lack of self-confidence leads some women to believe that they are not fit enough for physical activity.

Aikidokas would also like²² to see more female teachers and practitioners highlighted in communications, seminars and demonstrations. As Yeza Lucas says: ‘If another woman joins the group, I am no longer alone. And if a third woman comes and already sees two women on the tatami, she too might feel less intimidated’ ²³.

Lack of places (38%)

Women have learnt to see their biology as a “disadvantage” that must be set aside, even at the cost of losing their health, in order to gain a foothold in a world that idolises strength. Lola Lafon sums it up with humour: ‘Firmness is worshipped: firm breasts, firm thighs, “muscular” political and ballsy speeches. Anything but being a Flanby²⁴. Horror of the fragile, the soft, the trembling’ ²⁵.

Anything rounder, more flexible or tender is condemned to contempt and to endure violence. In this suffocating world, women, like the fish that has to climb a tree to prove its worth²⁶, think they are stupid and incapable, or they take the blows while hurting themselves. This is why the younger generation (45%) demands places where they can exercise according to their wishes, in safety, and where their specific biology is taken into account.

I have in the above taken stock of the situation and it is not encouraging. Does this mean that the situation is hopeless? No, not at all: as we will see in the rest of this article, the solution exists, and it is very simple. All you have to do is become a ReSister²⁷, or even to turn into a dragon.

Manon Soavi

To read the sequel, follow The Path of the Dragon

Article by Manon Soavi published on 13 Sept. 2024 on Élise Thiébaut‘s Mediapart blog

1. See Christelle Taeraud (ed.), Féminicides. Une histoire mondiale [Feminicides: A World History], 2022, pub. La Découverte (Paris)
2. Move Her Mind 2023 study, 53% in Europe do not do as much as they would like. Source Santé Publique France [France Public Health], 2024, 41% of women do not do enough to maintain their health. 81% forget about themselves, putting their health and the needs of their loved ones first.
3. Patrick Roux, Le revers de nos médailles [The Other Side of Our Medals], 2023, pub. Dunod (Paris)
4. Read Neilu Naini’s story and commitment online
5. World and French MMA grappling woman champion; founder of Djihene Academy
6. Since 2016: Karate -15%, Judo -16%, Aikido -35%. Find out more on the aiki-kohai and paressemartiale blogs
7. Gaslighting is a psychological concept that describes manoeuvres used to manipulate another person’s perception of reality. Information is distorted or presented in a different light, selectively omitted to favour the aggressor or distorted to make the victim doubt their perception and their mental health. See Hélène Frappat, Gaslighting ou l’art de faire taire les femmes [Gaslighting or the Art of Silencing Women], 2023, pub. L’Observatoire (Paris)
8. Mansplaining refers to a situation in which a man explains to a woman something she already knows, or is even an expert in, in a patronising and paternalistic tone
9. Women-only sessions and workshops at Tenshin dojo in Paris 20^th district, Yuki-ho dojo in Toulouse and Yume dojo in Milan
10. Commissioned by ASICS, a Japanese company that has been creating sports footwear and clothing since 1940
11. Move Her Mind 2023 study, op. cit.
12. Ibid.
13. L’Observatoire des inégalités [The Inequalities Observatory]
14. INSEE, 2022, online data
15. INSEE data, available here and here
16. Le Monde, “Viols: plus de neuf victimes sur dix connaissaient leur agresseur” [‘Rape: More than Nine Out of Ten Victims Knew their Attacker’], 2018
17. Marylène Lieber, “Le sentiment d’insécurité des femmes dans l’espace public: une entrave à la citoyenneté?” [‘Women’s Feeling of Insecurity in the Public Space: a Barrier to Citizenship?’], Nouvelles Questions Féministes [New Feminist Issues], Vol. 21, pp. 41–56
18. Oral testimony collected (in French) by the author
19. [Falling from standing position in a swift, lively and powerful manner. It is a very constrained ukemi, very difficult to execute if you are not well-centred.]
20. 2019 report, available online
21. Djihene Abdellilah, Arrêtons de normaliser la violence dans l’entraînement sous couvert de formation de guerrières [Let’s Stop Normalising Violence in Training Under the Guise of Training Women Warriors], 1 Sept. 2024, pub. on LinkedIn
22. FFAB 2019 report, op. cit.
23. Yeza Lucas, Communiquer vous permet de fidéliser vos adhérents ! [Communicating Helps You Build Loyalty Among Your Members!]
24. [This expression became popular during the presidency of François Hollande, who was criticised by some for being too soft, and pejoratively nicknamed Flanby, which is the name of a famous brand of French flan.]
25. Lola Lafon, Prendre notre place dans ce monde [Taking Our Place in This World], podcast Chaud Dedans [Hot Inside], 12 June 2024
26. Phrase attributed to Einstein
27. [A play on the French and English words meaning: to resist as sisters (résister in French means to resist). An eponym comics has been published in 2021 by French artist Aurore Chapon and philosophy teacher and ecofeminism specialist Jeanne Burgart Goutal.]