Article Blasting women MMA

[OzzieR]

http://www.fanhouse.com/2009/08/19/mma-is-no-breakthrough-for-women/?icid=main|main|dl7|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanhouse.com%2F2009%2F08%2F19%2Fmma-is-no-breakthrough-for-women%2F


   Your opinions ?

[MaxD]

My own opinion is that the author's revulsion is as simple and unimportant as he seems to think it is.  He admits his is an emotional response.  He likens what female MMA athletes do as treating themselves like animals.  It is no different when male athletes do it.  Yet he tries to give his objections a bit of weight.  It doesn't work.

Utilizing an evolutionary argument for his position is simply a bit of rationalization for a simple prejudice.  While the evolutionary history of human beings certainly betrays a history of fighting among males (our sexual size dimorphism attests to this) it is rather immaterial to discussions of ethcial rights and wrongs, and falls under the naturalistic fallacy. 
His critique seems remarkably uninsightful, and unconvincing.  It is a rambling peice full of specious emotional analogies. 

Why is that when women fight in a cage it is somehow like watching lions devour Christians? But when men do it, it is not.  This makes very little sense. 

Is it right to judge a woman (or any significant demographic) by some imagined, or even real statistical average of that group's preferances? Or should women be judged more on an individual basis?  If there is a market for this, and there are women with the skill and willingess to do it, then who are we, and certainly who is David Whitely, to castigate.

EDIT: Corrected some grammar and spelling

[James McRae]

Yikes.  I can't wait to hear Molly's response to that piece of doggerel.

[RonB]

my opinion on that article is that I wasted 1 minute of my life that I wont get back reading that trash.

[Germxman]

I'm going to try and be intelligent with my words because this article really pissed me off.

First of all, who in God's name let this guy write and publish this nonsense? He doesn't even back any of his statements up with facts, statistics, polls, nothing...it's just some dude rambling on and giving his poor, uneducated excuse of an opinion for showing us he's on the fence with women fighting in MMA and boxing and apparently tearing each other limb from limb. He doesn't even say he likes it or he hates it, he simply doesn't care but had to give his two cents anyway and bash the fight. He compares this(Carano/ Cyborg) to watching Christians getting slaughtered in Roman fashion by being fed to lions. I'd like to see that guy grapple with a lion. Maybe he can teach us more about the biting thing from the last discussion feed. All joking aside...

It is arguable that many female athletes across all sports are and can be just as good as their male counter parts. In terms of fighting as a means of survival, I think we all have the right to defend ourselves by any means. Given the nature of MMA competition, how is it any different from any form of combative martial art? How many women practice Karate, Judo, Tae Kwon Do?? They hold competitons? They spar, fight, kick each other, they get beat up just like the guys, some train and fight even harder than the guys...believe me I've known female martial artists that could make your heads spin. It's just revolting how people like that can write one article blasting something they obviously haven't researched.He has no comparable information to understand what it takes to be a competitive fighter male or female. Also, yes Gina Carano is an attractive young women...she is also an MMA fighter. Until last weekend she was undefeated, and fought against a stonger opponent. She got beat, eventually it happens to fighters. Everyone would say that fight was a blow out. I disagree to an extent. There's no shame in losing that fight the way she did, because she stayed game for the whole round. She's a fighter, not just a pretty face, and even Cyborg for getting dissed because of her looks? That demotes her merits as a fighter?? How many male fighters out there are ulgy as heck and they get all the accolades deserving of them? What defines being an athlete??

I'm all the for right to speech, but I'd much rather prefer opinions that are well thought out and not sprayed from the mouths of ill desired people who have nothing better to do than write about something they obviosuly have no concept, or expertise or valuable insight to add to the topic. Thanks Ozzy for showing us that there are still people out there who can make a living off of having dumb opinions. Sorry If this came off as me being a jerk everyone, Im just not very happy at all about that kind of article being allowed to exist. It's also 2 am here...so I'm tired and went on a rant myself.

[OzzieR]

  After reading this article i felt my head was about to spin.    First of all I thought it was a very good fight. The only mistake Gina made was transitioning to kickboxing range after giving Cyborg a ground n pound.  If Gina stayed in that position would it have made a difference? Most likely.  Remember that Cyborg trains in BJJ.  I feel that Gina can beat Cyborg if using the right strategy, since she can grapple and trains with Couture.
   Regarding the author's comparison of that fight to Christians being thrown to the lions is ridiculous.   These women are always willing to fight and train for it.  This is what they choose to do.  The last time I checked the Christians were not willing to wrestle with lions.  That is violence.
   I'm going to be a bit off topic here, i'm tired of MMA, boxing etc being labeled as to violent.  What about football ? Isn't that violent?  A tapout isn't going to save them from getting their legs shattered.  Yet that kind of violence is celebrated in a national holiday called the SUPER BOWL.  Which is good FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY.   Am I bashing football ? Of course not but critics should think twice about bashing MMA.

[nikolai]

Those who can...do; those that cannot...criticize those who do.

It takes a small minded person to write that kind of crap. I have trained with some good women, and learned something useful. To denigrate any female that participates in martial arts is to show his own insecurity. I wonder if he is afraid that either Carano or Cyborg could kick his butt all over the ring and then wear his scalp on their belt? This is probably one of those guys that are just too uber-macho for their own good.

Hey, Germxman, you aren't being a jerk. You just be telling it like it is.

nbb 

[MJ Healy]

That guy is a moron. What was the point of the article? He titles it saying that the Carano-Santos fight wasn't a breakthrough for women's sports but at the end states that you should expect to see women's MMA in the 2020 Olympics? He contradicts most things he says. And I don't understand why he states that he likes women's MMA but clearly bashes it in the rest of the article. Not to mention a hodgepodge of mix and match analogies. I'll quote from one of my favorite movies now in saying that he can "make like a tree and get the fuck out" of the business of writing of course.

He's just like a lot of other uninformed arrogant assholes out there that like to see guys fight be curl up like a pansy when girls do it. But i'm sure he'd be all for it if the cage was a kiddie pool full of KY and probably wouldn't care about blood and violence then either.

Oh and whats more is him mentioning Brandi Chastain removing her shirt after a soccer match. The US Women won the World Cup that year, and she made the final PK. It was a glorious moment in 1996 (and since then players of both sexes can get booked for removing their jerseys, especially as a celebration). There have been plenty of other great events in women's sports since then!!! Why mention only that one? Why does it seem women have to be in a bra to be noticed as great athletes!?