Martial Arts Of The World - Webs
Martial Arts Of The World - Webs Martial Arts Of The World - Webs
Women boxers in Washington, ca. 1970. (Tacoma Public Library) garding all female athletics. The fear seems to have been that “respectable” boys would not marry girls who could beat them at anything. But whether mothers and educators liked it or not, by the 1920s huge numbers of young women were regularly playing baseball, basketball, golf, tennis, and volleyball. Unable to stem the tide, the educators and physicians sought to turn it by stating that, although nothing preserved female beauty so well as sport, there were certain sports that were better than others and a few (including soccer and boxing) that were downright unladylike. Furthermore, competition and the development of unsightly muscles could be minimized by new rules that made girls’ sports considerably less exciting than boys’ sports. These rules could be draconian. In 1922, for example, rules for a girl’s basketball team at Martinez High School in San Francisco included the following: “No dancing, no soup, no milk, no candy, no ice cream; [hot] chocolate while resting instead of oranges; two hours rest before each game; eight hours sleep daily; no fried foods; no pastry; feet to be bathed three times weekly in tannic acid” (Japan Times, March 29, 1922). Others were simply inane, such as those requiring girls to essentially stand in one place while playing basketball. Although the athletes protested (the Martinez girls, for instance, said no dancing, no basketball team), hardly anyone, least of all physical education teachers or school administrators, listened. 686 Women in the Martial Arts: Britain and North America
In the words of a Scientific American author in 1936, “Feminine muscular development interferes with motherhood” (Laird 1936). Despite some loosening of dress codes during the Edwardian era, before World War I most female athletes dressed as conservatively as Iranian female athletes of the 1990s. Afterwards, however, dress codes relaxed, and newspapers started showing pictures of attractive movie starlets dressed in bathing suits. As a result, by the 1930s female athletic attire roughly matched equivalent male attire except in “genteel” sports such as fencing and golf, where skirts remained the norm into the 1950s. Still, Mrs. Grundies worried about “indecent exposure,” and as a result various elastic undergarments were developed. During the 1910s, for example, some women tried Leo McLaglan’s “Jûjutsu Corset,” and during the 1950s female professional wrestlers supported their rhinestone-encrusted bathing suits with 2-inch-wide elastic bands. The most popular device, however, was the brassiere. First developed by the New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacobs around 1914, its original purpose was not to assist in athletics but to flatten the bust. Even allowing for hype—vaudevillians and society women both received more than their fair share of media coverage—early twentiethcentury women played combative sports for the same reasons as their granddaughters. In short, they did them for one of four main reasons: body sculpting, socializing with friends or business acquaintances, personal empowerment, or physical self-defense. Another constant over time was the derisive attitude that people— women as well as men—took toward female participation in “unladylike” sports. For example, as recently as 1981, some sociologists in the United States wrote about female karate black belts: There was evidence that a psychology of tokenism is operating in Karate as it operates in other domains. The skills of these “tokens” are belittled, and ritualized deference is withheld. The interesting question is whether increasing Tamami “Sky” Hosoya, USA Boxing Women’s national champion (1997) and professional wrestler. (Courtesy of Sky Hosoya) Women in the Martial Arts: Britain and North America 687
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In the words of a Scientific American<br />
author in 1936, “Feminine muscular development<br />
interferes with motherhood”<br />
(Laird 1936).<br />
Despite some loosening of dress<br />
codes during the Edwardian era, before<br />
<strong>World</strong> War I most female athletes<br />
dressed as conservatively as Iranian female<br />
athletes of the 1990s. Afterwards,<br />
however, dress codes relaxed, and newspapers<br />
started showing pictures of attractive<br />
movie starlets dressed in bathing<br />
suits. As a result, by the 1930s<br />
female athletic attire roughly matched<br />
equivalent male attire except in “genteel”<br />
sports such as fencing and golf,<br />
where skirts remained the norm into the<br />
1950s. Still, Mrs. Grundies worried<br />
about “indecent exposure,” and as a result<br />
various elastic undergarments were<br />
developed. During the 1910s, for example,<br />
some women tried Leo McLaglan’s<br />
“Jûjutsu Corset,” and during the 1950s<br />
female professional wrestlers supported<br />
their rhinestone-encrusted bathing suits<br />
with 2-inch-wide elastic bands. <strong>The</strong><br />
most popular device, however, was the brassiere. First developed by the<br />
New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacobs around 1914, its original purpose<br />
was not to assist in athletics but to flatten the bust.<br />
Even allowing for hype—vaudevillians and society women both received<br />
more than their fair share of media coverage—early twentiethcentury<br />
women played combative sports for the same reasons as their<br />
granddaughters. In short, they did them for one of four main reasons: body<br />
sculpting, socializing with friends or business acquaintances, personal empowerment,<br />
or physical self-defense.<br />
Another constant over time was the derisive attitude that people—<br />
women as well as men—took toward female participation in “unladylike”<br />
sports. For example, as recently as 1981, some sociologists in the United<br />
States wrote about female karate black belts:<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was evidence that a psychology of tokenism is operating in Karate as it<br />
operates in other domains. <strong>The</strong> skills of these “tokens” are belittled, and ritualized<br />
deference is withheld. <strong>The</strong> interesting question is whether increasing<br />
Tamami “Sky”<br />
Hosoya, USA<br />
Boxing Women’s<br />
national champion<br />
(1997) and<br />
professional<br />
wrestler. (Courtesy<br />
of Sky Hosoya)<br />
Women in the <strong>Martial</strong> <strong>Arts</strong>: Britain and North America 687