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UNIV 112
Professor Andrea Westcot
Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA, is a combat sport that has skyrocketed in popularity in the
past decade through promotions such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Pride.
While MMA is traditionally a male-dominated sport, the UFC’s signing of Ronda Rousey as the
first female title holder has opened more doors for women in the sport. However, there still is not
equality in the sport for women. Women are still fighting against the deep-rooted sexism that
prevented them from participating in MMA in the first place. Women must learn to ignore the
gender perceptions and embrace the fact that while they are different than men, their unique
strengths still qualify them to compete and succeed in the sport.
As proposed by lecturer of Sociology of Sport Mark Mierzwinski, the stigma of women
being weak, docile creatures in comparison to the traditionally dominant male can be traced back
to the Victorian Era (Mierzwinski 72-76). Although significant progress has been made in
regards to gender equality, gender roles are still a prevalent reality in our present society. These
stereotypes can still be seen today, especially when it comes to women’s participation in sports.
Like many other women, I was discouraged at a young age from participating in a combat sport.
My brother got boxing gloves, headgear, and focus mitts for Christmas one year. My dad would
always practice with him even though he did not really like boxing. I wished to play with the
boxing gloves, but when I asked to do boxing or Karate, I was told that it just “wasn’t what girls
did.” Charlene Weaving, a professor at St Francis Xavier University, discusses further in her
article about societal perceptions of what women “should” or “should not” do. However, she
encourages women to participate in sports regardless, and claims that through sport, women can
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feel a sense of embodiment (Weaving 131). Women, then, can use MMA to escape the
objectivity they face every day.
When I was in the tenth grade, I started to get interested in MMA. I watched UFC fights
and admired the hard work fighters put into it. I knew that it was something I seriously wanted to
do, so I did the closest thing I could to reach that goal; I joined the high school’s wrestling team.
I showed up to tryouts standing at 5’7, barely weighing 120 pounds, with no experience in
wrestling, and in horrible shape. My friend told me where to go on the first day for try outs, but
what he neglected to tell me was that I would be the only girl there. The other wrestlers were not
very welcoming, and the coaches just never acknowledged me, so I always questioned why they
even let me wrestle on the team if there were no other girls. T.C. Greenwell explains in his
scholarly article published in the Sport Marketing Quarterly that the passing of the federal Title
IX law prevented discrimination in any federally funded educational activity based on gender,
and that this law led to an exponential increase in high school and collegiate female wrestlers.
This subsequently led to a spike in female mixed martial artists (Greenwell 21). Because of this
law, the coaches could not prevent me from wrestling, even if they thought I had no place there.
Since I was the only girl, one might think that I was at a disadvantage. For a while, I did
too. The boys at my weight were definitely stronger than me, and could throw me around like it
was nothing. Monica Schick asserts through research in her scholarly article that men do, in fact,
have more upper body strength and lean muscle due to their higher testosterone levels (Schick
67-71). It took me a while to realize that even though the boys were stronger, that did not mean
that I did not stand a chance. What I had over the boys when it came to wrestling was flexibility
and technique. Typically, women are more flexible than men, and having that flexibility allowed
for me to get out of positions that normally would have been hard for guys. When I learned this,
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it became harder for boys to win over me using solely their physical strength over me. Flexibility
allowed me to use techniques inaccessible to the male physique. As their physical strength
became less of an asset to them, my chances of winning increased exponentially.
Mierzwinski further asserts in his article that there are fewer women than men competing
in MMA, which translates to fewer opportunities for women (Mierzwinski 72-76). This makes it
not only difficult for women to make a living off the sport, but difficult for them to even
compete. I found this to be true in my experience thus far in MMA. It has been difficult for me to
find opponents at the same level or the same age as me. Having fewer opportunities than men
makes competing a unique experience for women because they do not have as many options, and
generally have to fight above their skill level.
He also illustrates how women have been made to feel unwelcome in traditionally maledominated sports, citing how men would ridicule women trying to participate in sports such as
football or hockey (Mierzwinski 67-68). I can qualify this assertion based on my experience with
wrestling. My teammates made it clear from day one that they did not want me to be there. Not
because I wasn’t the best wrestler, and not because of my size or weight, but simply because I
was a girl. I broke their gender perceptions of what a girl could do. Charlene Weaving in her
scholarly article “Cage Fighting like a Girl” identifies Young’s assertion that “If there is a
particular female person participating in sport, wither she is not ‘really’ a woman, or the sport
she engages in is not ‘really’ a sport” (Weaving 134). What I noticed is that many guys who
wrestled at my school also happened to play football, and they all liked to brag to the football
players how brutal and intensive wrestling conditioning was. Somehow, having a girl able to
survive conditioning made them feel like something was taken from them; like it actually was
not a difficult feat. I personally thought that wrestling conditioning was one of the hardest things
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I ever had to do in my life, but for some reason, the fact that a girl could do it took away from the
difficulty in many of my peers’ eyes.
If a woman miraculously manages to begin the sport and train without being ostracized,
she eventually will begin to compete. What I have found is that for every fight that I have had, I
have been put later on the card. Typically, the fights that are later on the card are the most
profitable; they are the ones that people want to watch. This is why title fights are always the last
fights of the night. What I came to realize was that the reason for me being later on the card was
because I was typically the only female fight. This proves Weaving’s point from her scholarly
article that female fights are very lucrative (Weaving 130). It is ironic how women are
discouraged from participating in combat sports, yet when they do, people are eager to watch.
However, Greenwell’s research supports the idea that it is difficult to promote and advertise for
female fights (Greenwell 20-21). The conclusion can then be made that while society still does
not accept women as aggressive creatures, the novelty and rarity of seeing a female fight makes
it more profitable than two men fighting.
The UFC is one of the highest professional platforms for MMA, so reaching the UFC is
typically a goal for all serious mixed martial artists. While the UFC has existed since 1993, the
first woman’s division was not added until two decades later, in February 2013 (Greenwell 19).
Even though there are now two female weight divisions in the UFC, compared to the eight male
weight divisions, Weaving identifies that women’s accomplishments are still measured
compared to their male counterparts (Weaving 134-137). It is still assumed, however, that
women will not actually meet those standards. For this reason, women tend to fight very
aggressively, as though they a have something to prove. Research done by Joanna Burdzicka
asserts that females participating in combat sports affects women’s personality traits, and makes
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them display more psychotic characteristics (Burdzicka 5-6). This means that women may be
fighting aggressively not just to prove something, but because the sport has actually made them
more aggressive.
I can qualify these statements based on my experience with MMA as well. I have found,
both in training and competition, that most women are much more aggressive than men. While I
feel that I do not necessarily meet that standard that does not mean that it is not there. I believe
that part of the reason women fight so aggressively is because they do feel the need to prove that
they are not weak and docile. However, I believe another reason is because women are so used to
training with men because there are still not enough females in the sport, so they figure if they
can take a hit from a man, that there is nothing a woman could do to hurt them. Therefore, they
come in somewhat recklessly, without fear of getting hit. This mindset is flawed for many
reasons. For one, it proves that even women feel that they are weaker than men, by believing that
training with men makes them more prepared to fight a woman. Instead, women should realize
that they should not underestimate each other, and learn to embrace training with other women.
Women have all of the tools to be equal to, or even surpass, men in MMA; they just have
to accept it and stop doubting themselves. Through every step of the way, women are
discouraged and challenged when trying to participate in a combat sport. They are looked down
upon for being seen as aggressive, but if they are not aggressive and good in the sport, then it is
blamed on them being women. The fact is that men are simply uncomfortable with women in the
sport because they fear that women will no longer be subservient. A strong, powerful woman is
threatening because it breaks the gender roles and societal norms. WMMA should be seen as a
form of liberation for females everywhere. Through the sport, women may feel a sense of
embodiment and an end to the constant objectification. They can create an identity for
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themselves and experience self-worth. Women’s participation in MMA is a way for us to finally
reach equality. When we learn to ignore the gender perceptions, we will realize that we can and
will succeed, not only in MMA or in sport, but in every trial that we may face.
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Works Cited
Burdzicka, Joanna. “Selected Personality Traits of Women Training Combat Sports.” Pol. J
Tourism 21.1 (2014): 3-7. Ebscohost. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Greenwell, T. C., M. Hancock, J.M. Simmons, & D. Thorn. “The Effects of Gender and Social
Roles on the Marketing of Combat Sport.” Sport Marketing Quarterly 24.1 (2015): 1929. Ebscohost. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Mierzwinski, Mark, Philippa Velija, and Dominic Malcolm. "Women's Experiences In The
Mixed Martial Arts: A Quest For Excitement?." Sociology Of Sport Journal 31.1 (2014):
66-84. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Schick, M. “Strength and Conditioning Considerations for Female Mixed Martial Artists.”
Strength and Conditioning Journal 34.1 (2012): 66-74. Ovid. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Weaving, Charlene. "Cage Fighting Like A Girl: Exploring Gender Constructions In The
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)." Journal Of The Philosophy Of Sport 41.1
(2014): 129-142. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.