When taking a look at women within sport many people tend to see females in the 'girly' type sports such as gymnastics, dance, and ballet and have a tendency to think of the feminine body being womanly and sculpted to excellence which is stated briefly in Guttmann, A(1991) Coakley, J, J(1994) Hanson, S, L and Kraus, R, S (1999) and Hargreaves J (1994) & (2000). Just what exactly is the truth when women go past these norms of culture and participated in a lot more 'manly' activities and sports? Guttmann (1991) claims that "daily sports participation for females aged between 16-19 is 0% which guys is 2. 8% and it is a slight increase with females aged between 21-29 at 0. 3% and men being 3%", so as these percentages are extremely low for girls it would most defiantly be lower for females participating in the male dominating sports. But revealing a woman they may be week only makes them stronger sportsman and person, revealing to women they aren't sufficient pushes them harder in whatever they certainly. Women athletes are an impassioned, hardworking, and dedicated band of females who will persevere no matter what society's side should package them.
A record of kickboxing
Martial arts are one of the most difficult sporting disciplines on the planet, totally specific from all other sports. You can only just play football one of the ways, tennis, rowing, running, gymnastics, and nearly every other sports activities willpower is practised to a common conformity. Whereas the Martial arts that happen to be a universal term generally used to repay combat forms from all around the globe, is divided into many various styles and varieties of struggling with. WKA (world kickboxing connection) claims that "the term martial art as used today is intended to indicate struggling formats that originated in South East Asia. There are various colourful and exciting disciplines encompassed within these indigenous fighting with each other arts. "There are many different styles from numerous countries in Japan we have Karate, jiu jitsu, judo, Aikido. From Korea there is certainly Taekwon-do, Hapkido, Kuk-Sool -Won. From Thailand there may be Muay Thai or Thai Boxing. From China there is the universal term Kung fu that includes at least five hundred different styles of empty hand preventing. The list is endless, and then in the Western world they have the many various kinds of wrestling and boxing, all struggling with styles and competitions come under different methods and ruling systems. Almost overnight various types were developed to formulate a competition hyperlink between ancient fighting disciplines and modern having concepts. Alas at world level there was no infrastructure, no place format of guidelines, the elements of risk were still contained in the combat varieties. As the martial arts disciplines grew in recognition mans desire to meet his/her peers on the competition floor demanded conformity, a widespread rules system, and a way that would ensure the professionals safety whilst competing at sporting level. This was the undergoing of elias civilising process to help make the disciplines more civilised so that individuals could watch the sport more safely. Inside the 1970's WKA (world kickboxing relationship) was shaped and is still going today to make the sport better every day but this is not the only connection that handles kickboxing you can find many different ones that have different regulations.
Women in sport
"Feminism is about freedom: the individual and collective liberty to make decisions. Sports activities have freed women, and continue to free women, from restrictive dress, behaviours, laws and regulations and customs-and from the fact that women can't or shouldn't achieve or contend or get" (Nelson, B, M (1998)
Women have been in sports for most ages' and competed in more highly expensive sports in earlier centuries such as horseback riding, archery, shooting and crocket. These kinds of sports activities were participated by the higher category women. In Guttmann (1991) he claims that "women who have a tendency to take part in more feminine activities assumed a critical attitude towards competitive athletics and the trend for information and medals, which were considered typically male" but Guttmann also expresses about his seven characteristics to classify a sport and this state's about information so the assertion about is wrong as all sports will include a search for records. The importance of studying ladies in sport is inarguably one of the most influential and overlooked matters of the women's movements. In the athletics arena women receive the chance to level with men. To be given the possibility to do well is a landmark milestone in itself throughout women's record. Due to changes in the Victorian era also influenced athletics participation, some of these changes were that women were slowly but surely being allowed to participate in a sport experience. The constraints that a lot of directly inhibited women's sport involvement were "women's physiology, fashion, and public goals" (Powell, B, R (1981)
Women sports athletes play and struggle men athletes in nearly every sport nowadays. The typical feminine athlete can be an empowered woman who is competitive, strong and relishes taking risks. The near future for ladies in sport seems very shiny with all of the innovation and ability on the horizon. Women are ever more empowered by their wearing ability in fact; women are a dominating drive in some athletics such as jogging and bodybuilding. Nelson (1998) states that, "Women use their bodies to do as they please. If in that process female systems look unladylike-if they become bruised or bloody or just unattractive-that seems irrelevant. " Women today use their physiques for whatever purpose they need. They enjoy working out not with the concerns of looking "manly" but with the desire for health and electric power.
I found a quote to target my dissertation which is "Although women have been participating in sport for more than 100 years, specifically ball video games and contact athletics have a tendency to be known as masculine preserve and seen as a place for masculine identity" from Elias and Dunning (1986) this is an extremely great way to discuss this matter and issues encircling it as it expresses that only ball video games and contact activities have a tendency to be played out by men but many women participate in these types of sports and they need to be shown to the modern society of nowadays. So the purpose of this research is to explore and make clear the 'lived experience' of female kick boxers because until now they have been neglected from cultural research.
Literature review.
When considering the books to returning up this area and its own surrounding issues there isn't really a great deal of journal articles or literature that are targeted mainly on kickboxing. THEREFORE I found 7 different journal articles which were similar, 2 on ladies in body building and others are journals which involve preventing and also have some mention of kickboxing. These publications are publications of gender studies and activities sociology which offered the best information to lower back up my issues with ladies in kickboxing. Although these publications involve some knowledge and information, the genuine relevant material was very little but using both my very own knowledge of the sport and books to lower back this up was very hard to make it appropriate. With this journal information and a number of books which were from gender to real kickboxing magazines plus some general sport literature to try and critically analysis the issues. Also taking into account many theoretical aspects to raise the analysis and backed up with feminine kickboxing experience knowledge with this.
In the books review by Gregory, (2007) he looked at ladies in the Fatal Femmes Fighting with each other Tournament, an all-female combined fighting techinques (MMA) event, this is a sport where you can punch, kick, elbow and leg even when on the floor. His opening phrase to this journal was, "You DON'T kick a girl when she's down, right? Not when you can pound her face instead" Now in local society people don't see women as doing this type of thing they are seen as chic people who only contend in feminine types of sport like dancing. Cage fighting is the most severe & most violent kind of sport as it pertains to mixed fighting techinques and brings many combined thoughts to men never head women. When you compare this to a affirmation by Thing, (2001) he states that "The norms of women are tending to take part in womanly activities that are graceful and elegant. To view women as intense is neither appropriate, nor expected. It really is carved in memories that women should be in charge of their emotions and become caring mothers the whole day. " He was quite simply proclaiming that if women do take part within the sporting environment that it ought to be within a lot more womanly sports. My personal views of ladies in this type of sport is similar to when men were doing the same kind of thing when the Roman's were circular, people didn't prefer to see men fighting with each other due to all or any the bloodstream and aggression so it experienced a civilizing process from Norbert Elias and improved so people savored enjoying it more. Once people agree more with women taking part in the more manly athletics like kickboxing, it'll proceed through a civilizing process and folks will love it but until then it is going to be frowned after within society until people realize how much it is a good sport due to the many positives from it.
Hargreaves (1994) expresses "If you go to try your local library and appearance at the activities books, they'll probably be predominantly about men. In the event that you visit a university library, the bulk of the writing in sports background and sociology presume males standards. Activate your television to look at sports programme's and it's really the same history 90% of performers are male to females". This is very true declaration no matter what country you go to men appear to be the dominant sex as it pertains to sports contribution and it's the same when looking at the activity kickboxing. This technique is called patriarchy when a system of power relations where men dominates over women. In each one of the journals looked at each of them speak about about women who take part in the more manly sports activities were questioned about their sexualities.
Hargreaves (1994) argues that "The prominent pressure in activities feminism is the desire for equality of chance of women to comparability with men. " also saying that "The most frequent form of women's have difficulties in sports was trying to get similar opportunities with men" This equality comes from gender denial as Creedon (1994) says "Women were portrayed as 'Feminine' and fashionable, health mindful in their leisure pursuits, as goddesses alternatively than as athletic heroines. The small number of women who took part in hostile, muscular, traditional male sports acquired their sexuality rejected and were labelled 'Manish' and 'freakish. '" If the community retains labelling people such as this women will finish up getting sick of the negative reviews and stop taking part which is incorrect as we ought to have to not take part because someone doesn't like you doing it, everyone should be equal and have identical rights to make up their own mind on their personal interests whether this can be a manly sport. Hargreaves (2004) backs up this affirmation by stating "certainly throughout the annals of modern sport, there has always being a small amount of exciting women who have transgressed gender jobs, adopted 'manly activities' such as boxing. She also says further along in her publication that, "today women are bending mainstream definitions of gender and getting involved in all types of sport, including masculinised athletics in considerably increased quantities, " this statement from a women's viewpoint is most evident that ladies shouldn't have to on participate in 'womanly athletics' and that the more and more women taking part in the more 'manly sports activities' is making them more are more acceptable in modern culture.
In a film review by Boyle, Millington and Vertinsky (2006) on the review of the blockbuster film 'Million money baby' in regards to a female who adored to box, they speak about driving the truths and common myths about women's boxing and refers to Frankie's refusal to teach women and identifies them as "the latest freak show" even thought this declaration was negative about women in boxing it is actually inappropriate to says as women boxers have increased in training within the last 30 years. The condition with these motion pictures is that there is an understatement of women's occurrence and involvement in boxing and football is the fact that it nourishes a male-centric mythology of these sports being exclusively male dominant. This sort of review has both advantages and weaknesses which make this kind of review positive and negative. The positives of the film review is the fact it shows the world of feminine boxing and exactly how hard it is for women who are pushed back in a sport they love but this is not merely in boxing it is in quite a lot of sports that are definitely more masculine. The motion pictures also provides viewers knowledge of the feelings women feel when being informed they are not sufficient to participate in a certain sport for their gender, but it addittionally gives viewers many contradictions between what we know and that which you see on screen as many sports that tend to be more masculine have many feminine competitors. Some of the weaknesses of this film are that it shows the gym being a masculine atmosphere however in certainty women have progressively amount of numbers now training over the past 30 years. Maggie the main persona in the film is a strong wide open minded women who just needs to participate in something she relishes and the film show how she has an extremely strong relationship with her mentor who becomes like a father physique to her and she feels she has to execute to her best each and every time she enters the wedding ring; Boyle, Millington and Vertinsky (2006) says "Carrying it out for daddy, " this is similar to expressing because she doesn't have a father amount in her life that the next man she gets close to is like using a father again and a job model or perhaps someone to research to as her family doesn't agree with her participation.
Another journal which was looked upon was by Mennesson (2000) and she looked at several 12 feminine boxers and their male mentors. The literature centered on girl boxers, 7 required part in France boxing & 5 competed in harder styles such as kickboxing and muay Thai. The study was bought out a long time period and the Mennesson actually became an integral part of the membership so she could take exact readings and so that the individuals didn't act differently towards her. She then done semi set up interviews to find out about how they experienced and remained in the activity but this depended on disposition and situation of the females. The females experienced a lot of admiration for the Christine mennesson as she needed part in the sport for two years before doing the interviews with the other females of the golf club. This way of doing interviews is very reliable as the students would maintain a relax environment rather than feel as though she was intruding on their lives and give more true feelings. Within the interviews some of the women participants consider themselves as tomboys or dressed up like a young man when they were younger. They all validate themselves as women but also 'women unlike other women' this type of research method is can be unreliable if members felt uneasy and simply say what they want you to listen to rather than give true statements.
In another journal by Thing (2001) he looked at females who needed part in basketball, glaciers hockey and basketball. This study was to see how emotional these woman were of course, if aggression of their sport made them more psychological. This review argues that just because a sport is competitive doesn't imply that the athletes engaging are violent and really should not be seen negatively if they're either feminine or male. This analysis used ethnography methods to find the issues using both in depth semi organised interviews and observing the elite players over an 18 month period. The study revealed that the females seen sport as a location where emotions weren't involved and so called remaining in the changing rooms.
Methods
Brief information of different methods
There are many different ways to gain data when looking at research options for qualitative research. Qualitative research allows the themes being studied to give much 'richer' answers to questions put to them by the researcher, and may give valuable insights which can have been skipped by any other method. Not only should it provide valuable information to certain research questions in its own right but there is a strong case for using it to check quantitative research methods. They may be three main ways to gather data for qualitative research these are; focus groups this is where the researcher brings together a small volume of subjects to go over a certain issue appealing. The group size is maintained quite small maybe 5-6, so that its associates do not feel intimidated but can express opinions readily. The discussion is frequently tape-recorded, then transcribed and analysed. You may also take a look at observations these details can be collected by an exterior observer, referred to as a non-participant observer. Or the data can be accumulated by the participant observer, that can be a employee undertaking usual obligations while watching the operations of care. Last but not least there are in-depth interviews which use the same principle as a emphasis group, but topics are interviewed separately, ultimately in their own house or someplace they feel safe. Interviews in qualitative research are usually far reaching, probing many issues in detail, this way of interviewing encourages topics expressing their views at size, which can expose more about values and behaviour and behaviour. The researcher may also be able to obtain more descriptive information for every subject, but manages to lose the richness that can arise in a group in which people question issues and exchange views. Considering different types of methods used to gather results the best ones to utilize because of this dissertation were the in-depth interviews. The interviews were the better to look more into this issue and to find the best & most amount of information from the participants. The interviews were overt as the individuals knew what the analysis was about and where advised why the analysis was been used. The interviews were semi structured with about 10 set questions to ask the subject matter and lasted between 6-10 minutes. "The disadvantage of qualitative research is that, invariably, only small numbers of subject matter can be researched because data collection methods are so labour rigorous. It is also often criticised for: being at the mercy of researcher bias; the down sides in analysing qualitative data rigorously; the lack of reproducibility of the results (i. e. results may not be applicable to other subject matter or settings). " Ewings (2003)
Study Methods
So once viewing this issue within society there was a gap in the books so to research this issue more and appearance at 'The lived connection with female kick boxers in the guy dominating sport' and targeted the data collection around the activity, (that was kickboxing) their home life and the population around them. (simply the issues encircling them) The base's of this study is to check out these different elements and see how women are cured in a different way in the chosen areas that are mentioned above also to give an information of the lives. This may potentially show how hard it is to train, remain competitive and live normal lives, displaying that even thought they are simply in a lot more manly type sports they are still females and have feelings like the rest of us. As there is not much literature encircling this issue achieving this matter was a great to research and discussing will give many people a more deeply insight around the area. There was a lot of information on gender equality, the incorrect assumptions of feminine athletes and females getting involved in sport however they didn't really go through the women's point of view. The study essentially got within the community and 8 semi-structured interviews were considered with females aged between 16-23 from 2 different kickboxing night clubs in the Middlesbrough portion of South Loan company and Pallister Recreation area. Once gathering the info from the interviews a books review on the encompassing track record of the areas and issues was better to understand everything from the interviews. Alas because of the sport being relatively new within the media finding literature was very difficult but viewed as thought there were many other types of sport similar it managed to get easier to connect similar athletics to the topic such as boxing, blended martial arts and weight lifting. Once everything was collected, the discourse shows that which was said and gives an in depth insight of women kick boxers which supports a great deal of information for viewers.
