[quote]
Erik wrote:
Quote:
|
BC wrote:In the dojo where I train, females of all ranks (due to "modesty") and only male yudansha wear hakama. <-Snip->
A general question but does anyone out there have a valid reason for why women can wear hakama and men can't until shodan? The only valid reason I can find is that someone said so. I've heard the modesty argument many times and it doesn't wash in this century.
[Edited by Erik on July 26, 2000 at 02:26pm]
|
I'd appreciate a straight answer to this too. I am quite ignorant about how one might have dealt with menstruation in a white gi without modern sanitary products. I'd imagine that this could have provided some embarrassment to women at the time. With a hakama, if a period came early it would have offered some degree of concealment.
Am I correct or is this not a consideration? Perhaps there were tampons at the time (I guess I'm talking the postwar period, when kyu grades were regularly beginning to neglect hakama) that could do the job effectively.
Are there any women who could please let me know if this reason might have contributed to the women-in-hakama rule? It sounds more practical than just "modesty" and I guess it would have helped make aikido more accessible for more of the time.