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Old 02-17-2005, 02:26 PM   #53
E.D. Gordon
Dojo: Shobukan Maryland
Location: Maryland
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 41
United_States
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Re: Women and Everybody Else in Aikido

Quote:
Meggy Gurova wrote:
Thank you all for your answers!
I have very good contact with my teacher indeed and I have talked with him about the "girl issue" several times. I know for sure that he thinks that womens body's are not made for to be "destroyed" that way, he thinks women must take care off their body's because they are going to be mothers, and so on...
Even a quadriplegic can become a mother. Nature has made sure of it. Your generative organs are better protected than his. If anything, he should be the one taking care. Something so small as regular hot saunas can endanger fatherhood. By comparison, he should never wear briefs, or tight jeans, or have a hot bath, or take highfalls, or ride a bike.

Quote:
Meggy Gurova wrote:
I still want to be the one to decide over my own body.
In your country, you still are. We are entering the Dark Ages again, by comparison..

Quote:
Meggy Gurova wrote:
've even asked him to keep pushing me because I need some kind off challenge and he is doing it but not with the uke training. On the other hand I should not be complaining because all the other teachers I've trained for like me as uke. I'm sorry for my bad English.
Stop apologizing for your English! most Americans have no mastery of any other language, for which we should be ashamed. We simply don't understand the need, and, therefore, the rest of the world.

It may be that this very nice man is not a good teacher for women. Now, I have never had a woman teacher, but I have some long-distance woman mentors, and they don't let me get away with any slacking. Nor does my current teacher, a male, and my husband. He does not play favorites, but is a compassionate sharpener of my edge.

Until we hold everyone to the highest standard they can perform at, and not withstand damage, we are playing some bizarre fantasy game and not paying attention to individual ability.

Men are at so much of a disadvantage. They don't live as long. They are more susceptible to disease and disability. In spite of being born in greater numbers, so many die that this, by the end of the human lifespan, is reduced by many percentages. Men survive longer when cared for by women. Men are more likely to die, and in fact, this is their biological imperative, to die in some heroic, defensive, or simply stupid act. If generative organs and physical strength were factors for dominance, then sperm whales and orangutans would rule the world. If you want to be popular, be a halfway fit man in a retirement community (just ask my dad .

Women have a deep systemic strength, a length of evolutionary stride, that men can only respect and cherish. This is their proper, evolutionary job. No one needs to limit us, in doing it.

When I first asked my parents to find me a martial arts class, at age 13, they all but laughed at me. I grew up in Texas, BTW... five generations there, and you'd think they'd know better. Oh well. When I left home, at 19, the first thing I did was enroll in aikido at the local community college, in addition to my other courses. That was 1989. I had to take a break or two, but I never gave up.

mle
(ruthless egalitarianism means never worrying who takes out the garbage. we both do.)
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