Thread: Equitable?
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Old 03-12-2005, 07:44 PM   #222
Lorien Lowe
Dojo: Northcoast Aikido
Location: California
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 289
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Re: Equitable?

Quote:
Pauliina Lievonen wrote:
I 'm going to have to ask my teacher about this because this made me really curious about his views. We have about 50% women in the dojo, but if you ask me, there isn't any difference made in the training. OTOH that could be just how I perceive things and not true at all. I'm going to do a little poll at the dojo I think.
For fear of adding those fifty rolls to my already grueling pre-test regimen, I should clarify my meaning.

I've trained for five years, and only once during that time has Sensei ever said anything specifically regarding women. It was in the middle of a speech about something else, and he was using it as a simile - but basically he said that it is completely unacceptable for men to take advantage of women on the mat, to turn training into some sort of rub-and-touch fest, and he wouldn't allow it. *
I think that his attitude shows in the general atmosphere of the dojo, even though it is almost never explicitely mentioned. Even though some women have had issues with the style of training, I've never heard of anyone who didn't feel as though the dojo was a safe place where that type of behavior didn't happen (at least not from reqular members). _That_ is what I mean by a dojo-cho who understands the issues.

-LK
*There's a dojo legend wherein Sensei physically threw a student out of the dojo, whom he found out had been routinely harassing a teenage girl after class. I don't know if it's true or not.
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