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Old 02-11-2005, 10:10 AM   #35
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:
Anne Marie Giri wrote:
I am, too. But not surprised as it took Nixon to go to China. In other words if a liberal went to China they would have labled him a 'communist', but not a diehard conservative like Nixon.
I had this extremely silly brief vision of George Ledyard in gi and hakama, doing a Nixon impression...

Quote:
Anne Marie Giri wrote:
The same thing, here. If a woman spoke up on these boards with the same post, she either would have been ignored at best or her opinion derided as "reactionary".
Yep. Several folks may remember the row I got into with Dan Linden over his decision that women had no place in his dojo.
The end of it was that he is free to run things as he pleases, but others are free to criticize the decision and underlying reason, or lack thereof.
That interaction inspired me to write a paper for presentation at the Guelph Sword School. That and Deborah Klens-Bigman telling me to quit whining about not being able to make it that year and contribute.

Quote:
Anne Marie Giri wrote:
Just look at the "warm" reception of the announcement of the Women In Aikido video got. A couple of jerks got on without seeing the video and decided that it wasn't needed or called for. One other man watched it and gave it a very lukewarm review. It was an excellent video, but many seemed to have ignored it. Put a man's name behind it and voila! instant agreement. (sorry for my sarcasm folks).
A high-ranking man, anyway. Thanks George how's that Nixon impression coming?

Quote:
Anne Marie Giri wrote:
Other than train and continue to train and continue to break down barriers by our mere presence. Other than that, I started my bulletin board (link in my sig) Women in Aikido. After about 6 months, I was going to delete it do to inactivity then women started to join thanking me for starting this board. Now, we have over 125 members.
Who are all grateful for a place to communicate and support.
I'm hoping to start something similar for women in budo, sometime over the next four weeks. Maybe we can start a new thread talking about resources for women in budo?

Quote:
Anne Marie Giri wrote:
By never giving up no matter what is said. It also means speaking up when required, even when doing so would not be popular. Also, just being there when someone (male or female) needs the support helps a lot.

By being objective and subjective to their individual needs. I'm afraid by focusing training on someone's feminity or gender will just turn into patronizing mush such as being afraid to throw me because I'm female or only teaching me the "soft-way" of doing techniques.
Agree on speaking up, and I've done it, and it's not fun, but it has to be done.
Teaching according to gender, to me, is pretty short-sighted. Should men only do punchy-kicky things and competitive (Olympic) judo?
Should women only arrange flowers and do Tai Chi?
The Tai Chi teacher in my first massage class (a fellow student) used to toss me around vigorously.
American society is pretty mixed up about gender roles, but we are improving. My mom used to pin a doily on my head when I went to church because females were supposed to "cover their heads before the lord".
Certain sections of US society would have us go back that way:
http://freebooks.entrewave.com/freeb..._pdfs/gncr.pdf
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/5/21/13392/6893
Just FYI...

Yes, reading over the voices in this topic, I see a lot of strong, grounded, "voices from the trenches" who are more interested in training, learning and sharing than politics.
The political machine needs the occasional tweak, or swift kick, but it's not the main thing.

I adore having other women in the dojo, but as long as I have training partners, I will teach to their strengths and enjoy the lessons they have for me.

mle
(hoping George Ledyard appreciates goofy humour )
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