Why I didn’t watch the Rousey/Carmouche match tonight

I know, I know. You’d think this is right up my alley. Women finally getting a chance to partake in, and star in, a UFC match. One of the reasons I have historically boycotted the UFC is because of Dana White’s insistence to ignore the female fight market. Never mind that a good chunk of the people who watch UFC are women. I had just assumed he was a chauvinist who got dumped and never forgave us.I also thought he was an extraordinary idiot for barring women from participating in a sport (not really sure how it is even legal…?). Comparatively, boxing sanctions female bouts, as does wrestling and every martial art there is, not to mention previous MMA organizations featured women (remember Gina Carano? Yeah, she was actually fucking bad ass before she made Haywire).














There’s no way you would LOSE money by having females on your card; there really is only money to gain. But, I digress, since Mr. White has seen the light (apparently).

So we’ve finally made it. Why, then, do I still not want to watch? Part of it is petulance.  I still don’t like Dana White for doing what he did, and I think he’s a huge D-bag. I would hate to put a cent in his pocket. But even if I could have streamed it for free, I still wouldn’t have watched. For two reasons.

One: I HATE hearing the argument people (typically men) make that they don’t like watching women fight. “I hate watching them get hurt,” they say, with this strange air of chivalry, as if even though they don’t want to admit it, they still have an ounce of nobility in them. Well, fuck that. Have you noticed we are watching a sport where men are routinely knocked senseless and where the audience departs the venue spattered in blood? Also, women get beaten up E’RY DAY! One third of women will suffer sexual assault in her lifetime, so it really fucking pisses me off that the time that men actually care about women’s safety is when they have actually CHOSEN to engage in violence. It’s backwards and fucked up. I don’t like hearing their dumb double-standards, which inevitably crop up every time a chic is shown participating in an aggressive sport. I want to see bitches’ eyes gouged out just as much as all the fucking jacked up, jerk-off male fighters (read: not at all).

Which brings me to TWO: I don’t see why I have to make myself a hypocrite just to support my fellow woman. I don’t like UFC; I think anyone who knows me knows this. It just seems to attract a strange cross section of people I generally choose to avoid.















I am also maybe what you would call a martial art purist: when I was taught karate, I was taught that my body was a temple and that you don’t put it in danger for a bit of fun. I learned that my body was also a weapon, and that I have a higher duty to not hurt others. I don’t think that MMA follows the main principles that most martial arts try to instill in students. Perhaps if it was called something else (i.e. Mortal Combat), it wouldn’t irk me so much. So just ‘cause there are women fighting alongside of men, I don’t see why I have to suspend my intense dislike for this gruesome “sport” just to support women’s rights.

Sure, women deserve to kick the shit out of each other, just like men do. But I still won’t be watching them do it.