Aikido woman felt discriminated against

when her dojo accomodated a man's request not to touch his female classmates.

But then - it went much further than that.

I would like to get thoughts on this? My opinion is that, why did he join aikido, one of the most physical MA? And Japanese at that. He did not want to bow to the sensei, or to others or even to shake hands. The whole thing just makes me stabbity.

http://ww2.nationalpost.com/m/wp/bl...der-following-male-students-religious-request

 

I get the sense the individual was making requests in good faith and the Sensei tried to meet them in good faith. I fail to see why segregation was necessary when simply not pairing him with a female would have accomodated the need

The bowing is not optional if you ask me - well provided you do that sort of thing in your class anyway.

That said if he said that to me I would have said "door, ass...don't let the one hit you in the other on the way out"

 

Well that's what you get for letting women in the Dojo......

 

I disagree with how the teacher prioritised inclusivity. I'm in the "door, ass..." camp too.

But, it's his class and he can do whatever the hell he wants as long as he's not breaking any laws.

 

I can't see why he couldn't have just been paired with a bloke.

Not bowing to kamidana I get and would accept, he'd still have to understand it though and be familiar with how it's done even if he didn't actually do it, but I wouldn't accept refusing to bow to each other. However all of that would only be after consultation with my teacher but then I'm a stuffy elitist snob after all.

 

Not just for the bowing I would have said door ass, but also for the other stuff. The stuff he handed out? Really? We want attention and more because we don't cover up? And especially, Hit your wife????? MA's is supposed to be about respect and treating each other with respect and perfection of character and all that

I can't believe the sensei allowed it to happen.


Ass meet door. Door, ass. Have fun knowing each other.

 

This is the dojo concerned

http://www.makotokan.com/index.html

strange that on this page you find this:

But as soon as anyone says they don;t want to do it then it doesn;t matter anymore - proof positive about the absolutely arbitrary nature of the "discipline and tradition" crap that the more rabid TMA guys trot out

 

I wonder how he would have felt about being paired up with a gay bloke?

In my classes, everyone is treated as an asexual lump of meat (in the most respectful way).

Injuries, ailments and affected mental states are the only thing that allow any exceptions to being treated exactly the same as everyone else.

If people have a problem with that, they don't train.

 

As for handing stuff out! Bloody no chance.

 

I have two problems with that. One is that that guy wouldn't get through our door. The other is the fact you referred to Aikido as "One of the most physical martial arts".

 

LOL Chadderz!!!

Well played sir. well played!

 

I just invited them to the board

 

Cool, Lector. I found it because one of my fb friends who yes I know him in real life, awesome martial artist, posted the link. I felt I need to tell MAP about this. and get opinions.

 

From the website they seem to be a pretty professional and serious dojo - even if they do wear magic pants - so I am sure there is a lot more to it than we are hearing

 

There always is.

There are lies, damn lies, and news stories.

 

You're just jealous because you can't pull the look off.

 

If they had Tapout logo's on them I would be all over it

 

Ok, a few people are crossing the line with the 'he wouldn't be allowed to train in our school' masked profanity - you know the policy.

His religion forbids him to touch women. Fine, don't partner him with women. If the dojo was segregated as has been claimed (and I don't think that was confirmed by the school) then the instructor screwed up. It was an unnecessary measure.

As for bowing - get over it. It's a movement that has different connotations in different cultures. If a muslim student felt uncomfortable bowing, then I don't see why that is such a big deal. Why do you care if another student bows or not?

When it comes to distributing literature, she was no more obligated to accept the booklet than he was to shake her hand. She chose to accept it, she chose to read it and she chose to take offence. I've known evangelical christians to hand out crap in far less appropriate places than a dojo before or after class.

The teacher deserves credit for attempting to accommodate someone from a demographic woefully underrepresented in the martial arts world. There was no discrimination here, just typical western islamophobia.

 

I already stated that i felt the dojo was doing the best they could - albeit I think they were wrong - but equally if he won't train with a female he won't train in my school - period.

The bowing has clearly outlined meaning in the dojo etiquette and nothing - NOTHING - in said etiquette stops him doing that. His refusal means that no one should be required to bow in the class so why not just eliminate it

He is free to practice his religion as he sees fit; As an instructor I am free to not train him as I see fit - everybody wins

 

It's also why I took the time to invite them to the board - I guarantee there is a lot more here than the tagline