Just thinking about this today. Is MMA the most prominent for inclusion with women? I've never met a guy who watched women sports regularly, but will watch female UFC fighters go for it with just as much enthusiasm as when men fight.
I would have thought any Olympic sport - athletics, swimming, gymnastics, even show jumping would have more general recognition from your average Brit. But your average Brit is not the same as your average sports fan.
I was going to say the same thing David did. Women's figure skating, skiing, gymnastics, swimming, etc are all probably more recognized by/popular to the broad world population than women's MMA. But I'm just guessing, I have absolutely no data to back that up.
Ah, then what would you say in terms of pro sports? Olympics is recognised as the peak of an amateur career but you rarely see anyone after they finish. A few people can and do. Mo Farah is still competing and has excellent sponsorship with Quorn but nobody is paying to actively watch these men or women outside the Olympics, with perhaps the exception of boxing where a pro career is an option.
I don't think in terms of overall viewership but certainly in terms of changing social attitudes. The idea that it's just as acceptable for women to fight as for men is a big change. I don't really see the "women shouldn't fight" pushback. The social effect of normalizing female violence is certainly ...interesting.
I feel like women's soccer at least, outside of the Olympics, has a lot of viewership? Tennis too. Just the impression I have, again no data to back this up.
Womens MMA is easier to follow because of fewer weight classes. That's one reason I follow the women more although I do follow some male fighters too.
Yeah, maybe for pro sport. I think that the personalities are almost as important as the sport, maybe more so. Often it seems a competitor becomes popular and people follow their sport or event for a while, then interest fades when they retire or fall out of the limelight. For example, people who don't follow tennis know who the Williams sisters are, people who don't follow boxing know Nicola Adams etc... What is the social effect of normalising female violence? Women's soccer is a lot more popular in the US than it is in the UK.
I think what adds to this is that "MMA" as it's current definition is relatively new sport (albeit an ancient sport really), this with more modern attitudes to women's rights makes it more accepted overall, rather than seen as women being introduced into a "man" sport. Tennis has to be another up there, the coverage of men and women's more equal than other sports. Women's soccer has increased, but definitely more popular outside the UK.
Yeah, I'm guessing that because the US doesn't have a soccer tradition it makes it easier to break out as a women's sport.
there was better coverage at the Olympics, but generally the Olympics is good at covering male and female events. I preferred the female soccer events at the last Olympics over the men's much less diving and drama
Well it's a complicated subject about changing gender roles and how equality has in some ways, rather than being equal opportunity, shifted toward treating men and women as exactly the same even where actual differences exist, lack of respect for actual differences, the masculinization of women and the feminization of men, and how that is ending up being detrimental. It's complicated and I don't think anyone fully understands how to deal with it or what the effects are in the long run. As far as generally normalizing social violence amongst females, I don't know if we'll see an increase in female violence given the increasing normalization, or any rise at all given that social violence is a primarily male activity.[/offtopic] I certainly welcome the fact that it's equal opportunity. Just like not all men want to engage in social violence, there are women who do and should rightly be afforded the opportunity.
Most women fighters seem very nice outside the cage while some of the men are not. With the exception of Juliana Pena I cant think of a woman fighter busted for extra ciricular activities whereas I can name several of the men who have. Real sports did a documentary on NFL players charged with domestic violence and found that the sport with the most domestic violence incidents is MMA. They are several times more likely to be charged with it than the notorious football players.
here is one. www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mma-domestic-violence-real-sports_us_55ae7b18e4b07af29d56760f
A big part of that is going to be that men score higher in disagreeableness and risk-taking than women, and I would bet that's a bit higher than the general average amongst those prone to go into fighting as a profession.
Thanks for that, Dr. Peterson Is spousal abuse considered "disagreeableness"? Sounds like a bit of a weak term for it...
Question is why is domestic violence more prevelant among MMA even than the testosterone fueled world of the NFL.