Why do some people insult Martial Arts?

Your post is probably one of the little things that made my day today. Thanks!

 

I sorda like having MA not being so spread around. You know anyone in the street that wants to pick a fight is gonna be really dumb and you could school him real easy.

 

I agree with the fact that some guys see themselves as tough, and that is part of the reason they don't like the idea of someone tougher.

But I'm not a very intimidating person on the surface: average height, slight build, girly.... So when people (i.e. guys) hear somewhere I do MA they automatically think of it as cute or something, not a challenge. Like, "You do Martial Arts? How about a nice loud Hi-YAHH and you can show us how to do the splits?"

It can be irritating, but mostly it's just easier to blow it off than anything. Their manliness or whatever isn't challenged by me so they usually just leave me alone after a few stupid comments.

 

What about if you stand in your garden practicing football? Does that give me the right to mock you?

 

Yeah true, but that wouldn't necessarily mean that you shouted abuse at said morris dancer, would it? You might find it funny but you'd respect his right to do what hobbies he wants.

 

Tangsaotim, I did not say it was right to hurl abuse or laugh out loud at the person. What I meant was that if you were a morris dancer you would appreciate what the guy was doing and how much work it has taken to get to that standard. But if you are not a morris dancer then you would probably find it funny/obscure. The same applies in the case of martial arts.

What you said about football totally proves this point. 99.9% of people have played football at some stage if they live in the UK. Therefore they understand it and it is normal to them. Therefore when they see it being played it is not seen as something unusual. Go to china, and you will not see people laughing at people practicing tai chi in the parks.

Life is not so black and white.

 

Actually, if they see you staring they might even invite you to join. How about inviting the bully to work out with you, instead of thinking of ways to beat him into a pulp?
I've made friends that way. Good friends.

 

It's the fact that you can fight and they can't which make them think "oh what do you, and you reply the art that you and they say what?" they will also refer a martial art always to karate.

 

the people I have seen arent intimidated or anything. its just something out of the ordinary, and that makes it a target. its that simple.

 

This whole thread reminds me on the first batman comic I ever owned.. a bunch of kids are teasing Richard (I bet his usual name is ***ed out here) Grayson and he's furious about it but knows he could mop the floor with those guys and then they wouldn't be laughing.

I've never been laughed at, I would like to think that if I was I could ask the guy to join me and show him a thing or two about how effective it is.

My sensi is one of those guys who you'd never even know he was a black belt untill it came up, he's a welder and says once in a while at work some new guy will try to test him out. One time a new guy was giving him the grears really bad and went to hit him, so he parry blocked the punch, grabbed the guys wrist and stopped just before hitting the guys knee with a kick. and said to him "Now don't you want to say 'thank you Big Al for allowing me to still be standing today'?"

 

it is kinda funny though
I pratce sword drills out in my front lawn never been hassled about it.
How ever where I used to sparr with my firend was a public park and there is skae pak aobut a qtr mile down the road so all thes skater punks would drive/skate by. Sometime they try to start stuf with the guys waving the sticks around.
And I remember once how a car load of teenagers drove by and caled us all posers. rather funny I think.
And I was called Samurai Jack around school for a few months.
But all in all I think I avoided most of the stupidness becaseu my MA is based around big weapons and peopl tend to avoid you when your carying a sword taller than them

 

People are often naturally defensive towards things they don't understand. I'm sure this is some of the reason for insukts and strange looks. Bottom line is though you do MAs for yourself and nobody else so who cares what anyone says or how strange they look at you.

 

Usually people just start madly doing "karate chops" and shouting hiyaaaa when they see my uniform or hear i'm a Martial artist, that's usually as far as it goes, sometimes with the odd crane stance throw in there. Usually a light sidekick causes them to fall over if they are in a crane stance . Once i had my dobok on, with a jumper of the top part, and i went to get a pizza and a guy pulled up in a car and just started shouting about how i was a bast*rd which was pretty weird. And there was one guy at my old school who said he could wipe the floor with me, but then when i offered him a chance to adopted the usual crane stance with stupid noises.

At the dojang people throw rocks at the windows and kick the doors in. but anyway, you just get used to it, normally it just comes down to a bit of mocking, which is okay, just gets annoying

 

Well if what you're saying is "it's not OK but they think it's weird", why are you making this point? We already know, that's the whole point of this thread!

 

That stuff always make me laugh. I think, "Yeah, that's right. Tee off people who spend their spare time training on how to kick your butt." So I don't usually pay them too much heed because their IQ is so low that they will probably get whipped a few times by natural consequences that follow dumb posistions.

 

So far I haven't had the "pleasure" of being mocked because I do Karate. I think the best attitude is a discreet one. Walking outside the dojo with the karategi would ask for trouble and mockery. It takes 2 minutes to slip into something more "usual". I really take that time in order to avoid any smirks. Let only the people that deserve to know find out you are in MA world. Avoid practicing in "public" areas. Discretion can guarantee we won't have any problems

 

What an irony...you actually do Karate too.

 

i might say ignorance, fear, jeaolusy.

 

i walk to my dojo beacuse it is about a block away and i wear my uniform to save time and some guy stopped rolled down his window and said hi-ya

 

exactly! **nods head 3 times** ... very well said