for the love of boxing

The blog, for the love of boxing, was shared with me by a good friend. (Thanks Nick). Emily is a female amateur competative boxer, who stumbled upon the sport of boxing, but quickly began to experience the spiritual and philosophical journey's that came with boxing. I think it's a given, that boxing is a very male dominated sport, not to mention the ways a women boxer is living in contradiction to female standards of beauty and femininity, which is why I find her blog to be really interesting, particularly this entry where she discusses a little bit about her, "adventures," I guess, of being a female amateur competative boxer. She dives deeper in exploring her place as a female boxer by looking at the ways that she responds to other female boxer. Here's an interesting excerpt:

"I hear myself speak truth to wanting more women to take up boxing – to go for it, to give of themselves and take a risk, even professing I’d like to make a vocation of it. The outrage that it struggles to receive recognition as a real sport. I’m proud of to be amongst the advocates, making history just by doing what we do. And yet the judgments, the skeptical assessments of whether the desire to box is authentic seep out of me. I remember acting very protective toward anyone who didn’t take on training like their life depended on it – as if my own life depended on it. Part of me hates being a woman who will never just be a wall of lean muscle, a vessel without a cycle, an apparatus of pure function devoid of vulnerability. The so-called tough-girl charade exposes who I really am, it represents parts of me I am desperate to dissociate from. Honestly, I’ve often felt more threatened than heartened by the courage of other women trying something new."

Influenced by a good friend who boxes, I've actually thought about boxing myself. For self defense (boxing seems more appealing than a self defense class cause it seems that through boxing you strengthen your muscles in addition to learning how to throw a bad ass punch) but more importantly, for an outlet for pent up emotions and anger.

So a friend and I will be taking our first class this Sunday! :)....

<3Olives