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| Femaleness | ||
| Written by Rachel | ||
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The female in history
Most of the worlds
philosophical traditions adopt a dismissive attitude towards women.
Women are patronised or ignored.
The traditions are often sexist in the extreme and consider women to be
inferior.
Sadly, this has permeated culture. But change is slowly occurring in the world.
A different attitude
Taoism adopts a very different attitude towards women
than other traditions.
Rather than stem from opinion and conjecture, it arose
from the observation of nature, from watching existence and considering the
principles that operate.
The early Taoists identified the qualities in women that made them equal to men;
and this was expressed by the tai chi symbol which
contains both elements.
Neither man nor woman was seen as 'better', simply different.
Reverence of the female
Unlike most philosophical traditions, Taoism values women.
The attributes of women were carefully watched and examined.
Women are considered to be soft, strong,
yielding, flexible and
fluid - like water.
These same characteristics are to be found in tai chi.
The female in tai chi
In Taoism, women were regarded as being
as strong as men, albeit through
different means.
Tai chi helps women to manifest this in
practice...
Instead of using hard, muscular strength and brute
force, it adopts another approach.
Your body must be relaxed and pliant, yet retain a
strong centre, connected through a framework of
soft tissue (fascia, muscles, tendons,
ligaments).
You must yield to force and retain a
calm demeanour during combat
practice.
These attributes are seen as yin, or female.
Differences
Men and women are different.
Keep this simple fact in mind when teaching tai chi to female students.
Men have testosterone, they enjoy using force, being aggressive and competing
with one another.
They are usually quite happy being roughed-up and roughing people up in return.
Although only a few of these qualities are of any use in tai chi, it
enables men to feel more comfortable working martially than most women do.
Women bring entirely different qualities to tai chi.
These are actually the very values and sensibilities
that tai chi seeks to cultivate in the male student.
The challenge for the female student is to harness their
strengths, to have faith in
themselves and the art, and to overcome their
conditioned inhibitions.
Bodies
Men are stronger and heavier above the waist, whilst
women are the reverse.
All Asian martial arts seek to encourage students to emulate the female body,
and drop the weight down.
This is a logical approach; since a firm base
promotes stability.
Tai chi teaches all students to rely upon the strength of the legs and the
waist, rather than the arms and shoulders.
Again, this favours women.
Emotions
Men have long perpetuated the myth that women are more
emotional than men.
This is actually entirely untrue: men are culturally conditioned to suppress
their emotions and to detach themselves from feeling.
Which is not entirely helpful.
A woman may admit that she feels fear, whereas a man
pretends to be brave.
Taoism and Zen seek to cultivate emotional
awareness, and asks the student to be honest
about how they feel.
Te
Some women think that they can become assertive by dressing and acting like a
man.
From a Taoist perspective this would be like a cat trying to bark like a dog.
'Te' refers to the idea of being true to what you are.
Women are female, and it is this very femaleness that is the source of their
strength.
When a woman pretends to be a man in order to gain respect, she betrays her own
gender.
Te is the character/nature/essence of something. In this case,
what makes a woman a woman?
The more true to your nature you are, the
stronger you become.
Not all women are submissive.
(Loy Ching-Yuen)
Gender stereotyping
Society has presented an image of women as being
helpless.
This may have been replaced (to a small extent) in recent years with media
stories of rough girls being arrested for
fighting, but the overall perception of women remains the same.
When a woman enters a martial arts
class, she is taking a brave step into a male-dominated arena. You will be
immediately faced with a whole range of unflattering associations, based
purely upon gender.
Many men are reluctant to partner with a woman.
Women are generally considered to make ineffectual
assailants.
Home life
Not all partners are supportive.
They may feel threatened by a woman learning
combat. Or they think that its cute for a woman to take up martial arts training.
Partners often tend to belittle or intimidate their wives and girlfriends
when they learn that you are taking martial arts classes.
Patronising
Male students will tend to go easy on
female students. It is important not to give men a reason to do this.
Men may treat you with 'kid gloves' or speak to you in a condescending
manner.
In our class, we discourage such behaviour.
Many instructors give women a
false sense of reassurance. This is offensive and insulting.
Truth is essential.
You cannot hide the fact of your skill.
It is
either present or lacking. There is no ambiguity to it.
No real life assailant will cut a woman any
slack.
Women in martial arts
Women typically do not fare too well in
martial arts classes. Men
have all of the natural advantages when it comes to
violence:
Aggression
Familiarity with violence
Physical strength
Testosterone
In the
external arts, these qualities count
for a lot, and women usually flounder.
The schools compensate by having weight and gender categories, or by simply
patronising female students.
This may work fine in the dojo, but no one in the
street will let a woman off because she lacks their own
physical strength.
Bullying
Some male students will deliberately try-it-on with women in order to boost
their ego.
This approach reflects a confused, insecure, immature
mentality.
Valuing the female
Attempting to copy men is pointless.
It devalues and betrays your own sex (female).
Tai chi encourages you to be cat-like. Sleek, soft, cunning.
Women are strong. We don't need to copy men or act like men. We are already
strong. Don't be afraid to be a woman.
Overcoming
The most important obstacle you face is credibility.
You must prove yourself capable.
This is most easily accomplished by addressing the basic qigong
strength-building exercises, and then applying your body in a connected,
whole-body fashion in actual combat.
If you train the basics, you will become strong.
Without that fundamental strength, the tai chi will not work.
More...
Page created
8 March 2008
Last updated
16 June 2023