After all, what are we looking for in BJJ?

Born out of the need for inclusion, women’s Jiu-Jitsu is now undergoing a process of transformation

By Mestra Yvone Duarte

When we think about learning anything new, especially in schools, in traditional education, we come across an interesting phenomenon that is often static, and feels completely alien to our lives. The contents of the subjects we are studying seem distant and disconnected from reality, above all, from the everyday reality of women.

In this traditional educational universe, we often perceive knowledge as something in the realm of control and oppression. As if in order to be educated, one must isolate and disconnect themselves from the world, ultimately being removed from their own reality and injected into another.

Whether in the examples offered in class or in the pondering and discussions that take place, often the subjects of study are far removed from women’s daily lives.

On the other hand, we have the impression that we go to school merely to fill in gaps, that the role of the educator is to deposit knowledge into us while we store the information in an attempt to memorize the content narrated by the educator. Little is done by teachers to include the perspective and diverse realities of students through different teaching methods.

Bell Hoods paraphrasing Paulo Freire, warns us that “students cannot be mere passive consumers”.

But what does this have to do with women who train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu? Everything!

Women’s Jiu-Jitsu is currently undergoing a process of transformation. Originally, it was born as a demand out of the need for participation, inclusion and respect. But we didn’t come to Jiu-Jitsu only to adjust ourselves to traditional male-oriented training. Jiu-Jitsu is much broader, more diverse, and capable of including everyone who wants it. As women, we are not simply passive consumers, we fully engage and introject Jiu-Jitsu, because it is something that we want and need. And for many of us it becomes essential!

“We cannot enter the fight as an object to become a person later”, no! The practice of Jiu-Jitsu is liberating for women. It is a powerful and emancipatory tool.

There is something special about the desire to learn Jiu-Jitsu, and to actively receive knowledge that can propel us to reach our full potential, however we don’t want to feel disconnected, as if the mat is an inappropriate place for women or that training is a privilege and not a right.

No longer are we willing to participate in classes just to help increase the number of students; one more guy, one more girl, we are no longer only numbers, no! We demand classes that are focused on a practice which considers the presence of women on the mats as something natural and common. We want gyms that acknowledge women, where the lesson plan includes our abilities, our performances and our feminine needs.

The time has come to say: enough! Enough of the attempts to silence our voices and constantly trying to control how we behave and think. Enough of trying to repress our expressions of affection, and ignoring our questions. Patriarchy continues to attempt to impose limits for women, dictating that we must be kind, laugh with discretion, be respectable and, so many other outdated rules of restrictive behavior, which are typical devices of machismo. In most social spaces, we live every day trapped by male normative standards. Enough.

Jiu-Jitsu gyms must be spaces of liberation from punitive and oppressive practices. As a place of education, knowledge, and learning gyms cannot reinforce domination, nor serve as an instrument of oppression, or abuse.

Teaching establishes and transforms possibilities, promotes the ability to think and to know oneself in all dimensions, without prejudice. The learning process is a constant challenge for teachers and students. It is necessary to build a pedagogy that legitimizes us, it is necessary to make the climate of possibility pleasant and to promote the active participation of women. In this new era, Jiu-Jitsu academies must strengthen their commitment to train women so that our presence in martial arts can become as natural and of equal opportunity as that of the men.

Jiu-Jitsu gyms must be spaces of liberation from punitive and oppressive practices.

I always suggest that men should try and make an effort to see the city they live in through the eyes of a woman, experience the worries we often feel in the simple act of trying to walk around the city, walk to our car or go to gyms and the BJJ mats. The modern architecture of today’s cities was not designed to create safe spaces for women, schools, institutions, or martial arts academies. The cities were designed to obstruct the movement of certain segments, including women. Even the architecture of cities follow outdated male normative codes.

Once we really start paying attention, we soon realize there is so much about our daily routine, our habits, and the places we frequent, that foster exclusion, devices that impede rather than promote the presence and participation of women.

In conclusion, we go back to the original question, after all, as women, what are we looking for in Jiu-Jitsu?

We don’t want much of Jiu-Jitsu, other than it’s very essence, no more, no less. We want to use Jiu-Jitsu tools to protect and enhance our own existence. We want to reach our full potential as individuals so that we can lead healthy lives, have freedom of choice, such as the choice of training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and for that choice to be seen as normal and ordinary as the choice of riding a bike on a Sunday afternoon.

We want to feel free and safe, with complete autonomy to make our own decisions about our bodies, our needs and our desires.

Are we asking too much? 

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