Check out Netflix and you see movies like Mad Max, where there’s that infamous fight scene between Tom Hardy’s Max and Charlize Theron’s Furiousa.
The famous spy movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is another movie, with an infamous fight scene between Angelina Jolie and Brad Pit’s characters.
Watch the hit NBC spy show, Blindspot and you see, in season four-spoiler alert- a big showdown between Jane/Remy and Kurt, ending with Jane being drugged by Kurt.
In the period drama Outlander, there are several scenes where Caitriona Balfe’s Claire and Sam Heughan’s Jamie get into it physically.
The hit show Vikings, has Katheryn Winnick’s Lagertha and Travis Fimmel’s Ragnar fight each other in that popular wife-husband fight scene.
The spy thriller, Unlocked, has a grisly fight scene between Orlando Bloom’s ex-army character Jack and Noomi Rapace’s CIA character Alice.
There are countless other movies and tv series with female and male protagonists who have it out with each other (and BOTH hold their own).
Whenever I see these types of scenes, I have a couple of thoughts.
-Eeesh. Promoting domestic violence. Job well done movie/tv studios!
*We live in a society that teaches boys and men that hitting women or girls is wrong, that it’s a bad thing. However, watching fight scenes between women and men can be confusing to youth, who scratch their heads and say to themselves, but mom and dad say hitting girls and women is wrong….
-Another is laughing at the hilarity of it.
*It’s just good entertainment.
A third thought is: You go girl!
*We as women feel empowered watching these kick butt female protagonists hold their own against male antagonists.
I understand that these are all scripted, choreographed, all done with sound effects and stunt doubles. It’s all done in the name of art, fun, entertainment, and profit.
It’s a safe way for men to fantasize about overtaking a strong female, without the legal ramifications that would unfold IRL.It’s also a way for women to fantasize the same exact thing with a strong, alpha male without the legal consequences that would happen IRL.
However, when it gets to real life wrestling and martial arts, there’s no category for one gender against another.
There are only men and men or women and women. Why is this? Why isn’t there a female-male category?
– Is it because men are too scared to injure a female fighter and perhaps face legal and financial consequences? To lose their male dignity/pride publicly?
– Are men scared that female fighters might actually overtake them and win?
-Or are men more hesitant to fight women?
If women and men fight in the world of fiction, surely this can be applied to the real world. Besides, is women against women martial arts and wrestling feminist?
Should society, or rather fans, be promoting this? Yes, it may be a ‘game’ a ‘fun’ thing to watch, but just as male-male fighting, is it really right to promote ‘fighting for fun’ (and profit) between women?
On the one hand, women might say it’s empowering, it’s ‘feminist’ to fight other women (for skill prestige and profit).
Others say that wrestling and martial arts have always been an outlet for males to vent frustrations, in a healthy, controlled way. There are refs with rules, who step in when things get too much. It\s done in a ring or an arena, where spectators are well away from the fighting and can’t get hurt. They might have paid good money to watch the fight. It’s unlike a bar fight or during a street fight, where people do get stabbed or shot (and die, in some cases)
In this way, logic would say boxing, wrestling and other martial arts happens in a controlled way.
It’s just simply waiting for the day when there will be a category for women versus men in martial arts. If both participants see themselves as athletes, then why isn’t the industry seeing this? If society sees fights between men and women on screen, surely there should be something IRL too.
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