Hit Like a Girl: An Examination of the Relationship Between Gender-Based Violence, Self-Defense and Consumerism in Boxing

• In Event: Deviance, Leisure, and Consumption

Abstract

There is no shortage of ethnographic works that study the social significance of the space and human interactions that exist in boxing gyms. However, what is interestingly missing from many of these works is an in-depth analysis of boxing from the point of view of women as their access to the sport, industry, and gym spaces has become more accepted. This is important as it relates to the relationship (perceived or otherwise) between boxing and violence, especially as it relates to gender norms that script women as being less aggressive, weaker and more prone to violent victimization than men. The focus of this study is to unpack the relationship of women’s boxing to violence perpetrated against and by women, consensual violence, and self-defense, as the sport is packaged, commodified and now sold to predominantly middle class, white female consumers as a means to not only improve their health and fitness (i.e. boxercise or fitness boxing), but also as a pragmatic means to defend themselves against a would-be attacker.

Author

• Victoria E. Collins, Eastern Kentucky University