Quote:
Originally Posted by derUbermensch
Women's MMA is already light years ahead of women's boxing. I find your explanation plausible, but I suspect more is at stake, as I don't think your average fight fan consciously realizes the affinity between martial arts and women to such an extent. But since I can't explain what that might be, yours is as good as any.
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For the average fight fan it is probably the fact that you have a lot of female martial artists in the movies and video games. Plus they probably took part, or witnessed, martial sports like judo, karate and taekwondo that have always had a lot of female competitors.
Off the top of my head, I can name a number of fictional female martial artists in the popular media: e.g., Chun Li from the Street Fighter video game, Beatrix Kiddo from Kill Bill, the characters from movies like the House of Flying Daggers, etc.
For female boxers, I draw a blank, except for "Million Dollar Baby." Granted, that was a successful movie, but it's the only one out there and I see no follow ups.
(Off the top of my head, the first real female martial artist I thought of was Cynthia Rothrock - shows you my age).
With all these kids growing up with example of females in the martial arts - they'll be more accepting of it when they grow up and see the real thing.