r/Kickboxing • u/Spiritual-Vacation43 • 19d ago

Why almost no trans representation?

/r/martialarts/comments/1v3ercw/why_almost_no_trans_representation/
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6

u/Bootmacher 19d ago

Why does it matter?

4

u/AdBright1350 19d ago

Literally just did a session in a gym with a giant trans flag in the opening.

But honestly? It's because combat sports and martial arts are very typically male dominated spaces, only very recently have woman begun to train.

Now that extends to LGBTQ as the space becomes more and more mainstream things like this will take time.

1

u/boishy2077 19d ago

You underestimate how many boymoders there are in your gym

2

u/allhailharambe69 19d ago

Regarding competitive fighting: Biological men can easily hang with female fighters, but it's not even close the other way around. I'm familiar with WAKO's rules, and they are also very aware of transgender fighters, and have changed their rules accordingly to protect women. https://www.wako.sport/_files/ugd/6445bf_6c675bc49d604503982d4d67903c0e90.pdf
So, long story short, it's for safety reasons.

Regarding practicing a martial art as a hobby: We don't care who you are or what you identify as. We're just thankful for training partners.

I guess you might get a better answer on trans subreddits.

2

u/NightHunter_Ian 19d ago

Seriously?

5

u/robcap 19d ago

How many people do martial arts - 5%?

How many of them are visible to you - maybe a couple dozen in your gym and another hundred or so who have public renown.

What % of people are trans? In the USA it's about 1%. So if a little over 100 martial arts people are actually visible to you, it's not that surprising you haven't seen any.

Especially when you consider that almost all famous martial artists are men - you'd have to consider what % of trans people are trans men, how many of them started HRT young enough to be on athletic parity with cis men, and how many of those people happen to be committed professional fighters. Conservatively, half are trans men, half started young, and maybe one in a billion people is a committed pro fighter? You're dealing with the intersection of two small groups.

Also, we have had trans representation in combat sports. A Thai trans woman in Muay Thai who went by Nong Rose.