"A writer, like a boxer, must stand alone. Having your words published, like entering the ring, puts your talent on display. And there's nowhere to hide. The truth is revealed. And sometimes, the results can be disastrous."
-Resurrecting the Champ
-Resurrecting the Champ
Writing and fighting. Some might legitimately argue that this is an illogical pair. How could something so beautiful and artistic be coupled with something so painful and violent? Or is is the other way around?
Dr. Richard Heckler (In Search of the Warrior Spirit) points out that, "it is in the mythological marriage of Ares and Aphrodite that Harmonia is born," (223). The combination of opposites creates balance. Yet in America's highly individualistic society, there is a tendency to divide and pull apart. There are some more common divisions: race, class, gender, religion, sexuality, and nationality. Like goes with like, and any deviation from the norm makes us uncomfortable.
Many of us learned in the school-yard that there are jocks, and there are nerds, and they don't get along. The standard is that physical prowess and mental ability don't mix. To a great extent, our society has developed around the luxury of intellectually not having to address the realities of our bodies. The closest we come to the physically violent act of killing and preparing our meals is a drive-through window. Hospitals and funeral parlors prevent us from having to deal with the physical decay of death. We fancy ourselves as highly cerebral and spiritual beings, and scorn what might be seen as a connection to an animalistic and primordial nature. We don't like to study aggression, violence, and killing, because it makes us uncomfortable.
In her book, On Boxing, Joyce Carol Oates writes that, "raw aggression is thought to be the peculiar province of men, as nurturing is the peculiar province of women. The female boxer violates this stereotype and cannot be taken seriously - she is a parody, she is a cartoon, she is monstrous," (73). I wonder if a lioness hunting to feed her cubs is a form of aggression, an unprovoked offensive attack, or a nurturing province? Are female police and military personnel monstrous cartoons as well? Martha McCaughey (Real Knockouts) reminds us that, "women's aggression is treated as an unnatural and distasteful transgression because aggression is a marker of sexual difference, which is made meaningful in a hierarchy of social power," (57). An aggressive femininity challenges gender prescriptions and threatens patriarchal hierarchy. Do female fighters and their implication make you feel uncomfortable?
I like uncomfortable.
"To write about boxing is to write about oneself - however elliptically and unintentionally. And to write about boxing is to be forced to contemplate not only on boxing, but also on the perimeters of civilization - what it is, or should be, to be 'human.'"
-On Boxing, Joyce Carol Oates
