Ritual Violence In A Two Car Garage Research Paper Example

Fighting among men is associated with masculinity. Most of them fight to inflict pain and humiliate their opponents and gain control and power over them, thus enhancing their concept of masculinity. Their opponents receive the painful beating and humiliation as they get beat down harboring feelings of emasculation and humiliation: scars that haunt them for life. This paper will focus on a unique fight club within the San Francisco Bay Area that has different goals as compared to humiliating win-and-lose fights.
The Gentlemen’s Fight Club for me is a beneficial part of the San Francisco Bay Area providing an avenue fight but with different reasons. It’s a men’s only club with a good number of members who know each other. Entry into the club is not determined by social status but by a background in martial arts or fighting. This I find quite non-discriminative, a way for people of similar fighting background to come together and edify each other by testing their toughness and skills without humiliating each other. For them humiliation and seriously injuring each other to prove a point don’t motivate their fighting as compared to other fights in bars or between teenage boys in school yards.
They mainly focus on their toughness and skills. Their fighting styles are martial arts, but they have also incorporated a creative range of weapons adopting folding chairs, metal chains and rods rolled up within magazines or newspapers. They mostly depend on these weapons and creativity to win. This is ingenious and resourceful as at times martial arts weapons aren’t readily available. Over and above this they wear protective gear to protect themselves against serious injuries as they are go home to their families and resume work the next day and, eventually come back for another fight. Despite this, they don’t water down the intensity of the fight. Instead, they apply the needed amount of force and the right skills expected. It’s very resourceful how they have managed to create an avenue where men can fight and meet the need of affirmation that they are in control.
Fight therapy is a great way to restore a man’s sense of masculinity. A man can have everything going for him: good job and great family but still have his humiliating past haunting him. The GFC has seen this gap and created a way to fill it without embarrassment. They fight skillfully but build up each other. These fights allow for checking and enhancement of members’ fight skills. For others, it allows them to overcome their terrors and reinstate their masculinity and control they lost in instances of emasculation at a younger age. In addition, unlike regular fights where there is tension and hatred among fighters, GFC have a sense of brotherhood. They have a post-fight genuine hug as a sign of respect and gratitude, and then spend the rest of the evening together with a few beers watching the day’s fights and making jolly.
Diversity of lifestyles among the members within the fight club is another added advantage, men from different backgrounds and varied professions bring diverse life experiences, biographies and skills to the fight club. Members are there to build each other as they all learn from their mistakes and each other. Moreover, most members are non-violent and wouldn’t be found in fights in other social settings. Dignity of the fighters is maintained within this fight club. It also serves to confirm Kimmel’s proposition that manhood isn’t mainly concerned with exerting control on others but inducing from the opponent the terror of dominance. Members fight not to control others but to place themselves in danger to test their survival limits.
The GFC notion of winning is also different; to them it’s improving their fighting skills and those of their opponent as compared to beating one unconscious. They fight not to beat each other down but to bring each other up; to contest and push each other to their limits and beyond. As well as encouraging each other to advance as fighters, physically and psychologically. Physically as their skills advance and psychologically as they deal with their fears, reinstate a sense of control over their lives and confidence that they can fight. Being hit is of more importance than hitting. One member of the GFC had learnt that ‘it’s not about fear but knowing that you’re not a coward.’ Losing is winning. In my opinion, their ‘winning’ makes more sense than beating someone black and blue and getting a trophy to affirm it.
In spite of what reporters and martial artists say the GFC is doing a lot as they restore the masculinity that some men lost to bullies in childhood. It also gives them a sense of control and confidence in their lives, making them into ‘better men’ in comparison to other normal fights where the winner wins a trophy and the loser, gets injured and humiliated. In GFC, every member wins not only in the fight but also in other spheres of life with increased confidence.