Comments on: What’s Wrong with Women-Only Capoeira Events?

By: Joaninha

Joaninha — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:50:46 +0000

Ditto, that is almost Twilight Zone-ish in its creepiness, Balanca! Almost like the whole thing was a set-up for some ulterior purpose…(cue Hitchcock music)

That’s an interesting point though about guys overcompensating in wariness…although like I said, I haven’t come across that side of capoeira yet, but it’s something I’ll have to keep in mind for future reference.

By: Cenoura

Cenoura — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:57:54 +0000

oh creepy, Balanca. I don’t blame you for not sticking around for that afterparty. that leaves a bad taste in my mouth just reading about it.

By: Balanca

Balanca — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:32:55 +0000

The only capoeira “Women’s Event” I have attended featured ONE visiting professora, but all the other mestres, instructors, etc, were male. The students at the event, however, were 95% female. It made for a very strange vibe and left a bad taste in my mouth. Both for the catfights, and the girls looking like there were there to impress the guys, but also that the guys seemed a bit predatory. That was one afterparty I did not stick around for.

In general, I have seen some girls who seem into capoeira mainly for the guys, but I think the guys are more concerned about avoiding those girls than is warranted. It’s as if guys feel that most girls are there just to get a boyfriend or hook up with hot guys, regardless of how many girls they actually see acting that way.

By: Joaninha

Joaninha — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:08:01 +0000

Shayna:
Ahh, okay. …I really need to get myself down to Brazil some time in the preferably near future!

Cenoura:
From what I can recall, size would only be matched up every so often—like I said, pretty much just when we’re specifically supposed to play rough and try taking each other down. Otherwise it’s just however it plays out in the roda, like normal.

By: Cenoura

Cenoura — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:21:31 +0000

well, what I said shouldn’t be taken to mean that all the girls I see are like that. It’s more a couple of examples that tend to stick with me-and I guess I base that comment on the girls who either get a boyfriend and leave, or don’t after a few months and leave. I don’t see it often, but what I’ve seen is awfully obvious. but I can’t speak for anywhere other than the US-need to get around and see more groups, which you talk about in another post. I’m also interested, Joaninha-how often do you try to match up size? we’re usually strongly encouraged to mix it up-try to work with many different body types in class.

By: Shayna

Shayna — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:58:57 +0000

I actually find it really funny how people have commented about women being more interested in looking cute and checking out guys, more than once on this blog, because personally I’ve never come across anything like that! Have I just not been in this long enough?

I encountered it more in Brazil than in the U.S… especially in Bahia. There is still the stereotype of capoeira as a “men’s sport” – kind of like football here.

By: Joaninha

Joaninha — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:46:02 +0000

Wow, Shayna—you haven’t mentioned the alpha female idea on this blog before, and I’d never heard of it before, but I find it a really interesting and sound theory!

Actually, if I think about it, I know I feel a lot more comfortable and enjoy playing guys more in the roda than women, precisely because I’m scared of potentially getting into a catfight, even though I never have before and don’t think I would. I guess this means I’m not really interested in becoming an alpha female (at least not at the expense of relationships with other people in my group), but now I’m wondering how this all ties in to the bigger picture of women and catfights, etc. In a mestra-led group, Shayna, do you know if males fight similarly for an alpha-male spot?

Cenoura, about the typecasting, I think I know what you mean a little bit. I’ve definitely seen tall Caucasian guys paired together, etc., especially when the teachers want us to deliberately play rough, but I’m pretty sure it was all mostly based on build/body-type, not so much ethnicity or anything like that. And yeah, women would be paired together, too.

By: cenoura

cenoura — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:18:03 +0000

haha-yeah, I know EXACTLY what you mean with the last sentence. Some things are the same everywhere.

By: Shayna

Shayna — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:08:45 +0000

cenoura, I can’t say I’ve really ever seen that happen… except for once, a 90% male group’s street roda in Brazil, where men always played men until a child bought in, and then a woman would buy in and play with the child, and then all the women would play each other one after another, until two men would go to the pe do berimbau and re-start the male games.

I got a LOT of attention when I was the only woman who would actually buy in and play with the guys! Attention in a good way – they all wanted to play me, and I had some great games. Also, the guys were ALL higher-level cords, and the women were ALL beginners. Quite frankly, the impression I got was that the women were more interested in hanging around in their cute white pants and watching the guys than in playing capoeira…

By: cenoura

cenoura — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:34:02 +0000

I can’t comment much on cat fight, maybe our group is just too small-I’m currently the only woman that’s been there for more than about a year. But there is another kind of related thing that I have heard my mestre talk about and I’m curious-how often do you guys see people who play in big rodas get matched up-the video we were watching that brought this up was really blatant-white guys played other white guys, then two people with african descent played, then a pair of girls played each other. Do you see that happen much? do you do it? I know I will tend to play new girls more often(I could try Joanhina’s tip about walking under people’s legs, so I’m pretty unintimidating) but that’s about the only time. If that type of. . . I guess typecasting . . . happens, do you try to mix it up? how?