Women are gaining ground in Thailand’s national sport.
Step aside, Billy Blanks. Thai women are taking on something tougher than Americanized Tae Bo and reclaiming the national sport of Thai boxing, Muay Thai.
Sometimes referred to as the “Art of Eight Limbs,” Muay Thai involves fast-paced sparring in which participants can strike with knees, elbows, fists, and feet. “It also teaches body awareness,” says Michele Thompson, owner of the East Coast Academy of Martial Arts in Bordentown, New Jersey.
Despite having fought alongside men in ancient Thailand, and despite women’s raw talent when it comes to multitasking—one of the key skills required for this fast-paced sport—women in Thailand have, until recently, been barred from the ring.
And not just because the sport is brutal. “Most people don’t like to see women getting hit,” says Master Vu Tran, owner of Tran’s Martial Arts and Fitness Center in Boulder, Colorado. Buddhist tradition has also long barred women from the sport because of “bad luck.” Monks aren’t allowed to touch women, so female fighters can’t be blessed before a fight and their presence in the ring is seen as an affront on the spirits, which ups the potential for injuries during a match.
Even though Thai tradition excluded anyone with two X chromosomes, as women gained equal footing throughout the world, Muay Thai- and Tae Bo-like variations began catching on in other countries. Western women began to try their hands (and elbows, knees, and feet) at the sport, and soon Britain and Australia boasted the world’s top women Thai boxers. Thailand’s injured ego—not its interest in equality—may be a big part of why the government and the sport’s organizers finally opened the ring to women in 1998.
Though Muay Thai’s appeal among Thai women has grown only incrementally in the past 12 years, small increases in female participation continue. Thai boxing schools have opened their doors, and as women-friendly venues and higher-profile fights continue to increase in number, the prestige, travel opportunities, and prize money are drawing in more and more girls. The strong mental and physical condition necessary to excel in Muay Thai will likely attract more women who aren’t interested in the fighting, per se, but who are interested in the fitness benefits of the fast-moving sport. If you ask us, it’s about Thai, er, time.
–Courtney Holden
