Sunday, November 13, 2011

Writing for TUFF and other news

This has been the week from hell.  I've made myself crazy planning an upcoming kitchen renovation, which I decided, just this morning, to backburner until after the holidays.  However, I do have several updates and will be writing on the blog much more from now on.


B (on the left) with her opponent post-match.
Cutting Weight Guide
An update!  Yesterday one of my girls competed in a grappling tournament in Denver (where I got to meet Cat Zingano...but that is another story). 
B used my water manipulation method and went from 166lbs to 157lbs in four days.  If you haven't read my guide to cutting weight for women, go check it out.

Writing for TUFF
I've been offered to write for TUFF "The Ultimate Female Fighter" website on product reviews and any other article I think is good enough.  Thus, I've decided to make Pugilista my site for fighter interviews and personal training information and link to the larger articles on TUFF.  I'm so excited to work with Katrina and the rest of the folks over at TUFF who are dedicated to promoting female fighters.  If you haven't checked out the website, do it now!
http://theultimatefemalefighter.com/

Heather Bassett
Interviewing Heather Bassett
Next week I will be interviewing Heather Bassett, a 125lb amateur MMA fighter from Wisconsin.  Heather is considered a major up-and-coming fighter with a current record of 3-0.  Stay tuned for that interview.


Academic Shenanigans

      I'm working furiously on the introduction to my dissertation and writing a proposal for an upcoming academic conference.  The Popular Culture Association/American Language Association conference is in Boston this year and I really want to go.  Last year, I presentated a paper last year on Frank Miller and the reinvention of the noir thriller, which is part of my larger research/dissertation project.  This year I've decided to apply to two different areas:  detective fiction (my specialty) and sports, which is apparently a pretty small group.
      I am going to write a presentation about the discursive and ideological position of female fighters within a male-dominated institution.  What will this presentation intail?  To be honest, I am not sure yet.  I just know that I want to talk about how discourse automatically marginalizes women through the necessity of qualifiers...as in 'female' fighter rather than just 'fighter.'  I will post the proposal in the next week to see what you all think.

3 comments:

slideyfoot said...

Cool - congrats on the writing gig! I'm finishing off some product reviews and articles myself at the moment, for a BJJ magazine. :D

I'll be interested to hear more about that paper too. Are you going to say anything about the marketing issue, as brought up once again by the recent Manto problem?

Train.Fight.Win. said...

Congrats to you, Slidey! I am not sure if I am necessarily going to talk about marketing in this presentation. There is a fifteen minute time limit (!) so I will probably focus on language in general. However, marketing does reveal ideology in a very pronounced fashion, so perhaps I will bring up the Manto issue. My main target will almost certainly be Dana White and the Olympic boxing committee who is right this minute deliberating on forcing women to wear skirts in the ring. Skirts.

slideyfoot said...

Ah yes, I vaguely remember hearing about that skirt thing. Ridiculous. They used to have the same rule in tennis, IIRC. Or perhaps they still do? I can't off-hand think of a female tennis player wearing some practical shorts to play tennis, but then I haven't watched a match in a while.