It has become clear from popular representations of open hand combat that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and grappling are becoming a stronger part of the mainstream consciousness. Surely, the popularity of the UFC and MMA more widely and the fundamental importance of grappling skills for this arena has influenced this, and while portrayals of fighting still emphasise ‘flash’, there is greater and greater use of more practical ‘smash’ via BJJ and grappling arts in these representations, for instance the cobra choke in Inception. While ground and pound to a rear choke is increasingly apparent in popularised representations of fighting on television and the big screen, it is, perhaps unsurprisingly, rare to see women showcasing grappling skills in fight-fantasies (and let’s leave surrender of an ‘ultimate’ nature to one side – keep it clean, people!).
There are popular representations of female grappling, however, and I was very excited by the overhead sweep to mount/ground-n-pound in Lady Gaga’s Telephone video; I friggin’ LOVE that sweep! The most recent pop culture representation of women’s grappling is Britney Spears’ doppleganger cat fight in her Hold It Against Me video in which she attempts to RNC herself (yes, the technique is atrocious, but that’s not really the point here). So, as far as I know, Ms Spears is the first A-list – is she still A-list? – female celebrity to go all BJJ, albeit within the context of some crazy kung fu mania, and thus marks some sort of milestone of yet indeterminate connotations for women in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Can you offer an earlier popular representation of a woman practicing BJJ? Comment below!
20 Feb 2011 @ 5:03 am
Does Marge Simpson doing MMA count? I couldn’t find a clip, but I enjoyed this article on it. It even has sensible commentary on how much The Simpsons has gone down hill! =)
20 Feb 2011 @ 9:02 am
Heck yes it counts, Ashley, thanks for commenting! I wonder then, is it primarily pop cultural icons in their nadir – Britney, The Simpsons – that showcase women in grappling and if so does that ‘mean’ something or is it coincidence? Marge would totally take Spears, btw 😉
31 May 2011 @ 5:27 pm
Worst rear naked choke ever! 😛
Marge Simpson would kick Roger Gracie’s butt any day of the week.
31 May 2011 @ 5:33 pm
Amen to that, bro! The most recent Beyonce video, ‘Girls Rule the World’ or whatever, has her doing some vague RNC movement for a split second, but isn’t committed enough to make it on the grappling celeb radar 😉