It begins of course, with being ragged for taking up a "man's sport," and if that continuous heckling and demand to justify being there at all is not discouragement enough, the "serious" questions begin to crop up. If it is abroad, then questions about the boxer's sexuality are asked, and if it is India, then questions about whether anybody would want to marry them are raised. And in both geographical locations, the sight of women 'boxing' is reason enough for sexist and racist slurs. But if the defiant popularity of the sport is anything to go by, the message seems to be clear – women's boxing is here to stay, and if it bothers some men, either because it threatens their 'natural physical superiority' or challenges their 'cultural right' to rush to the 'frail' woman's protection… too bad.
It was in the 1990s that the rise of several professional women sports leagues took off, and one sport that rode this boom was boxing. By June 8 2001, when Laila Ali and Jackie Frazier-Lyde squared up for a fight that was part of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, the world had woken up to the fact that 'Ali/Frazier IV' (an allusion to their fathers' fight trilogy) was making history. And by 2005, when Million Dollar Baby won four of its seven Academy Award nominations, women's boxing had become acceptable as a serious challenge to not just a male-dominated sport, but taken-for-granted ideas about masculinity itself.
In 2003, when 45,000 people turned up for the opening day of the second Asian women's boxing tournament in India, with 68 boxers from nine countries, one could truly say that women's boxing had come of age, and shattered myths about it being something only women in the West might be doing. The icing on the cake for Indian women would have been the success of M C Marycom, who won the championship.
Additionally, seven Indian women, including Sarita Devi and Aruna Mishra, had made it to the finals. And if the efforts of the International Boxing Association to get women's boxing recognized by the 2008 Beijing games succeed, India will have a chance to get an Olympic medal in this sport for the first time – thanks to the women.
According to AIBA President Anwar Chowdhry, the International Olympic Committee have agreed in principle to recognize women's boxing as a part of the next Olympic Games 2008.
India has been ranked as high as second in Asia and fifth in the world, with M C Marycom (46 kg) the 2005 reigning Asian and world champion.
A DNA article on 19-year old boxer Jarna Sanghvi highlights the inspirational role of these sportswomen. In Akola, a region in Maharashtra that is seeing an alarming increase of violence against women, over 50 girls train at the district boxing club, that even has a 13 year old schoolgirl as one of its members. Many of the women have faced opposition at home, as well as ridicule and disparaging remarks from the community in which they live. Many believe that the sport does not guarantee money or jobs, although if they go on to win state level tournaments, as in the case of Sarita Devi, getting a job will become easier, with sports quotas in effect. In several cases, the boxers hail from poor families. M C Marycom herself comes from a village in Manipur of less than 300 population. She worked her way to the top while her husband was still jobless and they were working hard to make ends meet. At the World Boxing Championships at Podolsk, Marycom and others returned with a gold and four bronze medals.
Another source of anxiety seems to be marriage, and whether women in such sports will be considered marriageable or not. But the response from the girls has been overwhelming. Muslim girls in particular take heart from their hero Laila Ali – Million Dollar Baby may not have made it to poor Muslim ghettoes but Laila Ali definitely has.
To really get into boxing, one requires a certain amount of grit to fight off prejudices and unnecessary commentary on how different and unique it must be for a woman to be fighting. But aside from that, it provides several benefits for women. It is a great option for keeping fit, is not expensive unlike sports such as tennis, allows women to learn self-defense, is a lot of fun, and with greater visibility of women in these 'masculine' sports, it will help destroy myths about women needing to either submit to physical violence or always depend on men to protect them. While some may think boxing is dangerous, the sport's regulations require protective guards to shield the combatants during amateur competitions; no such protective guards stand ready to shield women in real life, at least not unless there is the expected repayment in the form of physical, mental, sexual and reproductive labor (usually for life). Boxing has allowed several women to stand up for themselves, at least on the streets and public places where women are routinely harassed.
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