Shopping for a Gi
I've been doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for about eight months now and I love it. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a style of self-defense wrestling which incorporates lots of chokes, throws, and submissions all based around technique and not strength, meaning that you can be the smaller athlete and still have an advantage. As a female, that was one of the things that attracted me to it. Now, as I've become committed to the sport and invested in it, attending classes weekly, I have gained lots of strength and reflexes. However, I made the unfortunate mistake of drying my nice black gi (the uniform/coat-looking thing most martial artists wear when they train) a few times, causing it to shrink. As such, I've been looking online for a new black gi.
Even though Jiu Jitsu makes me feel strong, shopping for a gi to wear to class reminded me that the females come second in the sport. Since there aren't any great places to get a gi in Champaign Urbana, I have to shop online. Even though I know that not many women's gis will come up, I always simply type "black jiu jitsu gi" without throwing in the modifying "women's" in the search bar as a preliminary experiment. Often, if you go to the shopping tab, female models don't come up in the first page of results. Then, I type in "black jiu jitsu women's gi" and proceed.
Most of the time, the results aren't too bad. They're usually decent gis and reasonably priced, so it's not like I'm really suffering that much. However, I'm picky when it comes to what I wear to class. My dream gi is a plain, black gi - no embellishments. I can tolerate a brandname on the shoulders or the chest. But what I hate is when I find a gi that I really like, but my size only comes in pink, or there's some kind of pink trademark or flower on it, or some character that means "female" is embroidered on the gi somewhere.
I don't want the color pink on my gi or anything that necessarily indicates that I'm female. It's not because I don't like the color pink, and it's not my elementary school counter-culture mentality where I used to hate pink because I wanted to be "different." Really, it's the opposite. I don't want anything to denote that the men in my studio are different from me because I'm female. You don't see men walking around with gis that have blue characters that say "boy fighter" and a line of embroidered guns and barbecues down the side of the arms. Men don't need those things on their gi because they are the focus of their sport - why would they need to make a gi that says "man" in every way possible when they are the default?
I'm not trying to put down the women who love their pink gis, or their gis with flowers on them. I even like the idea of having a few simple flowers on the arm of my gi, because I think flowers are pretty. Just as long as they aren't pink. And the situation really isn't that bad. At least there are multiple results for women's gis that come in different colors and sizes, and women are included and celebrated in Jiu Jitsu. But until I can type "jiu jitsu gi" into Google and see a plethora of results at first in both men and women's fits, with pink ones for men and scary ones for women, and everything in between, I will always feel off in a pink gi. To me, it symbolizes that I have to be modified as female, as an exception.
Even though Jiu Jitsu makes me feel strong, shopping for a gi to wear to class reminded me that the females come second in the sport. Since there aren't any great places to get a gi in Champaign Urbana, I have to shop online. Even though I know that not many women's gis will come up, I always simply type "black jiu jitsu gi" without throwing in the modifying "women's" in the search bar as a preliminary experiment. Often, if you go to the shopping tab, female models don't come up in the first page of results. Then, I type in "black jiu jitsu women's gi" and proceed.
Most of the time, the results aren't too bad. They're usually decent gis and reasonably priced, so it's not like I'm really suffering that much. However, I'm picky when it comes to what I wear to class. My dream gi is a plain, black gi - no embellishments. I can tolerate a brandname on the shoulders or the chest. But what I hate is when I find a gi that I really like, but my size only comes in pink, or there's some kind of pink trademark or flower on it, or some character that means "female" is embroidered on the gi somewhere.
I don't want the color pink on my gi or anything that necessarily indicates that I'm female. It's not because I don't like the color pink, and it's not my elementary school counter-culture mentality where I used to hate pink because I wanted to be "different." Really, it's the opposite. I don't want anything to denote that the men in my studio are different from me because I'm female. You don't see men walking around with gis that have blue characters that say "boy fighter" and a line of embroidered guns and barbecues down the side of the arms. Men don't need those things on their gi because they are the focus of their sport - why would they need to make a gi that says "man" in every way possible when they are the default?
I'm not trying to put down the women who love their pink gis, or their gis with flowers on them. I even like the idea of having a few simple flowers on the arm of my gi, because I think flowers are pretty. Just as long as they aren't pink. And the situation really isn't that bad. At least there are multiple results for women's gis that come in different colors and sizes, and women are included and celebrated in Jiu Jitsu. But until I can type "jiu jitsu gi" into Google and see a plethora of results at first in both men and women's fits, with pink ones for men and scary ones for women, and everything in between, I will always feel off in a pink gi. To me, it symbolizes that I have to be modified as female, as an exception.
I really like this post! It was really well written, and it's really cool that you've taken up this new sport and have gotten so into it. I also think it's great that you are focused on the sport itself and its relationship with you, and look for an ordinary, regular black gi with no distractions. Hopefully soon, we will have the full gamut of gi designs and colors available to everybody in the same way :) Good luck in your gi hunting!
ReplyDeleteThis makes perfect sense to me. It's cool that you get to wear a black gi, though! My son did aikido for several years, and he had to wear a white gi. (I think a black gi looks more imposing, plus white is a nightmare to keep clean.) Anyway, good luck finding your perfect gi.
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