I’m conflicted about Metamoris. On the one hand, I really love watching these matches with other BJJ practitioners. It was exciting to see high level matches, hang out with teammates, and learn some new-to-me names in BJJ. I don’t follow BJJ folks obsessively, so this was literally the first time I’d seen Keenan, and it was fun to watch.
My internal conflict is that the organizer, Ralek Gracie, has come out with some disheartening words about women in jiu jitsu, and why they will not be signing women now. You can read the whole article on MMAFighting.com.
“We had that one match and it was cool, but that was more of, ‘That’s cool and that was interesting and I want to see that again if the girls are cute.’ You know how it is. The UFC wouldn’t even have a women’s division if it wasn’t for Ronda Rousey. They wouldn’t even have it. It’s a really, really tricky thing.
“We’re not a charity right now,” he states. “I have aspirations beyond Metamoris that are charitable and everything I need to do, but right now we have to succeed. We have so many people riding on it with so many things and people wanting to see it succeed. Our obligation is to make sure people say, ‘Holy shit! I need to watch that!’ Otherwise, there’s no way.”
–Ralek Gracie at MMAFighting.com
Here are the main points I see Ralek making (from the article, not just the quote):
- Successful women athletes must be good looking to draw an audience.
- It is not financially sound to include women in Metamoris.
- Including women in Metamoris would be furthering women in BJJ at a loss of profits to them (ie. charity).
- A women’s match is of lower quality than a men’s match in terms of excitement and/or viewability.
- One female pairing would bring fewer viewers than having all six matches be men.
- They do not have enough money to pay for women.
There are some unfortunate realities that are true, such as female athletes who are good looking (Anna Kournikova) tend to be more successful than those who are not (Martina Navritilova). There is a great documentary about that – “Branded,” part of the “Nine for IX” series. However, it is so disappointing to have a high level organizer claim that having women on the ticket is an act of “charity,” and that the only women worth including are cute ones. Not just that, but claiming you can’t afford women after someone turns you down for a $140,000 per year contract rings false. ($140,000 for 12 different female matches times 2 women = $5,833 per person per match.)
What a lot of people don’t know is that one of those goals and ideas is that we were going to sign these guys to a year-long contract with, let’s say for Garry and his case, I think it was $140,000 in a year that we offered him and an opportunity to do up to 12 matches.”
Ralek’s refusal to risk having a female match reminds me all too much of the notion that video games will not sell if there is a female protagonist. Check out this quote from CNet.com, on The Risk of the Female Game Protagonist:
The reasons for why this might be the case are well documented: from the belief that games with male protagonists make more money (which could very well be explained by the fact they receive more marketing money) to the fact that games development is massively dominated by men — women only make up 22 percent of the game industry workforce — and, of course, the idea that the larger core gaming demographic (men) don’t want to play as women.
If you just tweak the subject words, you can see that they are operating under the very same underlying belief system!
- The belief that male fighters make Metamoris more money (which could very well be explained by the fact that they have only heavily marketed men)
- BJJ is massively dominated by men — women make up only 10%* of the BJJ population. *Statistic based entirely on wild speculation.
- The larger core viewing demographic (men) don’t want to watch women.
Ralek’s statement affects people, and not just the would-be female competitors. A Skirt on the Mat addresses the “afford” issue, and my teammate, Maggie Moo, did a funny, angry gif series about it. Edit: Chelsea, a black belt from ATOS, wrote an interesting article about it as well.
I don’t know about you, but I would have been really excited to watch a women’s match at Metamoris, regardless of how attractive they were. Women are growing in this sport, and making these women visible is a way to help encourage women to start training and to continue training. I’m not talking about charity – I’m talking about reaching a larger audience, which can translate into dollars.
Unfortunately, I think it’s a catch-22. You don’t include women because they don’t bring money, but they don’t bring money because you don’t include them. Is their decision a good, long-term strategy, or will it negatively affect them? I want to believe this will have some repercussions, but I predict that the folks who complain will be drowned out by folks paying for Metamoris. The question remains: Can Metamoris afford women, or can they afford to exclude women?
Jiu Jiu’s Question: What are your thoughts on Ralek’s statement? Do you disagree or think there is some merit to what he is saying, and why? Does this position affect whether or not you would watch/purchase/attend any Metamoris events?
No Metamoris for me until this changes.
I have to say…I disagree with you here! Ralek is totally out to lunch on this one. It’s BS that he can’t afford it (as you point out), it’s BS that women’s matches are less exciting, and, though I don’t know this for a fact, I doubt very much that making one of the 6 matches FvF would harm Ralek’s profit margin. I’ll admit that, yes, how good looking a female competitor is would affect the draw–I’m not saying that that’s how it should be, it’s just reality. As a person with considerable influence in the sport, Ralek should be going out of his way to help the sport advance generally, and he should be helping women’s BJJ in particular! That’s not “charity”…that’s doing what’s right. After dragging his sorry ass on the same issue, Dana White has certainly done a 180–not, of course, because he’s suddenly become charitably-minded (or more progressive!) but because he has realized that the UFC can make a lot of money with female athletes. I was bothered by Ralek’s apparent attempts to monopolize key fighters, but this issue does it for me. After paying up for all but one of the previous Metamoris events, I’ll be watching the Copa Podio!
For topics I feel strongly about, I often write about them in extremely neutral ways. My reason for doing this is to calmly discuss hot topics. Sometimes I worry that my voice will come across too strong and only attract “I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU” people. I will put out the facts as I see them, then step back and let folks come to their own ideas. I try to write about them in thoughtful ways rather than emotional ways. As a language instructor, this is a good way to facilitate a well-rounded conversation and to encourage some folks who might be afraid to speak up.
In my opinion, I think Ralek has done a huge disservice to the women in BJJ. I think this statement was sexist and serves only to legitimize sexist thinking. I think he absolutely can afford, both monetarily and body-wise, to include one single female match at each Metamoris. I think he chose not to, and I think his thinking is antiquated.
I’m glad that you’ll be making a statement with your wallet. I had not paid to watch any matches, so my continuing non-payments will not make a specific statement.
I’m actually glad you did that! When I first read this I thought…wow she is so calm about it, but it actually further broke down the points for me (which made me loathe him even more). I was unable to escape from posting a scathing, rage filled GIF post. Thanks for writing this!
What folks DON’T see are the vocal rantings I do, the multiple edits, the furious deleting, etc.
I ought to make a video.
I would watch that. 😀
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I’m a chick and I disagree with a few of your points.The question that you need to ask is: How many additional buys will adding in a woman fight get vs the cost of paying the women? Unless it’s Ronda Rousey fighting, not many.
There are more intriguing fights that they could pay men for instead of going out of their way to pay two women to fight just so that they can say they include women
Ralek has certainly not worded his statement properly – I found it pretty rude and crass, but the gist of it is fair enough. Metamoris is not a charity. When two female competitors impress him enough that he believes they should be on the card, I don’t think he will hesitate to make that phone call.
What us feminist gals need to realize is that this is what evaluating you on the merits of your work (ie how many buys can you generate) means – NOT simply including us because of our genitals. That’s why Ronda Rousey is in the UFC now; Dana realized he can make $$$ of her, despite the fact that the female mma talent pool is tiny compared to the males.
So it’s not just about “affording” women, it’s about getting someone more exciting on their. If I were considering buying metamoris, I would much rather watch Garry Tonon than some random girl.
Your point is pretty much “null” unless you are saying men buying the fights would look at it and say “Oh what? One women’s fight? I’ll never purchase that.” I’m assuming most wouldn’t, perhaps most men who aren’t Ralek Gracie deserve a bit more credit than that, huh? Feeding into misogynistic attitudes as a women is disappointing but not surprising when we are told jiu jitsu is a “mans sport” reinforced by an ignorant man who thinks he would be sacrificing the art by allowing a woman to fight. Agreed, I love Gary Tonon but the idea a woman can’t be on the card and add to the diversity Metamoris is lacking is simply foolish and obviously not based on fact or statistics as we see many women’s matches ending with submissions at a very high level. That is probably why we also see many male practitioners writing Ralek, protesting metamoris and annoyed at the lack of women. FANS WANT DIVERSITY IN MATCHES! Metamoris has been a snooze fest and clearly they need to do more to embrace a wider audience. If you genuinely think the MMA crowd knows or gives a crap about guys like Keenan Cornelius or Gary Tonan (who turned down a chance to fight in the UFC) you are sadly misinformed (not to say they aren’t great but simply unknown outside of the BJJ community). This is the same crowd he claims to be reaching if he were to bring in Ronda Rousey. Just some food for thought while Ralek finds more excuses to alienate practitioners and fans.
It’s hard for me to believe that every BJJ woman save for three are considered boring or random or more.
I personally didn’t (and still?) don’t know who Garry Tonon is, so his name is not going to be exciting for me. More likely, that “random” gal is going to be a name I know, as I tend to follow more women in BJJ than men.
I also don’t see that he’ll be losing money by including women. Honestly, I think that a lot of the men’s matches were not hugely exciting, and they also ended in stalemates. There is a known pool of elite bjj women. They are not random women, so why not draw from that pool?
@Maggie. It’s not that guys don’t want to watch chicks, it’s more that they would rather see other guys fight unless the girls are making some *serious* noise in the BJJ world. Most of the people I know from MMA and BJJ don’t really care, they just want to see exciting fights. Ralek’s point was that he isn’t going to include women for the sake of including them, although I do agree that he did not communicate the point in a polite manner and did come across as misogynistic.
@Jiu Jiu. Garry Tonon fought Kron Gracie last year and it was widely considered to be one of the most exciting matches in jiu jitsu history. Kron Gracie is Rickson Gracie’s son, and is considered to be one of the best practitoners in the world. Garry Tonon gave him a serious run for his money (you should check out the fight I can’t do it justice here!). He’s quite famous amongst the BJJ crowd (at least at my gym lol) and is a *massive* draw. I don’t think he is losing money by including women – as it stands, the point he was trying to communicate (and I agree he didn’t do it in a tasteful way) is that he isn’t going to include women just to say yeah i met the women quota. He’s only going to do it if they compel him to do so. See the slight difference?
I’m sure there are a lot of elite women in BJJ, no doubt, but with all due respect Jiu Jiu if you do not know who Garry Tonon is and why he is a big draw, I do not think you are qualified to talk about what the average BJJ fan wants. I’m sorry if this comes across as rude (and just for the record I think you and your blog are awesome :D).
Also I heard about Ralek’s “apology” video lol, and I honestly think he seems like a good guy who needs to learn how to speak properly and communicate his thoughts in a way that isn’t going to offend people. A bit cheap too lol – what’s the big deal about people buying metamoris and watching it together??
Lastly, I would like to commend the people here who aren’t going to buy Metamoris because they want to see more females. You are voting with your dollars. It’s a good start. If the vast majority of fans start clamoring to see women on the card (which sadly probably not gonna happen for a while) they will respond to consumer demand.
You aren’t rude, but you also misunderstand. You took my quote out of context :D. For realzies, I do not talk about what the average fan wants. I have no clue. For all I know, it’s a bunch of dudebros. If I inadvertantly spoke for what the average fan wanted, it was definitley not intentional. I know about me. I know that if he is trying to reach folks like me, the way to do that is to get a woman on the card. I’m saying that if he wants to reach women in Jiu jitsu who are on the fence about paying for or watching Metamoris, having a woman on the card is exactly how to do that.
Ahhh gotcha that makes sense. I did misunderstand you. Your definitely right that putting women on the card would help with getting some women like yourself (and some men) who are on the fence about buying it. But you have to understand that you are in the *vast* minority.
Given that Metamoris is still in the early stages, I think they are going to (and sadly, for now, rightly so), focus on their target demographic of dudebros (got nothing against them most of my friends are dudebros lol) because that’s where the money is coming from, not people like you or some of the commenters on the blog. It’s economic – the Marginal Benefit of arranging the lady fight vs Marginal Cost of losing a male fight that is a higher draw. That is what Ralek meant when he said that Metamoris is not a charity. He didn’t word it properly and in today’s PC world you have to have more class than what he had.
The UFC for a long time did not add in women, until Dana realized that 1) Ronda Rousey had the personality and talent to be a star and 2) A lot of the older stars were entering the twilight stages of their career. It made business sense to do so. Ralek will do the same when the time is right. He even came out and said in the mmafighting article that if Ronda Rousey was willing he would make it happen! IE when the right woman comes along, he will put her on the card. He’s running a meritocracy oriented business. You understand where I’m coming from? there aren’t any women asides from Ronda and maybe Kyra Gracie who are large grappling draws.
Btw something I missed when I reread the article he also said that he wants to add in girls onto the prelims. Similar to how the ufc puts no name fighters on the prelims to give them experience and test them out. Sounds pretty fair to me.
I can’t even.
You laid it out nicely, JiuJiu. There’s no excuse!
It’s ironic that in the metamoris event that had two female fighters, the fights were mostly lackluster and uneventful. The only exception was the Nicolini vs Dern fight which was highly technical AND action packed. Ralek is illogical and his archaic sexist mentality is not only doing the entire community a disservice, but he is doing himself a huge disservice as well. Good grief he is an idiot.
Maggie told me that Ralek released a 15 minute video defending himself.
Sigh.
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