Nope, not talking about ill fitting rash guards or a sports bra that really sucks to take on and off. I’m talking about gear that your teammate wears that makes you feel uncomfortable. For example, imagine an unknown person walks into your gym and wants to start training. The person is wearing this shirt:
Is it possible this is the chillest person you’ll ever meet? Sure! Is it also possible that this person is a raging, spazzy white belt who will hunt for armbars and potentially injure you? Sure. Would you feel cautious around this person? Honestly, I probably would. Would your perception change based on the gender – would you feel more wary around a man wearing this than a woman?
The uncomfortable clothing I selected was intentional in its mix. Some on this list are very obvious, while others I’m sure will inspire a range of discussion ranging from “Not a problem” to “Wow that is uncomfortable.” The rash guard lined gis below, for example, would not show unless the person took off their gi.
Scenario: Imagine you are in class and a new (unknown to you) teammate walks in wearing this gear. What would your reaction be? What would your reaction be if other women or young girls were also training there?
I heart boobies mouthguard
I heart boobies mouthguard from OTM Fight Shop
Trust no bitch:
Trust no Bitch, from FightChix – to be fair, I’m not sure if this is a t-shirt or a rashguard.
Tatami Pinup
Meerkatsu provided a nice review of this Tatami gi
Americana gi, rashguard lining
Platinum Gear: Angel gi
Platinum Gear: Angel board shorts
Also available as vale tudo shorts from Platinum BJJ
Jiu Jiu’s Question: What are your reactions to each of these items? Would they give you pause? Would they be permitted in your gym? How comfortable would you feel training in a gym where people wore these – would you invite new women to train there if that were the case?
Totally cool: saying that you’d feel comfortable or not comfortable and explaining why.
Not cool: saying “this is not a problem,” dismissing others’ opinions, telling someone they’re stupid for feeling uncomfortable, or declaring this is not a problem compared to rape, murder, or hyperbole.
Platinum Gear: Angel gi..I hate it because it’s so uber-douche and I don’t see how guns/broads relate to MMA. The pin-ups are art work and in a society where we can have tasteful p[in ups praised then I can i see the artistic value.
I love boobies is for cancer research as far I know – no issue.
Trust no bitch is just dumb as it’s to be worn by empowered chix lol
Because the “I heart boobies” mouthguard is pink, I’m assuming it’s one of those breast cancer awareness things. So that wouldn’t bother me.
The Tatami gi would bother me a bit. The Americana piece would bother me a bit more more. The Platinum Gear stuff is over the line of decency in a co-ed environment, IMHO. I don’t mind the guns- I like guns- but too much cheesecake.
“Trust no bitch” – if it was a guy, I’d wonder if he had a bitter-towards-all-women” attitude. But that word seems to have a lot of different meanings and degrees, so I wouldn’t make snap judgements about it.
The “breaking arms” one I have no problem with. I like aggressive stuff like that. That looks like something one of my buddies might buy me for Christmas. 😉
Hahaha excellent. I might wear that shirt as well – but I still consider how it might appear to others walking in, and if I were walking into a new BJJ gym I would not wear it.
Some of these mild irritation things are akin to having something stuck between your teeth. Mildly annoying, you can get on with your day, but it is there and you wish it weren’t.
At what point did it become socially acceptable to wear anything that says “I <3 Boobies" just because it happens to be breast cancer pink?
If the mouth guard said "I <3 Vagina" it's essentially the exact same thing, but no one on here would be ok with it. Think about that for a minute.
That was exactly my thought.
In my work world of lactation consulting, where boobies are for feeding babies, there is a huge difference between genitalia and boobies. Boobies make food. Gentalitia make babies. In the lactation world something in the mouth that says I love breasts has a completely different connotation because the breast is SUPPOSED to be in the mouth of a baby.
We have long discussions about the erotic versus the nurturing role of breasts. There is also a cultural anthropologist, Kathleen Dettwyler, who has analyzed how the foot used to be eroticized in Chinese culture and the parallels with how the breast has been eroticized in American culture – including how both cultures deformed the physiological shape of the foot and the breast to make those body parts more erotic.
And of course the mouth itself is an erotic object. I actually lived in a culture where kissing didn’t really hold much erotic appeal and neither did breasts. The butt and the thighs were erotic in that culture and nothing else.
I think it would be interesting to do a poll of a bunch of my colleagues to find out how they would feel about an object that is used to protect an adult mouth during fighting that says “I love boobies” would be perceived as opposed to something that says “I love vagina”.
Of course in my world, none of us can stand to look at posters of women with airbrushed breasts or breasts that have implants that are so huge that the skin is stretched tight because we immediately remember the worst cases of engorgement and/or mastitis and such photos make us turn away in empathy with the women who experienced the pain of those conditions.
I’m a woman, and I actually own, and train in, the platinum angel gi. I also have the no-gi shorts and vale tudo shorts, but have yet to use them.
Shannon – what prompted you to buy it? Have you had any negative or awkward reactions? And what prompted you to get both the nogi and the vale tudo? Would you continue wearing them if a training partner expressed discomfort?
I bought it simply because I was looking to add a navy blue gi to my collection. The navy with the cream stitching is super sharp, and I would have bought it with or without the rash guard lining. I had heard great things about the quality of Platinum gis, and the super limited production (there are only 30 in existence) appealed to me. I bought the no-gi shorts because, personally, I really like the design. The vale tudo were thrown in as a bonus freebie.
I have had no negative or awkward reactions. I get compliments on the gi every time I wear it. I haven’t rolled in the shorts yet, but I’ve shown them to a few female training partners in the locker room, and got only positive feedback. I’d be more concerned about the guys at my gym being uncomfortable, or possibly distracted, than any of the women. Lastly, if anyone did express discomfort, I would absolutely stop wearing them around that person.
Those absolutely would NOT be allowed at my school. For that, I am quite thankful. My school used to allow people to wear whatever gi they wanted. However, a few people wore patches and gis that contained pictures and words such as you have shown above. The shool owner did not approve and subsequently instituted a strict dress policy. ..only school gis and no non-school patches. While I’m sad that I can’t wear some of the very cool gis that are out there, it’s worth it to not have to deal with such images. Honestly, I don’t think I would roll with someone wearing such things. Leave sex OFF the mat.
Yeah, that’s what Charles was saying – like I responded to someone else – I’d be sad if I couldn’t use my gis and my sci fi patches, but then again…perhaps it would be worth the trade off? Thankfully no one at my gym wears things like that.
When I started taichi more twenty years ago, my instructor (who also taught japanese jujitsu) told us not to wear anything distracting because we needed to focus on the form and content of what we were learning – what are you learning from the art? I would find all of these items of clothing quite distracting. It’s not that they are offensive and demeaning (although some of them are); it’s that they would make it harder for me to learn what I want to learn.
I agree with Flossie’s sentiments.
In the academies where I’ve set the policy, we used plain white gi with minimal patches. The academy itself was decorated in a similar, spartan, way. White walls, no posters, no banners, no commercial endorsements and so on. We did displayed our logo and a small collection of photographs, but that’s essentially it. And before you ask, yes, I am a total party pooper.
The overall aesthetic policy then, was not to include anything that didn’t need to be there; the opposite of what I’ve seen in most places where anything is acceptable, as long as it isn’t specifically banned. Our idea was to include only those things related to the two guiding principles of our training: What can you do? Who can you help?
Everything else is a distraction. (Even if it’s REALLY cool!)
I get the feeling that you’d really love training with Roy Dean. ^_^
Lol to the party pooper comment. At least it’s consistent, though I’ll admit that if I had a choice I wouldn’t train where I couldn’t wear my gis. I mean – are you saying I couldn’t wear my Leticia Ribeiro gi, or my Pink Blossom Fuji gi? Gah!
If it were between bro-central or killing my gi collection…
I’d just cry.
Sorry, Jiu-Jiu. In my old school, where I set the policies, you would have to be clad in a white gi with as few patches as possible. I do understand, though, that BJJ gi tend to come with a lot of adornments. The Leticia Ribeiro gi would be alright since, essentially, grapplers often just can’t get a gi cut specifically for women that doesn’t have the extra stuff on it.
I’ve also made exceptions for people who simply don’t own more than one gi–which they got while training at another academy. And of course, visiting grapplers can wear what they like. It was the people committed to training regularly that were expected to contribute to maintaining a certain training atmosphere.
Have you ever trained in a spartan type, white-gi only atmosphere, Julia? For an extended amount of time?
Boiling it all down, when everyone is dressed the same, what comes out more–what differentiates people the most–is their behavior, their character. Simple environments throw people back on who they, themselves, are. It reminds us of the difference between ourselves and our symbols. It places the emphasis on self-awareness, self-discipline, self-expression, and all those wonderfully high-minded, philosophical, martial artsy, Jedi kinda things.
Well, I did train tae kwon do when I was 18. But no, not jiu jitsu in a white-gi only atmosphere. I can understand the appeal, and my gut says you’d tend to have mellower people? Or more serious people? I just think it would attract a certain type of folks.
Out of curiosity: are people allowed to wear rash guards – what kinds? Do you guys do no-gi? What is your no-gi dress code? Do you guys have a “casual Friday” or something like that, where you can rock a fantastic gi – once or twice per month?
Here’s a link to a picture with my general expectations.
http://www.charlessmith.org/keep-it-covered-keep-it-classy/
I whole-heartedly support rash guards, though I prefer they be plain, and with no cleavage, arm pits, or midriffs on display. Since I like art, especially when people take the time to do it themselves, nobody complains about the occasional rocked-out gi. “My other one is in the wash,” qualifies as a good excuse, if not overused.
One place we always have room for open, gi lovin’, good times is our open mat–where people from other academies join us. In that case, diversity is the whole point. Taken together, my formal classes combine with informal events to keep our academy’s focus on self-discipline while still allowing for self-expression. At least, that’s my story. I’m sticking with it.
I can understand that. I get VERY distracted by the new, lovely gis that come in. Gorgeous. Things most definitely don’t have to be bad or offensive to be distracting. There is a big reason I wish everyone would wear rashgaurds under their gis.
The “Keep Calm and Break Arms” is obviously a spin off of the often copied “Keep Calm and Carry On” which has recently been popularized by The Chive’s “Keep Calm and Chive On.” Now everything is “Keep Calm and (insert whatever),” so basically I’d assume the person was a jiujitsu and internet meme fan, and nothing more.
The “I Heart Boobies” mouthpiece is obviously a breast cancer thing, so the person wearing it would probably actually be sensitive to gender issues, not calloused and insensitive.
The rest of the shit you posted is classless and white trash, to be frank. It’s akin to the naked women profile on mudflaps thing you see on the trucks of rednecks flying the confederate flag.
Our gym doesn’t have a dress code, but the culture of our gym is such that the person wearing naked women on their gi would be ridiculed and made fun of to the point of tears. THEY would be the one made to feel uncomfortable because it is so cheesy and lame. I wouldn’t be offended, just amused at their expense.
I don’t see “I heart boobies” as being automatically sensitive to gender issues, but that’s likely because I went a few rounds on the Interwebs with folks about it. When I mentioned that I would feel uncomfortable by a teammate wearing it I was told:
Another person went on to say it was a great excuse to be pervy because it was all in the name of breast cancer research! So unfortunately I see it as a way for a person to get defensive if I were to express any discomfort by it.
Wow are those gis ugly! That would be my first thought. In general I don’t care what people wear, so long as it is clean and not stinky! Although anyone wearing the last two items would probably get some abuse from me, as well as from many of the other people in our gym. They are just silly.
Do you think if the vale tudo shorts or the board shorts were worn in your MMA class that it would be different than just training in nogi? (You do MMA? wait – your name is M.A.Mommy…so maybe you’re just martial arts?)
Jennifer, one of the guys in the “stand up” Mixed Martial Arts classes I’ve been taking for about five years had a white gi that became so dirty and stinky that one of the instructors offered him a new black uniform for free if he would throw out the white gi on the spot. She literally made him go change into the black gi and bring back the white one and she tossed it. At a certain point no amount of bleach is going to touch heavy duty sweat stains on white fabric. Of course that doesn’t happen so much if you are wearing a rash guard and a much thicker BJJ gi.
Oh dear lord that is disgusting. The brown belt at my academy has a super disgusting looking gi – I so wish he’d get rid of it. Ewwww. Nasty.
The sad thing is that he’s a really nice guy and he’s a high school biology teacher and head of the science department at a high end private school. You’d think he’d remember some of his training about microbes and disease transmission. Sometimes the instructors make us to a final drill that involves either military crawling down the mats or scooting down the mats doing sit up crawls so that the floors are cleaner for the BJJ that follows. The white uniforms really show what was on the floor. Even though they do clean the mats with some sort of industrial strength cleaner there is so much traffic that it doesn’t last long. Just one more reason for rash guards.
Some of the items are clearly offensive. I just can’t imagine anyone where I train wearing them. A good school wouldn’t promote that type of behavior anyway.
I would hope not!
I have absolutely no problem with the Keep Calm T-shirt and would probably wear it myself, I’d just assume BJJ fan rather than spazzy thug. I could see how someone new to or who doesn’t train BJJ might interpret it differently though.
My first reaction to the mouthguard was an absolute no, however a few people have mentioned it could be for Breast Cancer which would make it a little more acceptable to me but I’m not a fan. I wonder how the guys would feel training with someone they don’t know with a mouthguard saying I love penis?
FightChix T-shirt is just really trashy on a girl and offensive on a guy
Tatami Pinup – I think it is worth mentioning here that this design wasn’t thought up by the Tatami guys themselves but was the winner of a Design your own gi competition. Chosen by a facebook vote if I remember correctly?? I can see why some people might be uncomfortable with it but really doesn’t bother me and I’ve trained with a guy wearing this before.
Americana gi – This for me just steps over the line but if it’s a lining I probably wouldn’t see it
Angel kit – yuck! I would feel very uncomfortable rolling with someone wearing these products images like that have no place on anything BJJ related
I think from the “Keep Calm” shirt I still remember the “me” who walked into a BJJ gym 3 years ago, completely nervous about trying out bjj. We were concerned about it being overly aggressive, hyper masculine, fight-club style guys. If we had seen people wearing a shirt like that, it honestly would have confirmed our suspicions about the aggressiveness of BJJ.
Now-me wouldn’t care, but then-me might not have started doing BJJ.
I’d honestly laugh if someone wore a, “I like penis” mouthguard.
Ooooh boy you have to check out http://www.tukanokimonos.com/ as well. The gis don’t look questionable but check out the marketing. I think these are all silly distractions if worn on the mat. A friend brought up the Fight Chix one some time ago as insulting both for their designs and the logo itself, depicting something that is far from the stance of a fighting chick. Thumbs down to everything except maybe the rashguard.
Hi Samantha! Welcome to the party! In fact I totally am aware of them and wrote about them in The Object in the Ad.
Though – the goal of this article wasn’t to talk about marketing, but about the actual clothes themselves. I do have several articles talking about advertising – some positive, some negative. If that’s of interest to you, there are a few articles to read.
I liked Fight Chix when I first saw them, but I was put off by their marketing. To be honest, I was really shocked there was a woman behind it, due to all the super cheese-cake style photos. The photos there seemed more like Hooters ads.
I think these are all fairly ridiculous in various ways. The t-shirts and gis just feed into the macho dudebro culture that’s everything I hate about sports. The “I Heart Boobies” thing is probably breast cancer related, but is offensive in it’s own way as it reduces women to their breasts and focuses on saving breasts as opposed to saving lives. It’s also part of dubious breast cancer “awareness” stuff that does little if anything to help people with breast cancer. Raising awareness of something everyone knows about is pointless compared to actually funding research or helping suffering people.
I remember reading several articles about the “save the breast” type campaigns, and the overwhelming feeling from the authors was: I am more than my breasts, and it’s not about saving my breasts, but about saving ME.
It’s not about boobs. It’s about lives.
Jiu Jiu – sometimes breasts have more meaning for moms because they are part of the continuing process of first growing a life inside their own body, then moving towards growing them from your body to watching how they grow on their own. So, for some women – losing their breasts is part of losing a small piece of the process of nourishing another life. Yes, sometimes saving me takes precedence over giving and nourishing life – but women do need to mourn that other loss.
This is making me feel a bit sad. When my son was training for his black belt at the original Manhattan Martial Arts dojo that was in the movie Little Manhattan, there was one young instructor who pestered all the moms to try the classes. She worked on me for four years before I got my duff up off the chair and tried a class. She has the fastest round house kick I’ve ever seen and can chase anyone one legged with such speed that they can’t touch her. Her mother died of breast cancer, her aunt lost one breast to breast cancer and she herself was diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 30. Since she has the gene for the most aggressive form of breast cancer she opted for a double mastectomy. It has been hard for her to recuperate her upper arm strength with such a serious surgery. Nevertheless she is back full force encouraging women to be fit with her hip hop kick boxing classes which are incredibly popular. Short women, tall women, fat women, skinny women, women of every ethnicity you can find in Manhattan women – all throng to her classes.
She was quiet about her cancer – not divulging it to very many people. We talk about her breast reconstruction and I sent her a photo of an absolutely beautiful tattoo that another woman had done to her reconstructed breasts after her double mastectomy. I don’t know if she opted for the tattoo, but her new physique is every bit as athletically gorgeous as her former slightly lighter physique. I’m so glad she is well and thriving and continuing to inspire women who would never thing of exercising so vigorously to do so.
I’m in agreement about the boobies, bitches and pin-ups. The Angel and Americana gi linings I think we’ve covered elsewhere – also unacceptable.
On the other hand, I have no problem with the “Keep Calm” t-shirt. Sure, maybe you should re-consider it for first impressions. But I think it’s a clever and humorous advertisement for jits. If one of my regular training partners wore it, we’d have a laugh because I’m not worried about him breaking my arms even though – you know – he’s trying to break my arms.
I’d put that one in the same category as the “Enjoy a Choke” shirt (below). It’s funny.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/181258932226?lpid=82
Of the presented items, the “keep calm” shirt is ok, and the boobie mouthguard is meh – distracting but not offensive. The rest? I wouldn’t want to train anywhere that was allowed, or with people who would wear it.
As another note, I belong to a great, well-moderated, very positive, bjj on-line forum. One of the members, now a purple belt, has this as the tag-line under his username; “Crusher of white belts.” Every time I see it, I think, “what a dick” and “I’m not going to post on any threads of his or where he’s involved.” Now he may be a lovely guy, but such a sentiment is totally off-putting. As a white belt, I think higher belts who take some pleasure in smashing lower belts is a sad loser, and if I ever get to a higher rank, I don’t plan on taking pleasure in the bjj equivalent of kicking puppies or taking candy from babies. ;^) I may be the only one to react that way, but if I ran the forum, he’d need another tag-line!
May I ask what forum?
Uh oh.. Charles, are you the “Crusher of White Belts?”
LOL @ Aaron! Forum is the Grappler’s Guide.
LOL, Aaron!
Thanks, MityMous.
“Crusher of white belts”…what a claim! That’s like blind man basher or kid kicker or cripple crusher…now if his tagline was black belt beater or something, I’d say that was a serious (?) line in the sand!
The Platinium Gear stuff is a bit much and so is the “trust no b*tch” rash guard. If I saw somebody rolling with that stuff it would give me the impression that they weren’t the most intelligent people in the world. Just seems like something a teenage girl with an attitude would wear.
Boobies mouth guard makes me smile inside. It’s cause I like boobies too. Can’t help it. Also, I’m all for women’s health. I think it’s a great cause. Silly way of showing it, like movember is for men’s health.
I’m not offended by any of the examples though. Maybe it’s because I’m a male, or maybe because I just don’t care. Seems like these days everybody gets so offended by everything they don’t agree with. It’s silly.
I have actually owned one of Tatami’s pin up rash guards. Bought it without any hesitation cause it was super cheap. It was a great piece of gear and everybody, even the women in my gym seemed to like it.
If someone walked into my school with a gi covered in naked ladies, I probably wouldn’t roll with them. If they’re willing to exploit women through their training gear, then who knows what kinds of things they might say about me or try to do to me. I don’t want some scummer hitting on me during class. When I’m at the academy I’m there to train. Not deal with douche bags.
As for the “Trust No Bitch” shirt, I can’t even… I feel like that shirt was made for female MMA fans, not BJJ fighters. I wouldn’t think that a woman who trains and respects herself would seriously wear that shirt. Honestly, if I saw a BJJ lady wear that shirt I would judge her. It sounds terrible, but I would absolutely judge her.
Someone at the gym I train at owns the Lucky Pin-Up gi, and it’s in his rotation of regular gis. I think it’s an awesome gi. When I first saw it I thought it was, er… “Memphis Bell-esque” – retro and classy rather than off putting or sexual.
There’s a kids Muay Thai class that takes place around about the same time as BJJ at my gym, and there’s been no issue with the pin-up gi. I don’t think my instructor would be happy with any sweary t-shirts or actual naked bodies though, because that’s not something that the kids should be seeing.
I work in an industry where sexual images are incredibly common (video games), so personally I probably wouldn’t even really notice if someone was wearing that gi with the girls printed on the rash guard – but I understand that’s just me, and that lots of other people wouldn’t feel the same way.
I did a bit of subtle polling on the mat the other night, essentially asking an all male group what they thought about the various clothing available to grapplers. There was a bit of talk about various color preferences for gi, and what particular brand name was currently lame (Tap Out), but no mention of appropriateness or any sense that people might be uncomfortable in the sense Jiu Jiu is bringing up. I nudged the conversation in that direction and found no one with an opinion; which is to say the idea that what one wears might have an effect on others was not on people’s radar.