PERHAPS I AM OVER-REACTING. Maybe I’m seeing mountains where there are only molehills, but I’m worried.
Female boxing is being touted as the latest greatest sport in Barbados. We’ve become accustomed to men boxing, and over the years it has been one of the “greatest” sports worldwide.
And this, despite the physical shambles that Muhammad Ali, one of the world’s “greatest” boxers, has become – his brains scrambled into Jell-O from years of taking punches.
But what really scared me was a picture in another section of the Press on September 19, showing a group of young children eagerly applauding and laughing as two females slugged it out in the ring, battering each other’s faces into distorted blobs of pain.
In Barbados there are laws against cockfighting. Dogfighting is similarly illegal. In many parts of Spain the legendary bullfight is now banned because of its obvious cruelty.
Whenever horses or other animals “die” or get “shot” in movies, there’s a very clear advert saying that the animals were not in any way harmed or injured. We pride ourselves in our humaneness to our animals.
But now it’s fun for women to bludgeon each other. It’s a great international sport, sanctioned by the Olympic Committee.
We take our children to see it. And sometime soon, when another woman gets battered by a man somewhere, we’ll lecture our children about abuse and non-violence.
But I wonder which message will be the more powerful and appealing years later when conflict arises: walking away manfully, or smashing that woman in the face?
TREVOR R. SHEPHERD
