My school Ikiyōyō-Ryu Bujutsu in Manchester, is centred around the concept of how through our existence, we give other people the right to enjoy their own existence and that we empower people to be themselves.

I have a lot of privilege as a white, middle-aged, professional, cisgender man in Britain. If I don't use that privilege to empower others, what is the point of that privilege? I'm just part of the oppression.

Martial arts certainly have a tendency to be very male-oriented, and in England, they are very white male oriented. There's no visibility. There's no Asian women in senior roles in martial arts. There aren’t many Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups who are engaged in sport, and women and girls are massively underrepresented.

When you get to Asian women in sport in England, they're the least represented group of people out of any group of people.

Many martial arts classes might claim that anyone can come, but that doesn't mean they're going to expect you to behave in a way that is acceptable.

At Ikiyōyō-Ryu Bujutsu, the main areas we look at are around age, gender identity, sexual orientation. We're actively promoting our space as a safe place for Asian women.

I can proudly say that about one third of my class has Asian women in martial arts; we have an age range of people in their 60s; we have a number of people who are neurodiverse.

By saying we're going to be an LGBTQI+ inclusive space, people know they're coming to an inclusive space. If we say we're going to challenge biphobia, transphobia, and homophobia, people know we’re going to challenge racism, people know we're going to challenge sexism, people know that we're not going to promote a sense of toxic masculinity within our space.

These open discussions happen quite a lot in my space. Getting 18-20 year old men to have these discussions in that space is a really healthy thing, because they are the target audience for change for the future.

Continued: https://www.pixstory.com/story/degendersports-if-youre-not-safe-in-the-dojo-then-where-would-you-be-safe1680526185/207923