Women And Boxing

As I drove into work yesterday morning I listened with interest to a radio article about womens' boxing. It was there because Olympic chiefs were meeting yesterday to decide on the issue of allowing womens' boxing as part of the 2012 Olympics programme.

Now I'm not really a boxing fan. Fundamentally I feel that a sport with the objective of physically beating seven, or eight shades of crap out of your opponent and winning by being the best one at it is wrong. But, if people want to do it and are willing participants, then I say they should be allowed to. I just don't really want to watch it.

And as far as I'm concerned, if men are allowed to do it in the Olympics then women should be allowed to as well.

It was all so simple in my mind. Men are allowed, so should women be.

Then I heard something that messed up my mindset. It was the fact that one of the reasons cited for womens' boxing not allowed in the Olympics in the past was that, and I quote, hence the quotation marks

"premenstrual women boxers become overly emotional putting them at greater risk of injury."

Well I don't know about greater risk of injury but I know a little bit about premenstrual women. My observations are not that they'd be at greater risk of injury in the least. No way. There can be nothing more scary than the thought of a pre menstrual woman in a boxing ring.

Give me a choice between jumping into a boxing ring and facing a woman in the premenstrual month, for I know that the condition lasts for about a month, or an angry Swan with a hatred of Sri Lankan drummers I know exactly what I'd do.

I'd face neither, I'd bugger off to Odel and buy a shirt or something then hope they'd be gone by the time I returned. Or at least they wouldn't recognise me if I had a different shirt on.

Trust me here. I know about these things.