A feminist writer is set to host a martial-arts themed workshop to teach people to combat hyper-masculinized approaches to journalism. Heavy Breathing: Martial Arts for Feminist Journos will be held this Sunday in San Francisco, Calif., and will be led by Sarah Burke, whose writing focuses on art, identity, social justice, internet culture, feminism, and the intersections therein.
Burke, who helped develop her feminist wits by co-founding Anti-Lab, an open resource center for resistance projects that were anti-fascism, anti-racism, [and] anti-patriarchy, designed the journalism workshop to empower women, according to the event description.
In this experimental workshop attendees will collectively undermine the historic valorization of hyper-masculinized approaches to journalism, it states.
During the free workshop, participants will learn to value approaches of empowered passivity through practicing the feminist concept of circlusion (the antonym of penetration) and the martial arts concept of ukemi, the art of receiving a throw, the description adds.
Burke told The College Fix that while there wont be actual martial art involved during the workshop, participants will be asked to engage in movement exercises based on martial arts principles.
The workshop will be held by the Heavy Breathing initiative, which offers workshops every month combining physical activity with group discussions related to art. Previous workshops include a yoga-themed movement session and a spoken word meditation themed around the history of dance.
Body movement may help produce productive feminist discourse, according to the initiative.
Critical discourse often feels heady, abstract, and divorced from the body, the Heavy Breathing website states. How do conversations change when we are moving our bodies and out of breath? What new modes of thinking become possible?
While Burke was unable to comment further to The College Fix on her martial-arts themed session to fight masculinity in journalism, citing time constraints, the session does seem relatively popular for a local workshop, as 25 people have RSVPed and 150 people have indicated interest in attending, according to Facebook.
Heavy Breathing, the sponsoring organization, did not respond to requests for comment from The College Fix.
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About the Author
Toni Airaksinen is a junior at Barnard College in New York City. She also contributes to USA Today College, Red Alert Politics and Quillette Magazine. She formerly held a post with The Columbia Spectator. Her writing is regularly featured on Fox News and Drudge Report, among other websites. Her interests include free speech, due process and mens issues.
Poster Comment:
I taught my daughters some martial arts when they were growning up. The youngest was on her way to Europe and I had fashioned a covert weapon that she could keep with her for self defense. At first she declined it, after all she had cold cocked her ex-boyfriend with one punch. So I grabbed her unexpectedly, lifted her off the ground and trundled her in a hold she couldn't break, nor could she get at me with her feet. After pointing out that she could at least do some damage with the weapon, she accepted it.