#Jiujitsu

[thepopculturearchivist]

LITERARY DIGEST, August 27, 1927

[melaninpov]

Aaron Pierre in Men’s Health (2024)

“Mental health and spiritual wellbeing is equally if not more important. So I really prioritize meditation, I really prioritize communicating what I’m experiencing with my loved ones and people who I trust and are near and dear to my heart. I’m all about peace. I’m all about feeling centered and grounded. I think that is my definition of happiness.” - Aaron Pierre

[onelongsound]

Just a quick lil UzuRen doodle...

[guysshowingofftheirmuscles]

[tomhardymyking]

The best coach 😍💘

And we have another (even better) photo from when 𝗧𝗼𝗺 attended the women's Brazilian Jiu-jitsu event a few weeks ago 🥰!

How adorable! I love it so much, I can't stop looking at it 🤭💖!

You can read why he went to that event here, if you don't know yet ☝🏻

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El mejor entrenador 😍💘

¡Y tenemos otra foto (todavía mejor) de cuando 𝗧𝗼𝗺 asistió al evento de Jiu-jitsu Brasileño dedicado especialmente a mujeres hace unas semanas 🥰!

¡Qué adorable, cómo me gusta, no puedo parar de verla 🤭💖!

Podéis leer por qué fue a ese evento aquí, si aún no lo sabes ☝🏻

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[city-of-ladies]

Edith Garrud - The suffragette that knew martial arts

The first British female teacher of jujutsu, Edith Garrud (1872-1971) taught the suffragettes to protect themselves.

A passion for martial arts 

Edith Margaret Williams was born in Bath in 1872 and started her career as a physical instructor for girls. She shared this passion for physical culture with her husband, William Garrud, a wrestling and boxing instructor.

They came in contact with Edward Barton-Wright who had spent three years in Japan, and studied judo and jujutsu. He elaborated his self-defense techniques known as “bartitsu” and opened his club in London in 1899.

The Bartitsu Club was notably opened to women. Edith was thus able to train alongside her husband. By 1908, Edith and William became jujutsu instructors themselves with William in charge of the men’s class and Edith teaching the women and children. 

Jujutsu specializes in speed, precision and the use of soft, flowing movements to deal with aggression rather than using just brute strength. The couple showcased their skills through demonstrations. In one of them, Edith defeated a male aggressor played by her husband. The sight of this 4ft-11inch (150cm) woman effortlessly throwing a much taller man greatly impressed the audience. 

In 1907, Edith starred in a short film Jujutsu down the footpads in which an innocent lady overpowers two ruffians. 

Vote for women

Edith took an interest in the cause of women’s suffrage. In 1909, she was invited by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) to give a demonstration in the presence of Emeline Pankhurst and other leading figures of the movement. As William was ill, Edith demonstrated alone and invited members of the audience to test her skills. This included subjecting a skeptical police officer to a powerful shoulder throw. 

In 1910, Edith also wrote a series of essays, advocating for the growing community of female martial artists and how self-defense could free women by giving them the means to protect themselves:

“You constantly read in the papers reports of dastardly attacks on helpless women by thieves and ruffians. A woman who knows jujutsu, even though she may not be physically strong, even though she may not have even an umbrella or parasol, is not helpless. I know many women personally who have tried the tricks I shall explain to you and come out on top. They have brought great burly cowards nearly twice their size to their feet and made them howl for mercy.”

The bodyguards

The suffragettes faced dangerous and violent situations. This was especially the case on Friday 18th November 1910. 300 WSPU members marched on the House of Parliament and faced police officers armed with batons. Women were subjected to six hours of beatings and arrests and there were widespread reports of sexual abuses.

Emeline Pankhurst thus asked Edith to train a group of women that would be known within the WSPU as the Bodyguard. Led by Gertrude Harding, they acted as agitators, disruptors and decoys. 

Edith trained them in hand-to-hand combat and the use of homemade concealed weapons such as wooden India clubs and the fashioning of cardboard body armor. The suffragettes took advantage of their opponent's surprise and exploited their weaknesses.

They for instance struck directly at a police officer’s helmet to knock it from his head. Policemen were held accountable for the loss of uniform items and had to pay for their replacement. They cut the suspenders so that the policeman had to hold back his pants, blinded the police with a charge of umbrellas etc.

When told by a policeman that she was making an “obstruction” during a demonstration near the House of Commons, Edith pretended to drop her handkerchief, threw the policeman over her shoulder and disappeared into the crowd. 

In prison, suffragettes went on hunger strikes and were subjected to force-feeding. The “Cat and Mouse Act” of 1913 allowed hunger-striking prisoners to be released and then re-incarcerated as soon as they had recovered their health. The Bodyguard thus protected and hid those women.

Edith for instance hid militant suffragettes in her dojo, telling the police not to disturb her lessons and leave her property. 

A quiet retirement

Edith’s contributions to the suffragist movement ended with the beginning of the First World War. Little is known of her life afterward. 

She and her husband would run the Golden Square dojo until their retirement in 1925 and retired to a quieter life. William passed away in 1960. In an interview in 1965, Edith said that her recipe for a long, happy and healthy life was: 

“Self-discipline. Of course, I had to be extremely disciplined to succeed at jujutsu and hold my own with men […] but it is the mind which really has control, not only of your muscles and your limbs and how you use them, but also your thoughts, your whole attitude to life and other people.”

She died in 1971. A plaque on the building that had been her home can be seen today: “Edith Garrud 1872–1971. The suffragette who knew jiu-jitsu lived here”.

Further reading

Dorlin Elsa, Se défendre : une philosophie de la violence  

Godfrey Emelyne, Femininity, Crime and Self-Defence in Victorian Literature and Society: From Dagger-Fans to Suffragettes

Kelly Simon, "Edith Garrud: The jujutsuffragette". In McMurray, Robert; Pullen, Allison (eds.), Power, Politics and Exclusion in Organization and Management

Ruz Camila, Parkinson Justin, ““'Suffrajitsu': How the suffragettes fought back using martial arts”

[sorthaz]

I want to see if he can make him tap with the triangle....

[komihoyinsblog]

Well, at least Satoru and Suguru are finally together, but Obito and Kakashi are still divided(their divorce anniversary is coming up lol)

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Policewomen practicing jiujitsu, March 22, 1924. Mrs. Hamilton, who is in charge of the class, gives instructions. The policewomen said that after they got their muscles hardened a little more, they would be able to make arrests without the aid of a male partner.

Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images/Fine Art America

[the-ghost-bird]

I'm in an interesting situation in regards to martial arts since moving to Brazil.

I'm enrolled in what's considered one of the top 3 jiu-jitsu academies but i cannot fight women, just men.

Basically, the average woman here is much smaller than the average woman in the US. I'm 5'10 and 80kg (175lbs), and back in the US, the height/weight differences between me and other women were small. But in the academy here in Brazil, women are quite literally half my height and weight. It doesn't help that most women in the academy here do it for fun/hobby and don't wanna deal with someone double their size, so much so that they only go to the women's class and never to the mixed genders class. The only 3 women that are of larger stature are instructors and have to focus on teaching, so I can't really spar them.

So I'm forced to fight with men, which has never been a problem for me before. But here's the thing, these men here are from all over the world, who moved here just to train. So I'm training with 6ft 100-140kg (220-300lbs) beasts made of pure fucking muscle, some of whom are ex-military, most of whom are black belts with 10+ years of experience, compete every season, and guess what? Most of whom don't think women physically compare to men.

Now, it's very hard to prove them wrong when I'm a blue belt with 2 years of experience.

On one side, this is good because the past month here, i was forced to progress much faster than I was progressing before. But at the same time, most of the men seem to hate me for being there.

And... the women seem to hate me too because most of them are girlfriends or wives of those men. And i kinda get it, because new girl shows up, beats you all effortlessly, and then only goes to the men's class. I get where it stems from.

Anyways, all this to say, martial arts isn't my safe space anymore😅

Doesn't mean I'll fucking give up.

[magdabuena]

i learned the most lila bard™️ move at my jiujitsu lesson the other day and i need to write her using it to absolutely BODY kell. plus, when you’ve done it, you end up in a mount on your opponent. i think she’d appreciate. 🙂‍↕️

[melaninpov]

Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond in Rebel Ridge (2024)

A former Marine confronts corruption in a small town when local law enforcement unjustly seizes the bag of cash he needs to post his cousin's bail.

[superbeastmma]

Sydney Sweeney knows her BJJ. 👀

[guysshowingofftheirmuscles]

[hardwired95]

Batman choking out The Joker