Loyalty, deference, and exploitation in traditional and mixed martial arts

Abstract

It is often asserted that mixed martial arts (MMA) lacks the ethical foundations of more traditional martial arts (TMA), but the stylistic freedom of MMA actually creates the potential for less exploitative practices. Certain features of TMA, such as deference to a particular tradition, can render students vulnerable to exploitation. An important feature of environments that lend themselves to predatory behavior is that they encourage athletes and students to give over their embodied agency to another. Often the figure(s) to whom this deference is given are gatekeepers of a particular lineage or tradition; failing to train with that particular person, or leaving a particular school, can mean abandoning that practice altogether. One benefit of MMA as a practice is its lack of built-in deference to tradition and its embrace of multitraditionalism. In MMA, we might find loyalty, but this falls short of the deference built into some TMA. MMA athletes who leave their teams can find it relatively easy to continue the same type of practice with other teams. This contrast between MMA and TMA gives us important insights into how we can create athletic and martial arts environments with less potential for abuse.