Little More on Kung Fu

I don't entirely understand why, but lots of people are shocked when I tell them about what goes on in my kung fu class, not entirely because of how brutal it seems, but because there are women in the class and the same (generally, I'll get into that) is expected of them. That is to say the women get punched in the stomach too, the women also have to do three minute planks, and the women are just subject to all of the same things that the men are.

Recently the schedule of my class changed a bit in that on Mondays, Yseult's instruction is replaced by that of a lovely fellow named Emmanuel and another guy a little older than me but who is a second degree black sash (Yseult and Emmanuel are third degree black sashes). Let it go on the record that Yseult, who is a short, pretty blond woman who appears as the stereotype of what men find completely lacking in menace, routinely punches harder than Emmanuel, drives us harder than Emmanuel, and executes the technique with more devoted and concentrated intensity than Emmanuel. Emmanuel's great don't get me wrong, but Yseult is very, very powerful. It's funny to me/bizarre that so many people are so surprised that women can be subjected to these kinds of physical challenges and rise to them without breaking themselves. Uh, they can.

Oddly, though, sometimes the instructors, including Yseult, say things like "the men can do the planks ___ way, and if necessary, the women can do them this [slightly easier] way." However, the women pretty much never do them the easier way, and neither does Yseult, who can do planks supporting herself on two bent index fingers. Seriously. Bruce Lee stuff here. So there's kind of this weird option of a double standard that actually, people don't accept. Contradictions, contradictions. Oh well. But yeah, in summary, there are women in my class, and they too get punched and hit and stuff. I know my friends who may read this wouldn't be surprised by that and I wasn't, but for some reason I've encountered people who are really surprised.