This is my true public confession: I love the sight of two semi-naked fighters beating the tar out of each other in the ring.
Most people tend to find this revelation surprising, if not confounding. "How can you enjoy such a violent sport?" my students ask with a mixture of amusement and disbelief. "You teach classes on peace and human rights! You participate in anti-war actions. And you're a feminist!"
When I excused myself from a departmental holiday party early to catch the undercard on a UFC event, a colleague shook his head. "I don't know - it's so incongruent to think of you watching that stuff.. And the sight of sweaty men wrestling ..." He couldn't complete the thought aloud.
Even more recently I was catching up with old friends from graduate school, describing my long-standing fieldwork with refugees from the Horn of Africa and the study abroad and service-learning program I co-created in northern Uganda. Every year I am committed to bringing twelve American students to the town of Gulu, where they are immersed in the lived realities of a war-torn region struggling to rebuild a peaceful and just society. Etched on the bodies and psyches of northern Ugandans as well as the landscape is the horror and trauma of violence and war. It is impossible not to feel the wellspring of compassion that is part of what makes us human - as is the capacity for violent aggression that wreaks such havoc.
And certainly refugees and asylum seekers from Eritrea, in Northeast Africa, have taught me about the impacts of violence. Their lives are indelibly marked by war, militarization, and preparation for more war. These are primary reasons why so many people - some of them children - have left their families and risked everything to seek a different present and future. I stand humbled in the shadow of their tribulations, often speechless at their stories of suffering and survival. They are true fighters in so many senses of the word.
Between bites of Thai food, my friend's husband commented, "That's all so heavy. So what do you do for fun?"
"Watch mixed martial arts," I grinned.
Nearly choking, he replied, "Wait, wait. Let me get this straight. You teach an intensive class on conflict and peacebuilding, you study refugees from war and militarism, and you watch ultimate fighting for fun? How does that work?"
"I assure you, it makes perfect sense," I said. "I've been considering this anthropologically for quite some time now and I've got some possibly compelling ideas about it."
"Oh yeah?" he laughed. "I've got to hear this. How does this make sense?"
"Read my blog."
And so here we are. Welcome to The Blogtagon.
