Ok, yesterday we talked about Teen Mania’s standards for women on campus so here’s a little something so that the men don’t feel left out. I’d love to give the context for this, but I have absolutely no idea what it is. Maybe someone can explain in the comments…Click the author’s feed to see a total of 10 boxing videos.
39 comments:
Ben said…
that’s gotta be a trailer club thing… like the polar bearing and the core games.
May 28, 2010 7:09 AM
Stephanie said…
WTF!
This is not boxing. This is brawling, and as such is a completely unsafe, pointless, stupid, worthless, foolish, dangerous endevor.
Using chairs for the ring, what if one of the guys had fallen, when his head gear fell off and cracked his head on a chair? Speaking of headgear, totally inappropraitely fitted. Were they using mouth guards? Did they have wraps on under the gloves?
Totally foolish. This probaly comes from some one watching Annapolis and thinking “let see if we/ or they, can take a punch.” But any kind of fighting is not about getting hit. As my boixng instrustor told me, it’s the art of hitting and not getting hit.
Now I love a good fair fight. I have studied mixed martial arts (yes I’m a girl, yes I understand that it makes me less of a woman and that I might be going to hell because of it;) if you want to train your young men to fight, then get an intstructor in there to do it right. It’s a fantastic workout, and is one of those skills that may for some people, have metaphorical value.
This, however, is just a bunch of silly boys pretending to be tought and putting themselves in harms way.
May 28, 2010 8:00 AM
kymberlydawn said…
okay, i’m totally disturbed. i had no idea they were facilitating aggression and fighting. wtf.
May 28, 2010 8:01 AM
Nunquam Honorablus said…
Good heavens, this is SUPER recent!! I see a friend in there who was an intern when I was a GI!
Honestly, before I watched the videos I was like “come on guys it’s not a big deal they’re just rasslin'”.
Then I hit play, and… holy cow. I can understand when guys just wanna mess around, and I totally support their need to just work out that testosterone, but personally I think this is a little barbaric. Granted, I’m watching it without sound at the moment, so I might be missing some pretty deep Scripture references.
(Side note: As soon as I hit play, I could practically smell that sideroom and the chairs and that bathroom and the refreshing hint of potato chips and the sewage-water.)
May 28, 2010 9:01 AM
squeakycheez07 said…
It’s trailer club. This is there idea letting a man be a man. One time trailer club got up early in the morning, took their shirts off and all jumped in the pond with a war cry.
May 28, 2010 9:24 AM
Anonymous said…
If guys punching the ever lasting *bleep* out of each other is considered a godly character building form of “men being men” then they women should be able to indulge in an enormous gossipy gab fest.
May 28, 2010 9:32 AM
Anonymous said…
Why am I not at all surprised to see Heath Stoner as the ref? After everything I know about this guy, he seems like the epitome of a testosterone laden male!
*A good wife will have sex everyday with her husband.
*Women should be submissive.
*Men are allowed to do WHATEVER they want, even beat the crap out of each other. After all, it builds character, right?
Honestly, this guy makes my skin crawl.
May 28, 2010 9:41 AM
Anonymous said…
My, what an aura of statesmanship!
Anon
May 28, 2010 9:46 AM
MS said…
To be honest, in my opinion this is a normal reaction for men in the Honor Academy.
I’ve noticed that as I’ve spent more and more time outside of The Bubble I find that there is a lot of pent up frustration from not meeting up to the impossible standards, etc., and for most guys it’s totally normal to take out frustration in physical ways.
To be honest, this boxing is a bit rough, but I want to say I remember hearing about a prize for winning the tournament. Add the desire to win with the prize with the pent up frustration and you get this.
In comparison to real boxing, this also looks a bit crazy because they’re not duking it out for multiple rounds, I want to say it’s a submission thing or limited by time. They aren’t pacing themselves and planning their punches, they’re just flailing in an attempt to land one here and there.
Yeah, it looks brutal, and I’m not a fan of boxing (or TM, for that matter), but it is just boxing. As far as planning an event for all the guys to box, I’m not sure that’s a very inclusive idea, but a number of guys who follow in the leadership’s footsteps (preferences) enjoy it, I imagine.
May 28, 2010 10:21 AM
shouldcareless said…
Trailer Club?
Hell. No.
This is FIGHT CLUB, minus Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.
This is also promoting violence, which I am not a fan of. If we are to live at peace with one another, then what is this?
And what if the female interns were to do this very same thing? I’m sure it would be met with a deafening outcry against objectifying, sexualizing, and masculine-izing the fairer (and according to a very poorly interpreted and misused scripture) weaker gender.
May 28, 2010 10:37 AM
dan said…
A. I agree with Stephanie that this is probably pretty unsafe.
B. I find it incredibly silly that TM would teach women that they can’t have fun in their own dorms because they must remain “ladylike” (as per the last post), then allow men to express themselves like this.
C. This is likely just another example of “If you’re a woman, you’re like this. If you’re a man, you’re like this.” I guarantee you the guys who didn’t fight felt less manly because of it, and that’s just sad.
D. Finally, in slight defense of this: Ladies, many guys…I’d even say most guys…wouldn’t really look at this as being all that extreme. I can’t tell you how many actual fights without gloves I’ve been in with fellow dudes over ridiculous, stupid stuff, where we almost immediately after said “Ouch. Hey, you wanna go grab a beer?”
Though I don’t think all guys do/should relate this way, we sometimes do have an inner caveman that does. And letting the caveman out in a controlled environment with friends can be healthy expression.
I mean, c’mon…we don’t understand your PJ party pillow fights either, but you’re free to do that as much as you want.
Wait…that’s not real?
Crap.
May 28, 2010 10:43 AM
dan said…
@shouldcareless – “And what if the female interns were to do this very same thing? I’m sure it would be met with a deafening outcry against objectifying, sexualizing, and masculine-izing the fairer (and according to a very poorly interpreted and misused scripture) weaker gender.”
Boom.
May 28, 2010 10:54 AM
Nunquam Honorablus said…
I remember some of us ladies wanting to rassle, but the rules were you couldn’t rough-house indoors cause you might break something (makes sense).
But we weren’t allowed to do it outside either cause some guy might happen to walk by and get turned on.
That being said, I really don’t see anything spiritually damaging behind this. Just guys being dumb about slugging each other.
May 28, 2010 11:01 AM
littlegraygirl said…
Do any of you other females feel gypped? I would much rather have been doing THAT than having to cuddle in the auditorium watching “Ever After” and giving/getting make-overs.
Honestly, this doesn’t bother me much. A lot of the boys do stuff like that anyway…might as well organize it.
May 28, 2010 11:50 AM
Eric P. said…
“The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club.”
“You mean like ESOAL or any negative stories about TM?”
“Well yeah, kind of, but–.”
The narrative is interrupted at this point because the writer looked up Fight Club on Wikipedia and found this sentence: “Tyler eventually gathers the most devoted fight club members (referred to as ‘space monkeys’) and forms ‘Project Mayhem,’ a cult-like organization that trains itself as an army to bring down modern civilization.”
Well this certainly isn’t going to end well!
May 28, 2010 11:50 AM
layne said…
@littlegraygirl – I always felt gypped in regards to the activities for the women as compared to activities for the guys. I remember sneaking into the auditorium once because the intern guys were watching “Brave Heart” and I wanted to see it. I sat in the back. I was so sick of “Ever After”!
May 28, 2010 11:58 AM
Nunquam Honorablus said…
Gray- YES. I remember asking my CA if I could disguise myself as a guy and go to their functions. I hated the tea parties with every fiber of my being, and actually felt insulted because my femininity was limited to finger sandwiches and pretty dresses. Pass.
May 28, 2010 12:10 PM
Cesna said…
I would TOTALLY rather be rasslin’ than being confined to a frilly dress and sticking my pinky out. Most guys I know aren’t remotely attracted to that sort of processed femininity. :/ Femininity is more… raw than that, it’s the art of being comfortable with who you are and showcasing it in the way God made you.
That being said, it’s good to know TM/HA makes a mockery of masculinity just as much as the opposite. Ug. However, this doesn’t bother me nearly as much as it might should (I am from the South, after all…)
May 28, 2010 12:48 PM
Recovering Alumni said…
I honestly don’t know enough about the context of this video to have an informed opinion….I do agree with the safety issues raised above, though.
Can anyone provide context to this? Was there a specific point? Was this mandatory? Are guys who aren’t interested in sports and/or violence made to feel less manly?
May 28, 2010 12:53 PM
Stephanie said…
I eventually found some friends, male and female who would do crazy stuff… and I remember walking out of one of my adivsor groupd retreats, because all we were doing was having a sleep over in the side room of the cafe and watching some stupid movie…
People are unique. They have different needs… Boxing is great if that’s what you like to do… do it well, do it safely. Let it be available to both genders.
Ever After is great… every once in a rare while…
What this really is as others have said, is a division based on someones idea of how they like their men and women.
I honestly believe that if the internship was run by New Englanders and based up here… it would look different, simply because ideas around gender, apperence and gender appropriate conduct are different up here then in Texas.
May 28, 2010 12:56 PM
Philip E said…
So long as the boxing is voluntary, I don’t really see any problems with the activity(I am rather disgusted that none of them actually know how to box, as is evidenced by the lack of guarding).
I’ve certainly done a lot harder rough housing activities than this in good fun with my brothers and my friends growing up.
Granted, if someone is trying to make this a spiritual event or saying this is something you need to do in order to be a man, I would think that would be silly. It’s just burning energy and having fun.
May 28, 2010 12:58 PM
Anonymous said…This post has been removed by a blog administrator.May 28, 2010 1:58 PM
Anonymous said…
When I was an intern, there was another intern who did kickboxing lessons in the cafeteria sideroom on Saturday mornings. Men and women were both allowed to participate in the classes together. There was no sparring with partners in these classes. It was cool, but most of the time I didn’t want to give up the sleep hours, as Saturday was when I made up for the defecits of the week…
May 28, 2010 2:00 PM
TruthInLove said…
I think the main concern would be safety. Especially if any of them are underage.
Also they are not abiding by the rules of boxing and have terrible form. LOL
May 28, 2010 4:06 PM
Anonymous said…
www.recoveringalumniresponse.com
May 28, 2010 7:02 PM
squeakycheez07 said…
I kinda wish the girls did this. @littlegraygirl… I totally agree with you. All the girls did was watch sappy love movies and talk about feelings. And then we would have a brunch in the cafe that consisted of a crappy muffin and more feelings. *gag*
Needless to say, I only went to ONE 360 brunch. Only because my entire core was campused and we were forced to go as part of our punishment.
May 28, 2010 7:44 PM
Anonymous said…
I know all about this. This was a completely optional event that guys could do if they wanted. the reason it was started is because there was an “underground” boxing match set up with a couple cores but was quickly disbanded. They then decided that if guys wanted to do it then they would organize it a little bit better in Trailer Club. It was something they did completely for fun, there was no pressure behind it any way for people to do it and it definitely was not played forth as “you are less of a man if you don’t”. I remember when I was an intern I hated Trailer Club because I am definitely not all about the grunting, brawling and growling to make you a man….but I have been impressed with recent years as the pressure has slowly moved out of it from the leadership….don’t get me wrong you still have those leaders that are the “epitome of man” but I think they’ve really started to cater toward a more diverse group of men.
I agree that they might not have been the most safe in the video but seriously, this video does not shock me, this is a pretty common thing with most guys in and out of the HA.
I can definitely say I understand why the woman hated the womans program…..seriously
May 28, 2010 8:19 PM
Nunquam Honorablus said…
Anon- about that “response”, I can’t respect such a response when they blatantly lie about RA’s purposes and intents. Rallying others to partake in negativity? Personal resentment?
No way. This was a thinly veiled attack on RA’s character, not a “response”.
Thanks for nothing, BOD.
(Sorry, veering back to topic in 3… 2…)
May 28, 2010 9:16 PM
Philip E said…
I don’t actually see anything about rallying others to partake in negativity in their response.
The only thing that I see them say about RA is straightforward and factual.
“the author has very personal hurts and resentment toward the ministry based upon her experience at the Teen Mania Ministry’s Honor Academy.”
I mean, the response isn’t everything that people hoped it would be, but I don’t really see that it’s an attack.
It’s basically a statement that says they’ve considered the statements from the blog, and do not agree that some of what was stated was a problem, some of it are problems that have been taken care of, and some of them are problems that need to be addressed.
Personally, I think that further details on what is going to be changed needs to be stated. If there are changes, transparency needs to exist to show that the wrongs that happened don’t happen again.
In other words, I don’t think their response goes far enough, but I also don’t think that it’s an attack of any sort.
May 28, 2010 9:59 PM
Recovering Alumni said…
In order not to hijack this thread, lets wait to talk about this until I’ve prepared my response post (or head to the forums in the meantime).
May 28, 2010 10:03 PM
Candor said…
As far as safety risks go at the cult, this does not surprise me. I’m actually surprised more people haven’t been physically injured while at the compound.
On another note, would Jesus punch other dudes in the head to try to win the boxing tournament if He were in Trailer Club?
May 29, 2010 11:10 PM
Shannon Kish said…
Candor,
Would Jesus ever actually be in Trailer club?
May 30, 2010 10:20 PM
DesperationMan said…
On another note, would Jesus punch other dudes in the head to try to win the boxing tournament if He were in Trailer Club? [ sure he would, he was man wasn’t he? he had the same testosterone like any other man didn’t he? just saying he isn’t the sweet Jesus your making him out to be, the blue eyed blond hair man. he would had def got in there and duked out with those guys.]
Would Jesus ever actually be in Trailer club?
[prob not since he spent his time with drunkards and prostitutes.]
May 31, 2010 9:23 AM
Josh Ex-Intern 00-01 said…
Ok, so I know I’m a day late to the party here, but as a former Trailer Club member, this was NOT the trailer club that I knew 10 years ago. Of course, due to proxy servers where I work, I can not view the videos. However, and for of unlicensed MMA, Boxing, Street Fighting IS illegal in just about every state in the US. For goodness sake, Maryland had to pass laws to allow the UFC, and other MMA promoters, into the state to hold competions. I can not say for certain that Texas has or hasn’t, but it’s still unlicensed by the Texas Gaming Commission, and therefore is HIGHLY ILLEGAL, especially since there are no licensed refree’s, no doctor’s, and definitely noone from the government there to say if some punch, kick, elbow, etc., thrown is against the rules.
June 1, 2010 7:29 AM
ShadowVoice said…
Ahh, I am so glad I managed to escape the girly stuff… I took off with special permission to the Houston ATF the same weekend as some girly-girl event. I pleaded with them to go because it had been the first time I’d really been invited anywhere all year…
June 4, 2010 9:00 PM
Anonymous said…
Hey =] This is just Trailer Club. It’s just the mens program here on campus. This was their boxing event and…well there guys and they signed up to do this…meaning they wanted to. There guys and believe it or not guys like to hit each other haha =]
June 7, 2010 4:35 PM
Anonymous said…
They just suck at boxing…
60 years ago if you had boys who were fighting you would buy them boxing gloves and tell them to take it outside. What’s the harm in optional boxing, with headgear and gloves and 3 referees?
June 8, 2010 9:37 PM
Matthew Bryan said…
Things like this were always so very difficult for me. They were mandatory and they oozed the typical testosterone driven male that made my life a living hell in highschool because I was not this way. There was so much “Guys HAVE to be this” or “Guys HAVE to be that” that when these mandatory testosterone sessions came about, I would have an anxiety attack.
What about us guys who aren’t defined by these things? What about us guys who are more into art or science? Why is there such a stress on what TM defines as “being a guy?”
June 27, 2010 12:57 AM
Anonymous said…
i didn’t read all of the comments, but i think you guys are overreacting a little bit to this. yes maybe it’s a little much…but they’re guys and if they want to box then let them box. i don’t really see the big deal and how this relates to TM being an spiritual abuser. seriously, guys will be guys and they’re just having fun. safety issues? really? they’re boys! go to any high school, college campus, youth group, boy sleepover, etc etc and you will find stuff like this…this is NORMAL.
June 30, 2010 5:54 PM