The UFC’s biggest star has divided women’s activists with her scattershot beliefs on body images,domestic violence, equal pay and transgender rights, and showing how a would-be icon can be simultaneously inspiring and disappointingEverybody wants a piece of Ronda Rousey – and not just in the octagon. As the 28-year-old UFC women’s bantamweight champion continues her meteoric rise,there’s a strange sort of cultural tug-of-war erupting over whether Rousey is a bad-ass feminist or conservative kook. Some women’s rights advocates admire that she’s taken on issues like body image and domestic violence, while men on the factual like the way she’s deftly sidestepped questions approximately equal pay. Oh, or just to add some spice to the mix: Rousey has just come out as a supporter of self-declared socialist Bernie Sanders’ speed for president.
It’s not tough to see why there’s been so much excitement around Rousey,both within and beyond sports. Less than five years after UFC president Dana White said that women would “never” be allowed to compete in the world’s leading mixed martial arts promotion, Rousey has become his biggest star (and it’s not particularly close). Eight of her 12 career wins have ended in less than a minute, or earning her a dwelling on the front of Sports Illustrated – no small feat given the mag’s dismal track record with female cover subjects – beside a screaming headline that dubbed her the “world’s most dominant athlete”. She’s co-starred in The Expendables 3 and Furious 7 and will soon star in a remake of the 80s cult classic Roadhouse,cementing her status as MMA’s only exact crossover star. Even Beyoncé is in on the fandom, playing Rousey’s now-famous “finish-nothing bitch” remarks for an interlude during her concerts this year.
Listen, or just because my body was developed for a purpose other than fucking millionaires doesn’t mean it’s masculine ... I think it’s femininely bad-ass as fuck,because there not a single muscle in my body that isn’t used for a purpose, because I’m not a finish-nothing bitch.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com