Teenage fight clubs?

I hadn't heard of it here but my oldest is 7th grade which may be a little young. She won't be doing too much fighting from a wheelchair anyway (I hope).

The two younger girls begin middle school next year and I'll begin paying attention. Thanks for the heads up although I would rather not have something else to worry about.

Reply

I am currently enrolled in my second year of college, so been its awhile, but when I was in high school we had a fight club. It took place in our school's locker room. It must have been a year or so after the movie come out. We were all boys; maybe you could blame it on the raging hormone levels and brand new testosterone. A lot of that abc clip looks like reckneck backyear wrestling not regular fighting.
I hope you realize I just broke the first rule of locker room fight club for you guys.

Reply

and jason - you get serious props for "coming out" so to speak on your locker room fight club. let's just hope your old high school buddies don't reading blogging baby.

did you ever videotape the fights? we're they planned or random occurences?

Reply

You write as if these fight clubs are a bad thing. I've never been in one, but I'd personally wish to join one if I could. (I'm a freshman in college, female.) The skills acquired, the exercise, the adrenaline, the status. . . all good reasons to partake in a friendly fight.

Reply

I have two things to say about this:

In many ways I am proud of these girls. I have had a theory that if girls were permitted to really physically fight each other, there would be a decrease in the amount of girls with eating disorders and self-mutilation problems. I realized this the first time I saw the movie Fight Club. I was sixteen, a self-mutilator, and a recovering anorexic. These problems often originate in supressed anger. And organized, contained fistfights could be the answer. Of course, no parent wants their little girl coming home from school with a black eye, but is that any worse than having her verbally abused by her peers, which seems to be the only acceptable way teenage girls can vent their anger? Is it any worse than seeing a self-inflicted cut on her arm?

However, I am against these girls broadcasting themselves on the Internet. By putting themselves on display like that, it cheapens the meaning of the fight.

Reply

What's wrong with girls being tough? Why do you say "Yikes" as if its a bad thing? If girls are becoming less submissive and breaking out of the docile shell that this society trys to lock them into, then good for them. I for one, applaud these "fight clubs" and as long as anyone's not getting killed or too seriously injured, then I think they should keep going. All you fussy mothers and testosterone-lacking males and male shovenists who are worried that females are getting a bit too headstrong - you need to relax.

Reply

oh yeah, it's been a few years since i graduated, and the boys had fight clubs, usually taking place at abandoned warehouses and videotaped, that were later showcased at parties. even now my college colleagues have fight clubs. girls go, but usually only to watch. but it's all in fun, all in jest, it takes place among friends (cause you won't have hard feelings against a friend for punching you). it's therapeutic, not all-violent. animals do it, but i suppose we put our ourselves above those savage instincts.
don't worry! they'll grow up and out of it.

Reply

I think that this is a good thing for kids to do. I got in fight all of the time in school. Some kids think there all talk and they sit there and talk all of this smack behind someones back and think it's all good cuz they don't have to worry about it. well go in the locker room or out side the school and settle it. I always did that if there was someone i don't like and they talk smack about me i call them out and they fight and get there arse kicked then they don't talk no more smack. if your kid comes home with some bruses or some blood on him ask him if he settled what he or she needed to or did he just have a bad day!!!!!

Reply

sarah - first, thank you for commenting. second, i'd just ask that you not make sweeping generalizations about why parents would be concerned about these fight clubs. the "yikes" in my story is placed following the statistic: "arrests for aggravated assault by girls rose by 68 percent from 1987 to 2003."

pesonally, i'm all for empowering girls and releasing them from submissive roles. i was a kickboxer and sparred with men and women. but i'm not up for young girls OR boys getting arrested for aggravated assault. and that figure going up is cause for concern. why the need for fisticuffs? there are other ways to express anger and release frustration - and i'm not referring to "talking it out." start an actual boxing club and kick some ass in a real ring. beat the crap out of the bag. but kicking your friend's ass for fun? i dunno, i guess i don't get it.

Reply

OUCH...that is a sweeping generalization if I have ever seen one!

Empowerment good. Kicking the shit out of each other and calling it fun?...UMMMM...MUY MALO!

Anyway...my first impression from all this was..."Ummm Fight Club, like Brad Pitt, where they were losing teeth and breaking bones and DYING?!"

Reply

I remember being a substitute teacher in the 90s, and I watched a boy and a girl throwing each other on the floor and fighting each other. When I was in jr. high, boys were beat up by other boys for thinking about fighting girls. Yeah, girls are getting more aggressive, and boys and girls are acting the same. The thing about fight clubs, etc., is that it leads to death, and what if someone starts bringing guns, and other weapons? Fighting is not what it used to be. . .

Reply

Physical fighting is not always a bad thing. But the problem is 95% of kids fighting in the online videos have no idea what they are doing. This makes the fighting look safe and harmless. Most have no formal training or (even worse) have high ranking belts in karate and other traditional martial arts so the odds of them being able to seriously injure anyone are slim to none. I say little fights like this can be a good thing. You can compare two young boys participating in a backyard boxing match to young girls shopping for a nice dress that makes them feel pretty. Girls generally want to feel physically attractive and boys generally want to feel attractive as well but putting on an expensive pair of jeans doesn't always do the trick, emposing your will on another male does. The quote "how much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight" is true, at least for guys. Getting your butt kicked every once and a while is a good thing for boys as long as it isn't bullying or abuse.

So let them fight if they wish to! But I think its important that they use as much safety equipment as possible: 16oz boxing gloves, mouthguards (really important!) cups, ect. They also have to keep in my blood born diseases like HIV and Hep.

Let's get it on!

Reply

Fight clubs are a good thing. You don't bring weapons to a fight club, they would undermine what its about. These fights aren't to the death, don't take a movie for reality. And to some people this is fun. You don't like it, don't join it, pretty simple.

Reply

Physical fights can lead to death, but have you heard some of the venom that can come out of the mouths of teenage girls? Suicide doesn't come from left field, it's spurred on by the gang-ups going on in middle schools and high schools across the country. There's not much one can say in response to a scathing comment by the most popular girl in school, but I'm fairly sure if a bullied kid landed a punch right in her face it'd sure do a lot more for her self confidence than writing poetry and knitting scarves would. Is it so crazy that women are tired of sitting there and taking abuse? It's as if men are appauled when a girl doesn't just roll over and take it.

This is evidence of the beginning of equality among the genders, not female corruption.

Reply

I don't want to undermine the importance of child safety, but I can, as a Criminology student tell you that there is a difference between arrest rates and offending rates. Arrest rates may have increased by 68 percent; but did offending rates (the two are not necessarily connected)? I would also be interested in how much the population increased over those 16 years. Obviously not by 68 percent, but I can't help feeling like these stories are the media playing of the fears of ill-educated, white, middle class Americans. Really, it's about time you all stopped.

Reply

yea when i was a freshman in highschool - '01 - we had dorm fights that were more like wrestling than real fights - no punches thrown - but then again it was prep school so they had to be a bit more stringent on rules - also until my senior year we had something called the octogon where we moved all the couches in the dorm lounge to enclose the fighters - it got pretty intense sometimes - now in college as more of a way to settle ongoing arguments there is a regulated 'carpet match' in which all the couches are removed from the tv room and they wrestle it out - points go for certain things and best out of three ends it - usually the topic of carpet never comes up again

Reply

Yeah, I've heard about these. My school has one and after both reading the book Fight Club by author Chuck Palahniuk and seeing the movie I am so eager to join. But, like the book says, "The first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club," so its kind of hard to get information. Wish me luck!

Reply

I am a now a first year college student attending University of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Approximately 3 yrs ago, over the period of my sophmore yr of high school, me and several friends participated in a fight club. I was in more than one, with different friends, of different ages, and of different schools, backgrounds and beliefs. All of us enjoyed the events, never complaining to an adult, or higher authority with issues. We used open fists and recieved injury ocassionaly, but never was the sport allowed to extend into something serious, or dangerous. To myself and several others, it was a relief of stress, a self-taught self-defense method, and a way of entertainment and managing time. I am no more a threat of randomly beating, roughing up, or physically abusing a random individual or friend, then the strangers walking the streets with you everyday. I didnt learn aggression, or hate, but rather how to harness and use it at an appropriate time, it was also a way of staying in shape. Thanks

Reply

I am a child of the late 80s and early 90s and this is no new news to me. Boys have had fight clubs since the beginning of testosterone. People get hurt, but only those who want to participate. The only difference now is that it is taped and shown to a wider number of people. I dont think its the best thing in the world but I think that it will happen whether there are clubs or not. Just another form of our country overreacting when "society" finds out about something that has ben going on under their noses.

Reply

Im 16 years old and in highschool. My friends and I fight UFC style for fun all of the time, but it is has never been organized into a "fight club." Sometimes this stuff can get dangerous, just the other day my jaw was pulled out of socket while I was fighting. I think it is ok for teenage boys to be involved in physical fighting, if it is not in an angry or violent way. Surprisingly my parents agree with me. There should be other people around to pull the fight apart if it gets to angry or someone gets badly hurt. Also the people participateing have to go into the fight with no bad feelings against eachother, and leave the same way. If done right this kind of fighting can be good physical exercise and a good way of bonding with the guys.

Reply