Yuri Foreman and Orthodox Bodies
The sight of a Jewish champion, standing in that emotionally sweaty pose raising victorious fists in front of the Israeli flag, is enough to bring tears into the eyes of Jews everywhere. But Yuri Foreman, who just beat three-time world champion Daniel Santos for the WBA Super Welterweight title, has become a phenomenon for the other aspect of his life: he’s also an ultra-Orthodox rabbinical student.
The excitement with which his personality and lifestyle have been greeted is understandable though a bit bizarre. I mean, I get the ethnic pride. You know, Jewish guys everywhere, including in my own house, have gotten a huge boost here. It’s cute, actually. But really, at the risk of stating the obvious, I would like to ask the following: Doesn’t the idea of kicking the wind out of someone until he’s knocked unconscious go against some mitzvah somewhere? Don’t get me wrong, I actually love kickboxing. But in my world, kickboxing is where a bunch of middle age women stand in rows facing a wall mirror with ear-splitting music playing, and the only thing our fists and legs actually touch is air. Hitting an actual person? Causing the other guy to bleed and break ribs and lose some teeth? Even for something called a “world title”, I don’t entirely get how this is within The Rules of Orthodoxy.
More than that, the photos all over the Internet juxtaposing the black-hatted Foreman with the nearly-naked Foreman bother me… as a woman. What can I say — I can’t take that gender lens off. Because however forgiving the Orthodox community may be towards men doing odd things — to the point of stripping down to one’s shorts in front of millions of people and beating another guy senseless, to the point that Foreman’s rabbi and fellow students are cheering him on all the way — this tolerance will invariably apply only to men and never women.
My God, can anyone imagine a haredi woman doing anything athletic in public, never mind putting on a pair of shorts? The double standard is just mind-blowing.
This is an excruciating reminder that “tsnius”, the convention of dress code that at the end of the day is really for women only, has far-reaching implications for a person’s entire life. A woman clad in dress and a snood will never be able to run a marathon, swim the English Channel, or even do a cartwheel on the grass. She won’t play in the pool with her kids (unless she’s fully dressed and/or at an all-women’s beach), she won’t samba or sing or even whistle to her IPod on the bus. She won’t be an actress, an athlete, or the leader of a political party. She will dress closed and covered and speak closed and quiet and stay as far away from the kinds of personal aspirations that Foreman felt free to pursue. She will always — I mean, always — be hyper-aware of her knees being closed, always working to silence her mouth and close her legs. The outfit that haredi women wear are like walking in chains.
I guess I’m happy for Yuri Foreman and happy for all the cheering guys. Blood and all. I just wish that the Orthodox community felt comfortable cheering on women the same way.
November 18th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Interesting take on the story:
You can become a fan of Yuri on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/trboxing#/pages/Yuri-Foreman/74443359354?ref=ts
November 18th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Spot on, as they say. If/when Foreman becomes a rabbi, will he continue this fundamentally immodest and violent pastime? And wouldn’t you pause if you met him in an alley at night.
For us women: the more we protest, the more the walls can break down. Then it may happen spontaneously, like the Berlin Wall!
November 19th, 2009 at 5:30 am
Okay, so I totally messed up the entire boxing thing. Turns out he’s not doing kickboxing but this welterweight thing. Forgive me, everyone, for not even knowing what that means and not reading the fine print about what kind of sport he even excels at….
Thanks Joel for pointing this out to me
I would correct the post except then I’d have to delete all that stuff about my kickboxing class and that was the fun part of this article for me…. So, instead, I leave in the evidence of my ignorance and go back to the stuff I know something about… whatever that is
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:12 am
Maybe the rabbi will ‘beat’ injustice, make ‘blow’ for goodness and ‘kick’ away at anti-Semitism…
November 24th, 2009 at 5:54 am
Charming, David
December 4th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Your analysis of haredi women’s clothing is demonstrably over exaggerated. I ran in a half marathon recently in which there were at least two women who would qualify as haredi (wives and daughters of kollel rabbis in the Agudas Israel community) participating. These young women, at least one of whom is a mother of four, ran in standard long sleeve running shirts, below-the-knee running skirts, and head scarves. I’d like to say they trounced me because I took it slower this year than last, but they both handily beat my speedier time from last year, too. The local running store stocks the “tznius” running skirts year round, as there are enough women from the orthodox community also in the local running community. These women work out at the gym, perhaps a little more sensitive to their surroundings than you or I might be, and yes, they won’t be swimming at any public beaches. Still, to refer to their clothing of choice as “like chains” is offensive to the many orthodox women who feel no discomfort sprinting down the street in full tznius fashion.
December 5th, 2009 at 2:30 am
Benjamin –
I’m thrilled that there were *two* women running the half marathon. I’m sure there are lots of haredi women who are into running. But running in a skirt is without question annoying and uncomfortable. (You should try it sometime .) ,Honestly, whenever I see a woman running in a skirt, my reaction is, “Poor thing. just put on the damned track suit already…”Chains is still an apt description in my mind.
Okay, so some people will call me intolerant because of that. But that’s ridiculous. I’m intolerant of misogyny! I’m intolerant of rules that hurt women! That’s not intolerance, that’s liberation. I’m intolerant of people trying to control women! Yes I am! I’m not going to apologize for that.
And really, what is the message of women running in ridiculous skirts? What? That a woman running in pants is not “modest”? What does that even MEAN? That she’s a slut? That she sleeps around? That her sexuality is not pure? That she is arrogant? That she does not know her place?
How about this: A woman running in pants is not “immodest”. She may just be comfortable. What an amazing concept, huh? That women in pants are not prostitutes but are just comfortable….
We really, really need to transform the language of women’s clothing and body.
B’vracha,
Elana
December 5th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Your highlighting of only “two” women is completely unfair. First, I don’t know if there were only two–I only saw two. So, let’s see. What percentage of the population of a big city can or would run a half marathon? I guarantee that a far larger percentage of “haredi” women here were running than non-haredi women.
I have it on good authority (my wife), that her running skirt is no more difficult, uncomfortable, or awkward to run in than her running pants and running shorts. If you want to complain about misogyny, go to a half marathon, watch the women come by, and complain about all of the tiny, overly tight, clothing that many of the women feel a need to wear. Undoubtedly, not all women would choose tight short shorts and a running bra as their standard attire, yet its the women who choose to wear less revealing stuff that get your misogyny alarm going? Which women do you think are being objectified more?
A skirt may not be fundamentally more modest than pants. Still, it is a symbol for the women as well as the men. If I walk around with my head uncovered, does anyone really think that it means that I am brazen in the face of God? Probably not. It is a symbol to keep it covered and one that I do with free choice.
It’s easy enough to say “She may just be comfortable. What an amazing concept, huh?” about wearing pants. Surely you could be charitable enough toward the intelligence and standards of women to apply the same words to their traditionally modest choices. Or not?
December 10th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Benjamin
Here’s the thing: in my entire Orthodox schooling and further adult education, I have not ONCE read or heard anyone teach girls and women that comfort is a value, that it’s okay for us to just like our bodies and our skin and feel good walking down the street. Never. What we were taught, always, consistently, is that it is our job to serve others — serve children, serve husband, serve nation, serve community, serve God. More often than not, this serving comes from being quiet, sweet and submissive and putting our own needs last. We are taught that the more we cover, the better we are, the closer we are to God’s will. The more we put our own needs last, the more religious we are. That’s what all this excessive cover is about. We cover so the men around us can feel more religious.
What I’m trying to say is that, after 40 years of listening to this, I feel confident enough to say, NO! That’s wrong!!! One does not get closer to God by putting on more layers of clothes, or by prefering a skirt to pants. It’s just not true! IT’s just not true!!! And more than that, it’s not my job to change men’s scenery by covering up. Men’s minds are men’s problems. I need to feel good in my own self. But that is not something that orthodox women are ever, ever taught.
And ultimately, all those women who have chosen to put on skirts, even when the obvious thing would be to wear pants, like when riding a bike or playing in the sand or going to the beach (I was one of those for a while, I wore a long robe at the pool on my honeymoon while my husband had a great time alone in the water and I watched…. talk about things we wish we could change), all those women walking around in these confines, I fully believe that if these women would not have been subjected to lecture after lecture on the centrality of the skirt and hat to the spirituality of the nation, NONE of them would ever choose to do it on their own. There is nothing innate or intuitive about hat and skirt. Nobody would ever do this by choice. It is just a matter of rhetoric and how we are taught. I do NOT believe that there is anything inherently divine about a woman’s skirt. It is a function of men’s imaginations about correct womanness.
And ultimately, it does a lot of damage to girls and women. Becuase we continue to learn that we come LAST. That our comfort is irrelevant. That our desire is non-existent. That our bodies are about how men see them rather than about how we feel them.
One last point: the fact that non-Jewish women complain about the confining conventions of modern fashion is not the point. So what? You’re just saying that women are pushed around by BOTH Orthodoxy and the fashion industry, both of which have a deeply embedded misogynistic view of women’s bodies. AGREED! They are BOTH bad for us.
Women need to take back language of body, and allow ourselves to experience comfort, and to decide for ourselves what feels right on our skin.
B’vracha,
Elana
December 10th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
I would like to share one the one story with you about
Yuri Foreman’s rise and his Coach Michael Kozlowski on
http://www.boxingcoachmike.com/news/63-yuri-foreman-pro-champion.html
I think it will be very interesting for you to read…