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July 28, 2012
Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu
Fighting, Gendered Experience, Lanna Muay Thai

Revealing: I’m a Muay Thai Fighter

JR at the gym

 

There’s a street vendor cart right below my balcony (well, many floors below my balcony, but a direct fall/jump) that sells the most delicious fried chicken.  Sometimes I step out and look over the railing to see if they have a good selection and then go pick the pieces I spied, because I love food and the deliciousness of this chicken is just beyond mortal resistance.

It used to be a lady and her husband with their chubby daughter running around everywhere, but then the daughter had to go to school and now they seem to have brought in another young lady who helps run the cart.  I adore the mother-lady who has a round face and a smile that covers the width of it, and I’m a frequent enough customer (and walk by the stand on the way to dinner every evening) that we exchange a hello and a smile several times each day.  This newer lady, when she first started spoke some English to me to show off – and she does speak very well – but quickly relaxed into Thai when I placed my order in Thai.  She said something to me that was outside of the “do you want this chicken chopped?” question that I’m used to and I gave her the quizzical look and she translated for me: “you look like little girl. Very pretty.”  Well, OK!

So today is the day after my 21st fight and in the second round I got a cut on the bridge of my nose.  It isn’t a bad cut, but I had a bandaid on it all night and most of the day, but since coming back from training this afternoon I took it off for the shower and let the cut breathe a little.  My nose is swollen and I have two shades of black eyes on each side.  It’s really not bad, but definitely noticeable.  As I’m ordering my chicken for my second dinner (first dinner is “rehearsal dinner” and I keep a second stock in the fridge for later) both of the ladies are helping me and the sweet, mother-lady with the round face asks me in Thai what happened to my nose.  Well, I think she’s asking this because she’s pointing at her nose.  So I say in Thai, bpen muay ying which means “I’m a female boxer” and both women squeal in delight as the little one claps her hands and their smiles go off like fireworks.  It was amazing.  So I smile really big and point at myself and say chaa-na, to indicate that I won my fight and they get even more excited.  Then the little one excitedly asks me something that ends with the question word for “where” and I assume she means the location of the fight (I mean, the gym is literally 400 meters away so I have to assume they know where I train, right?) so I tell her Kalare and they both nod their heads.

They hand me my bag of chicken and my change and we all nod and say thank you and I head off with my husband to our next errand.  I was grinning like crazy, saying “well, that was awesome!”  Best reaction I’ve ever had to telling someone I’m a Muay Thai fighter.  Honestly, I’ve never seen anything quite like it so I can’t say for sure what made them so excited by this information, but I’m planning to bring my little computer down to the stall and have them watch the fight.  With those two and the pharmacist who tells all her customers when I come in that I’m a “boxer”, I’m fast becoming a celebrity of this little Soi!

 

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Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

The Author Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

A 103 lb. (46 kg) female Muay Thai fighter. Originally I trained under Kumron Vaitayanon (Master K) and Kaensak sor. Ploenjit in New Jersey. I then moved to Thailand to train and fight full time in April of 2012, devoting myself to fighting 100 Thai fights, as well as blogging full time. Having surpassed 100 fights in 3 years here, my new goal is to fight an impossible 200 times in Thailand, as much as I possibly can, and to continue to write my experience.

1 Comment

  • Mish
    December 28, 2015 8:09 am

    Thats a really cool, glad to hear it was positive!

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nadia

Playing to Type – the Sexy Exchange Student and Muay Thai

– This is part of what is likely a series of articles on western female sexuality in Thai gyms – it’s a big topic and I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and this seemed like the best place to start. This view comes from my personal experience, and reflection, but also from conversations I’ve been having with women who have trained or are currently training elsewhere in Thailand. How Are You Drawn? There’s a stereotypical role that is in male-driven teen comedies – you know, the kind that are about the conquest of losing one’s virginity or

Lommanee - Tom Beauty - Muay Thai

Lommanee Tom Female Beauty – Muay Thai Angels Shows Support

About a year ago I wrote about the mixed blessing of attention that the World Muay Thai Angels show was bringing on female Muay Thai in Thailand: World Muay Thai Angels and the Benefit for Women.  At the time, the tournament was brand new and is still to date the biggest production for an all-female tournament. As I said then, I was concerned that the new “sexy” image of Muay Thai was specifically aimed at erasing the observably pervasive among male Thais’ idea that only Toms or “butch” women fought Muay Thai. (For more on Toms and their counterparts, Dees,

Man vs Woman Fight - What Does it Mean.

Man vs Woman Fight – What Does it Mean? | Interview with Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

Guest Post – Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu This is my interview of Sylvie on what was an extraordinary event that happened this week as Tara, a student at the gym and an attendee of the Women’s Muay Khao Summit fought a male opponent. I wanted to get some perspective on what Sylvie thought about the fight as fights between the genders are rare, and almost symbolize something almost ineffable. As we mention in the interview we can only think of four other adult women who have fought men in an organized fashion (though there surely are many other such fights which

Dam and Sylvie - Great Men of Muay Thai

The Real Men of Muay Thai – Worn Like Stones by Water

Guest Post by Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu There is a very touching piece written by Lindsey Newhall for Fightland: Life of a Pad-Man: A Muay Thai Trainer’s Remorse. The pinnacle of the story is where Dam, a long time pad-man for champions and by most reports a devoted drunk, talks about how he threw the biggest fight of his life and career, because he was told to and you do what you are told…and, because the gym children “needed to eat”: He looked sad, almost defeated. “Okay,” I said to him, “I want you to tell me a story: I want

Interview with Frances Watthanaya by Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

Video Interview with Female Muay Thai Fighter Frances Watthanaya in Isaan

above is my 20 minute video Interview of Frances Watthanaya in Phutthaisong, Buriram – Isaan Read about my trip to Giatbundit Gym in Phutthaisong here. Read about and watch my fight for Giatbundit Gym in Buriram here. Talking with fighter, mother & wife Frances Watthanaya When I first “met” Frances online she was living in Canada and finishing up her degree.  She also is a mother to a young, intensely independent, little daughter named Parvati.  And she’s a Muay Thai fighter who is married to another Muay Thai fighter and now that she’s finished her degree and the family has

Under the Bottom Rope - Sylvie and sakyant-001

Stories of The Bottom Rope

I’ve written about the bottom rope before (articles at bottom) and this is my response to it coming up again recently. Interestingly, it was reintroduced by an American coach who was saying that his female fighters have always and will always go over the top rope, even in Thailand. Unfortunately, he had some other things to say about why he encourages his fighters to disregard this custom that, to me, smack of a particular racism and sexism that fantasizes about the exploited Thai female body that wasn’t something I could get behind. Firstly, a lot of people in the west

chiangmai_women_barebreasted

Keep Your Shirt On – Another Read on Thai Modesty

A few weeks ago I posted an entry on Thai modesty and the issue of bare chests (on men) within and outside of the camp, titled “Of Modesty and Men -Thai Manners In and Out of Camp”.  In short, it is considered impolite for men to go bare-chested in public but it is completely acceptable (and encouraged) to be shirtless in the gym.  Some men at the camp bend the limits and go shirtless into a convenience store that shares a driveway with the gym, but this is considered (by my eye-witness and personal understanding of Thai manners) out of

Tom and Dees in Thailand - 8limbs.us

Reading Notes “Toms and Dees” by Megan Sinnott – Part 1

Why Toms and Dees? On more than one occasion I’ve heard from one of the men or teenaged males who corner for my fights that I will be fighting, “a tomboy.”  This information is always delivered with a smirk or mocking gesture or laughter as if it’s a joke that I’m in on.  The word “tomboy” for me holds a western connotation of a girl who likes to play with boys, masculine toys, play rough and usually dress in pants and a T-shirt.  It’s not a suggestive of a sexual orientation where I come from and, generally, it’s either something

Den and the Long Clinch-001

Clinch Hell – Breaking Points, Crying and Growing Stronger

When Taking Pity Takes Too Much We have a new woman at the gym. She’s only trained a handful of weeks, ever, and will have her first fight at the end of the month. So Pi Nu is really putting her through the trials to get her ready and I suspect that part of his Draconian directives that she clinch everyday comes from him watching me have success with clinch over the past 1.5 years that I’ve been under his instruction at the gym. He watched me go from unable to unstoppable, so I think he’s become a real believer

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