Is FMA a Low-Class Ghetto Art?

[Buka]

There is a certain Je ne sais quoi to first floor apartments in the projects.



Hence, I more fancied High Class Ghetto MA. Spoiled, I guess.

 

[Juany118]

Is FMA a low-class "Ghetto" art?

The other day I had a brief conversation with a co-worker who is something of an authority on Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA). He is a tall, very thin devotee of the rapier, as well as broadsword and Polish sabre. He is so slender, in fact, that his training partners complain that when he turns sideways, he is hard enough to see, let alone hit!

Anyway, when we spoke, he was nursing some sparring injuries and complaining about a certain mutual acquaintance of ours, a burly FMA guy who also attends the local HEMA practices. This fellow, by contrast, is a powerfully built individual, and apparently when technique fails him he compensates by just going ape and pounding his HEMA partners with brute force, oblivious to the strikes he receives in return.

...Incidentally, this same individual is not a particularly popular training partner in local FMA circles either!

Regardless, my battered HEMA friend, knowing of my love of Eskrima, concluded the conversation dismissively, stating something like, "Well, what can you expect, ...that Filipino stuff is basically low class, ghetto fighting with machetes and crap. On the other hand, what we do is a sophisticated art, ...very elite!"

Somehow I never imagined the regular guys on the battlefields of Europe in centuries past, hacking each other apart in a desperate battle to survive ...as elitists.

Neither do I think of myself, as an FMA enthusiast, as doing something particularly ghetto. Does this mean I have to start wearing my pants down below my butt and listening to gangsta rap?

What's funny is that the broadsword and polish saber are "soldier" arts and not gentlemanly arts. I am friends with a HEMA practitioner and we often reflect on how there are similarities in techniques between HEMA and Kali.

I think that part of the problem is people who study HEMA think of the Knights of fiction, not the real life soldiers with a title they were, and certainly not the mercenary armies such as the Landsknechts. Next time to talk to him ask him about the later and ask which is more "noble", a soldier for hire or a warrior defending his tribe/village.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I thought it was whatever I do, is brutal and efficient, and the rest of it is all flashy or fake?

Same thing. Effective is high class, too. Everyone knows that...except you low-class, ineffective folks.

 

[Rich Parsons]

Is FMA a low-class "Ghetto" art?

The other day I had a brief conversation with a co-worker who is something of an authority on Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA). He is a tall, very thin devotee of the rapier, as well as broadsword and Polish sabre. He is so slender, in fact, that his training partners complain that when he turns sideways, he is hard enough to see, let alone hit!

Anyway, when we spoke, he was nursing some sparring injuries and complaining about a certain mutual acquaintance of ours, a burly FMA guy who also attends the local HEMA practices. This fellow, by contrast, is a powerfully built individual, and apparently when technique fails him he compensates by just going ape and pounding his HEMA partners with brute force, oblivious to the strikes he receives in return.

...Incidentally, this same individual is not a particularly popular training partner in local FMA circles either!

Regardless, my battered HEMA friend, knowing of my love of Eskrima, concluded the conversation dismissively, stating something like, "Well, what can you expect, ...that Filipino stuff is basically low class, ghetto fighting with machetes and crap. On the other hand, what we do is a sophisticated art, ...very elite!"

Somehow I never imagined the regular guys on the battlefields of Europe in centuries past, hacking each other apart in a desperate battle to survive ...as elitists.

Neither do I think of myself, as an FMA enthusiast, as doing something particularly ghetto. Does this mean I have to start wearing my pants down below my butt and listening to gangsta rap?

Hey Geezer,

1) Please do not wear your pants low. It makes it hard to run. That should be part of our tool set. Even if just a short distance.
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2) If we look at a little bit of history (* Rose colored glasses to brown colored glasses *), In Europe the noble would learn to carry the light weapon and fence. There were even schools that came through in Germany to the 20th century with a prestige attached to these schools.
>
In the PI, the Spanish outlawed the practice of the local arts. So it was more back yard, farm, or boxing gym (* also considered low end *). So in the mid to late 20th century when martial arts was becoming available, the store front schools were Korean and or Japanese.
So, those with Money, even in the PI would say the FMAs in general were low class and or gutter.

I think as stated by others it does not matter about the art , yet it matters about the person and the situation and their training on that day at that time.
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So there could be a perception of what he stated. personally I would just smile pull a pen from my pocket and poke him in the kidney area and say dead is dead.

best wishes.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

1) Please do not wear your pants low. It makes it hard to run. That should be part of our tool set. Even if just a short distance.

This is the least of the reasons why we don't want Geezer wearing his pants low.

 

[Finlay]

I have heard this attitude from HEMA guys before. I think they refer to plain sword swinging as a peasants style.

They study a lot of treatises and get the notion that they are directly following on the traditional of knights.

I have come across similar attitudes from aikidoka in the past.

Boxing was both a peasant art and a gentleman's art. The rules and system was slightly different

In any case to throw disdain on any art due to the social class (current or in the past) may not be the smartest thing to do. Possibly shows a lack of understanding or experience of martial arts