Seconds Out

Kicking ass and taking notes—what it's like to be a woman in the ring.

Alison Dean teaches English literature. She also punches people. Hard. But despite several amateur fights under her belt, she knows she will never be taken as seriously as a male boxer. "You punch like a girl" still isn't a compliment — women aren't supposed to choose to participate in violence.

Her unique perspective as a 30-something university lecturer turned amateur fighter allows Dean to articulately and with great insight delve into the ways martial arts can change a person's — and particularly a woman's — relationship to their body and to the world around them, and at the same time considers the ways in which women might change martial arts.

Combining historical research, anecdotal experience, and interviews with coaches and fighters, Seconds Out explores our culture's relationship with violence, and particularly with violence practiced by...