The Suffrajitsu fightback: how Carey Mulligan's new film has helped revive martial arts

Carey and co have helped revive an ancient form of girl power, says Phoebe Luckhurst
Carey Mulligan stars in Suffragette
Focus Features

The suffragettes were kick-ass feminists. Literally: many of them knew jiu-jitsu. It was a means of defence in their increasingly violent struggle for equality in the run-up to the First World War. Jiu-jitsu gave them a chance against burly police officers, as the martial art emphasises using an opponent’s weight against them, mitigating a typical woman’s size disadvantage.

Suffragettes are claiming hearts and headlines again — a film telling a story about some of the movement’s players starring Carey Mulligan, Romola Garai, Anne Marie-Duff and Meryl Streep, has just been released in the UK. The script was written by The Hour’s Abi Morgan and it’s the first film to have been shot inside the Houses of Parliament. Sisters are doing it for themselves.

Unfortunately, bloody women now have the bloody vote, so seeing the film is the only way to piggyback on the furious passion of suffrage, experiencing it through the detachment of a critical eye. It’s not even in 3D, probably, as it’s not a Pixar cartoon. Of course, you could take up suffrajitsu too.

“It’s a good martial art for anyone,” says Sarah Merriner, a championship-winning brown belt and instructor at Carlson Gracie London, a jiu-jitsu studio near Hammersmith. She agrees that its theory incorporates an advantage for women. “Your ability to understand it can help you overcome opponents who are more experienced, bigger and stronger.”

What do you learn? “It’s similar to judo,” she says. “You learn basic submissions and escaping lots of positions.” Using your brain as well as your brawn is very suffragette.

She’d heard that the suffragettes had dabbled. “I read it online last week,” she laughs. “I was surprised — it was a long time ago. The sport has mainly been popular in the past 10 to 15 years.” It’s increasingly popular with women. “I’d say about 20 per cent are women at the moment — which is high for a martial art.”

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Higgins says that the key is understanding “the basic mechanics — how to move people around in a way that is beneficial to you, not to them, to redirect their bodies”. This is why it’s possible for those who are smaller and flimsier to beat bigger opponents.

She says that there are benefits both to mixed and single-sex classes, though it is admittedly easier to start with sparring against those of a similar size and build.

Ladies: come out fighting and outmanoeuvre the shackles of oppression.

Follow Phoebe on Twiter: @phoebeluckhurst

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