A #MeToo-style reckoning seems to be unfolding inside of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
In February 2026, Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Andre Galvao used to be accused of sexual misconduct by means of more than one ladies, together with a young person who had skilled at Atos Jiu Jitsu, the college Galvao co-founded in San Diego in 2008 that now boasts academies around the globe.
The backlash used to be swift: A couple of gyms and high-profile athletes affiliated with Atos severed ties with the college.
Galvao pushed aside the accusations as “false rumors” and said he’s “taking the proper legal steps to protect the integrity” of Atos.
In a recreation that has lengthy struggled with addressing sexual harassment and misconduct, we see the standard condemnation of Galvao as a watershed second. And it comes at the heels of study we performed to raised perceive the original demanding situations that feminine martial artists face.
A recreation constructed on accept as true with
For the ones unfamiliar with the game, Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a martial artwork desirous about grappling and floor preventing – assume wrestling, however with submission ways like arm bars, shoulder locks and chokeholds. It’s necessarily the grappling at the floor a part of UFC, minus the punches and knee moves.
Even supposing virtually all Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions are cut up by means of gender, sparring and drilling mechanically occur between women and men. It normally comes to bodily touch, typically between two folks with other ranges of energy and revel in.
For those causes, accept as true with, restraint and admire are crucial.
When your opponent effectively applies a method that limits your motion and from which you can not break out, you “tap out” to sign that you’ve approved defeat. Whilst you post, your opponent is obligated to let cross right away to keep away from inflicting harm or unconsciousness.
Agree with and discretion are paramount in jiu-jitsu.
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However the type of harassment that would possibly not upward push to the extent of against the law in maximum international locations – extra pervasive and extra delicate, however however insidious – has in large part remained unacknowledged in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Joyful lack of understanding or one thing extra insidious?
Whether or not it’s via beside the point or sexualized feedback each off and on the mat – or via unsolicited remarks about their our bodies or look – ladies stumble upon a a long way other coaching atmosphere than their male opposite numbers.
That is what we needed to discover in our personal analysis.
In 2021, we performed a survey on martial arts participation that generated responses from 289 martial artists – 209 males, 77 ladies and a pair of nonbinary folks – within the U.S. and around the globe. Maximum of them indexed Brazilian jiu-jitsu as their number one artwork.
Within the research, 43% of our survey respondents – 51% of girls and 40% of fellows – indicated that they have been conscious about harassment of their martial arts group, which ranged from bullying to sexual harassment, to sexual attack.
However harassment used to be only one factor raised. The survey printed a much broader drawback of “gender blindness” in martial arts, which comes to merely ignoring or overlooking the affect that gender will have on participation, apply and function.
When requested, “What does it mean to be a woman in martial arts?” 62% of fellows spoke back with statements that actively downplayed or unnoticed the tactics gender shapes the game. As an example, one guy famous that “the beauty of martial arts” is that “anyone can do it,” without reference to age, skill, “gender, shape or size.”
In contrast, just about two-thirds of girls in our survey indicated that being a lady in martial arts does, if truth be told, subject. They stated that they had fewer coaching alternatives, printed that they felt they had to paintings two times as onerous to end up themselves, and highlighted protection considerations.
For plenty of ladies practising jiu-jitsu, their gender performs a component within the revel in.
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It isn’t transparent whether or not the gender blindness amongst male martial artists mirrored optimism, lack of understanding or one thing else. However the affect is identical: Ladies see gender as central to their revel in. Males typically understand gender to be beside the point to the game, they usually don’t understand what ladies take care of on a daily foundation.
Sadly, gender blindness isn’t simply relegated to Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Lengthy studied by means of sociologists and gender students, it’s a development that lays the groundwork for abuse throughout all varieties of sports activities. And the place gender blindness exists together with inflexible hierarchies, it permits abuses of energy and a tradition of silence.
When folks refuse or fail to acknowledge how gender shapes the reviews of girls in sports activities, it turns into a lot tougher to handle stipulations that let for harassment and attack to happen. As an example, when beside the point touch or groping all through coaching is pushed aside as simply “accidental” or minimized as any individual being “handsy,” it indicators that this conduct is trivial fairly than destructive. And it creates an atmosphere the place ladies – and males – might really feel uncomfortable coming ahead or talking out.
Some distinguished figures within the Brazilian jiu-jistu group are making this connection.
In a up to date postmatch victory speech, Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion and trainer Adele Fornarino issued a choice to motion. Criticizing the hierarchical construction of the game, she emphasised that folks in positions of energy are making the most of the susceptible and referred to as for “no more blissful ignorance.”
What comes subsequent?
In jiu-jitsu, males have historically held positions of energy. By way of and big, they’ve been the homeowners of gyms, the instructors main categories, the holders of black belts.
Two ladies practice a transfer being demonstrated all through a Brazilian jiu-jitsu magnificence at a gymnasium in Boston in 2013.
Christopher Evans/MediaNews Workforce/Boston Usher in by way of Getty Pictures
However this has been converting: The grownup black belt ladies’s department on the 2025 Global Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation International Championships noticed a 40% build up in individuals over the former 12 months. In contrast, participation within the males’s department reduced by means of 18%.
Extra ladies are status facet by means of facet with males on the entrance of the category as leaders and mavens. Because of this, it’s conceivable that many male martial artists are much more likely to admire, accept as true with and spot their feminine friends as equals.
After they reside as much as what they may be able to be, the martial arts are a spot the place women and men battle in combination and offer protection to each and every different. They may be able to increase distinctive friendships, domesticate empathy and apply mutual enhance.
Women and men having the chance to coach in combination in the similar gymnasium may end up in what German sociologist Max Weber referred to as “verstehen”: the type of working out that comes from operating carefully sufficient with any individual to clutch the fears, aspirations and reviews that force them. Areas that let for that intensity of connection are all too uncommon.
We see the swift denunciation of Galvao, a legend within the recreation, as an indication that Brazilian jiu-jitsu could also be progressing towards a tradition targeted on care, worry and discretion as a substitute of dominance and gear.
