Girlfight: "I didn't make the cheerleading team"

Karyn Kusama's Girlfight changes and challenges the traditional boxing story by introducing a female protagonist in a typically male-dominated role. The film is able to simultaneously consider the female perspective in boxing, and boxing films. The fact that both of these settings are traditionally male-dominated allows for a unique spin on the boxing narrative, and it's typical entrenched interests.

Michelle Rodriguez was actually chosen for this role, despite a botched audition, because of her less "feminized" appearance, and the lack of "power" in the other 300+ auditionees.Guzman is definitely no pushover. She's aggressive, assertive, dominant, kind of a lone wolf.As Katharina Lindner puts it in her essay on physicality in Girlfight: "She represents both a symbolic and a very real, physical and ‘lived’ transgression of normative notions of gender and bodily existence".

Guzman's relationship with her father captures the difference in expectations and opportunities made available to the two genders according to traditional mindset. He pays for boxing lessons for his son, but not his daughter, instead he suggests she buy skirts, or makeup. She seemingly has to overcome a conflict with every character in the film in order to pursue boxing. This is in stark contrast to the typical boxer, who is usually encouraged by friends and family, at least in the beginning.

Another interesting deviation from the genre is in the perception of boxing as a sport. Whereas other films depict boxing as a sort of egalitarian, glorious Colosseum, where the risks and the rewards are high, Girlfight shifts this perspective. To Guzman, the boxing world is secluded, outdated, stuck in it ways and afraid of outsiders. She feels out of place, almost resented. Instead of being presented as the birthplace of champions, boxing is referred to as a "waste of time". It is frequently said that there are better things for Guzman to do, and that boxing is not a lucrative pursuit. A subtle metaphor for the trouble women have breaking into male-dominated fields, this shift also gives us an outsider's perspective on boxing. Much like a assertive, succesful businesswoman, "A skillful female boxer occupies an “emergent” position within the hegemonic ordering of society", as MacIntosh Ross puts it in his essay "Documenting the Female Boxing Experience".

 Guzman has her reasons for wanting, but for many of the males boxer's in the film, it's "all they know". Distracted by all the fame and success of our previous boxers, it can be easy to fall under false pretenses that boxing is like any other career. By having a female, amateur boxer as our lead, that illusion is shattered.

Even without the promise of economic salvation through boxing, the conflict of market values vs family values reemerges in the film. Highlighted perfectly in the above scene where Guzman sells a family heirloom in order to continue to box. The conflict takes on a different tone, as it's less of a choice for Guzman to make, and more of an uphill battle. Neither the boxing world, nor her family are encouraging her to continue, and she must overcome both familial reservations, as well as economic realities to pursue her sport.

Taking a departure from the thematic elements of the film, Kusama uses these cardboard signs before important events in the ring throughout the film. They leave the audience with little tidbits of information to digest. Reminiscent of Raging Bull's fight cards, they serve as transitions into the action, while also adding a little bit of insight into the quality of the establishments in which Guzman is boxing, as well as the values of the people inside.

 At it's most basic, Girlfight is a quest for respect. Guzman begins the film being looked down upon by her peers, her teachers, even her family. The endless discussions in the film about whether she is the same, or should/shouldn't compete with males is irrelevant to Guzman. She does not care whether or not she is the equal of the male boxer, in fact she realizes the differences and takes advantage of them. All that she wants is to be treated equally, and allowed the same opportunities as everyone else regardless of gender. Respect.