Roger, I'm talking about the women who come to this site but don't post. There are lots of people (men and women) that come to this site and don't post...and I've heard from people (in ax chat and in email) that they don't really feel welcomed to post. There are many reasons to cause someone to not feel welcomed to contribute on a message board. In the case of _some_ women (not all) they may feel unwelcomed to post from all of the excessive drooling that goes on over female fighters. Now, I have a strong appreciation for female fighters, and I think that most of them are very beautiful, each in their own way. I mainly feel that it's an attractive quality for a woman to push herself physically and mentally, especially in a society where it is not generally accepted for women to fight professionally and it's also traditional to have a man "take care" of a woman financially or whatever. I think it's impressive to see these women try to be their best.

Also, a side effect of this lifestyle choice is that they often look f***ing gorgeous as a result of all of that training. So, combining that with what I said above and that gives many reasons to have a strong appreciation for female fighters.

But I also am aware of the limits of appreciation. Some women don't enjoy being drooled over. There's a fine line between a compliment and a crude remark...and both of those can make a woman feel uncomfortable. That is why some of the Ax rules seem strict, because some men don't understand this line and they cross it all of the time with the rationalization that "it's a compliment" so the women should love it. That's just simply not the case.

Also, Roger, I don't consider this off topic because it is about female kickboxers. Who knows though...later on when there's an off topic forum, perhaps these topics would end up there. But that brings about a whole other difficulty in determining which topics are "serious" and which ones aren't.