Robert Scribner is a senior majoring in business. He can be contacted at [email protected].As I skimmed over the biggest news stories of last week, I couldn’t help but notice that a single question was dominating my thoughts. The question was this: Is there nothing left sacred in this world?
This question struck me as odd, as my thoughts generally only consist of pictures and imperative sentences. And here I was, not just dealing with words, but dealing with interrogatives.
What was also odd about the question was how profoundly distressing it was to my mindscape. I was genuinely disillusioned, and I even began to wonder if I would ever have faith in humanity again. This feeling of despair hadn’t arisen from nothing. It increased in exponential fashion from the moment at which I read the first headline, each one more disconcerting to my psyche than the last.
But there was one particular story that pushed me over the edge. Just last Thursday, during a major sumo-wrestling tournament in Tokyo, Japan, something went horribly awry.
Before I go on, let me warn you: This is not for the faint of heart or weak of mind. If you wish to continue, then brace yourself.
Just before the start of a bout, a crazed lunatic shoved through security and attempted to jump into the battling ring. This story would be perfectly fine, except for one dismayingly important detail: that crazed lunatic happened to be a woman. That’s right: she was a woman.
As we all know, tradition bans women from entering the sacred sumo ring in Japan. Like one article put it, “their presence, considered unclean, would pollute it.” I’m pretty sure this goes without saying. I consider myself a subscriber to the idea of cultural relativism, but concepts such as this transcend time and place. They are innately realized by all sentient human beings. A woman in the ring is just plain wrong.
“It’s bad for the heart. What was that person trying to do while we were wrestling seriously?” said Takamisakari, a popular wrestler who heroically restrained the woman, according to a Reuters report, before she was able to taint the sport and world forever. No one seems to know the answer to his question, unfortunately. Her motives remain unclear. However, she was reportedly carrying a bundle of flyers that read, “help, bad spirits.”
Bad spirits, indeed.
Furthermore, as someone that divides his time equally between distance running and serious sumo wrestling, I take offense to this on a much deeper level than your average non-wrestler.
This debacle in Tokyo is only one step away from the allowance of women as actual sumo wrestlers. Once they get up on that ring, they’re going to want to wrestle seriously.
Although Mississippi has its fair share of obese women for potential athletes, I don’t like the slippery slope that could be created. Eventually, these same women could be equal to the men. In my current state, I don’t know if I could handle that. As Takamisakari likes to say, it’s bad for the heart.