Steve, I'm not sure what to say, I was blissfully unaware of this... phenomenon... until I saw your post. Then I had to Google it to see what it was and then Google some more to see if it was some weird prank, like eating Tide Pods. I'm still not sure if it's real or not, but my response is that apparently you can take a sport combat ruleset to absolute absurdity, but (if the ratings are anything to go by) you can't make people watch.
I'm not really opposed to it either. I don't really get it, but I don't have to get it. I've got a number of friends in the kink/BDSM community and some of them are into some things I don't get either. If two consenting adults are into taking turns slapping each other on TV and other people are in to watching it, I don't have a problem with it, I just don't want to be slapped nor slap the average person in this scenario.
Unfortunately, it's real. LOL.
Man, I can't watch it. I saw a few clips that popped up on reddit and was appalled.
And where you are disqualified if you do literally anything to lessen the impact of the blow including shrugging your shoulders, flinching, moving your head in any way (e.g., tucking your chin). It's only a matter of time before folks start croaking.
I'll think about the kink angle. In my mind, if/when someone dies in a contest like this, it's less like a boxing match and more like a duel. If you point a gun at someone and they point one at you and you both try to shoot the other... you can't be surprised when someone is grievously injured or killed. Whether both parties are consenting or not, it's still manslaughter.
Yeah, I think that it's a grey area and an edge case. As you say, safety seems to be intentionally compromised in this instance, or at least, largely ignored, where for example, in the kink scene safety is something that responsible people try to maximize. I generally feel that consenting adults should be allowed to do whatever they want to do with each other, but slap competitions definitely fall into an area that I don't think should be encouraged. If the promoters haven't done a good job with making sure it's fully informed consent, then they ought to be liable for serious injury/death.
I've seen these. And I agree with you. It's the sort of thing someone thinks "hey, this would be cool to try" when they're drunk. I just can't imagine why they'd think it was a good idea after they sobered up.
We used to do the slap competition all the time. But we were in the ninth grade at the time. It was fun....because we were stupid kids and anything grownups thought stupid, we were all over.
The kink stuff is a bad comparison. Those people may do weird stuff but they have safety measures in place so that it's generally harmless. Also, it stays in the realm of one's intimacy.
CTE central. There's no reason to actually "train" in it because there isn't any tactics, technique, or anything you're actually comparing other than your natural toughness. It's not like you can train yourself to have a strong chin apart from some neck training maybe - you either have it or you don't. Some might say you need to put force into your slaps, hit the right place etc, but it doesn't warrant a whole new sport. Let's not even get into the prize money - 2k per fight at most, but since this is Dana White's new business idea, I am not surprised he is yet again underpaying competitors.
If they participated in it on their own, in a backyard or something, sure. When it's being advertised and made to look cool for kids, at that point it's affecting more than themselves to me.
