The Professor in the Cage: Why Men Fight and Why We Like to Watch

Animals fight; humans fight, too. Women fight; men fight, too. But men are more likely to fight physically and frequently. Some might say men are just asinine in so doing and men ought to be civilized. Jonathan Gotschall, an English professor, argues that men are the way they are owing to many reasons. Better yet, he places himself in the middle of fights to find out why men fight even if death might result. Gottschall had been a wimp, not being able to stand up for himself all his life. He decided to learn MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) to fight for the first time in his life. He states that he had gotten himself in MMA because he wanted to write this book. After having been "food" to other stronger men, the desire to feel like a "man" must have rendered his desire to take up MMA. Gottschall starts the first chapter detailing a duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aron Burr who were respectively the secretary of treasury and the vice president of the United States of America. The duel was over rumors against Aron Burr. The author brings up a propositional question: Why did the two men have to kill each other over petulant and chagrining words? Withal, could they have resolved the conflict in a peaceful manner? The author points out that there was none other way at that time because what the men fought for were not just humiliating words, but respect. In Men's World, respect means a lot more than just respect. Men fight for respect like animals do. Animals fight for food, sex, territory, and protection, all of which mean life and death. For men, respect is life and death. When a man loses respect from other men, it meant just more than being looked down. Money, women, social status, business, power -- life and death likewise --depended on one's respect at those epoch. This principle still applies to the modern world, by virtue of stable civilized government systems, these extreme duel disappeared. De facto Duel in different form, however, still exists in somewhat uncivilized world of prison. Much violent fighting occurs over a stolen banana. They were not fighting for banana; they fight for respect. Once you let somebody steal your banana, people will pilfer you of your food, money, and rape you in the end. Either you become their food or another "man." Gottischall renders a scientific and well researched statement and kick feminism right in the face. Providing a good number of researches and studies, the author adduce that what masculinity is and argues how masculinity has developed in human. he explains that the masculinity is developed because there were less females and more males. Thus, males compete for reproduction by fighting. Females will be successful in producing offspring without competition or fighting. Risk taking inklings, aggression, competitiveness in males are not invented, rather they have naturally grown in males and because the definitions of masculinity."Masculinity is not a cultural invention. It is not the result of a conspiracy by men against women. It is a real thing that has evolved over millions of years as a response to the built-in competitive realities of male life." Gottschall delves into other psychological, anthropological, biological arguments throughout the book regarding masculinity, fighting, sports, even war throughout the book. The rest of the chapters are well imparting and very educational. His researches culminate in converging with his own anecdotes in fights in later chapters. Gottschall finishes the book by concluding that men fight because fights make men feel great and alive. As Mike Tyson put it, in his bluntly eloquent way, “other than boxing, everything else is so boring.” Maybe, men fight because men have been fighting in the entire existing epochs, and generations after generations while evolving. Fighting must be deeply rooted in men's DNA. It is very recently that men are prohibited from fights. School teachers punish boys for fighting; Cops either break up fights or place the fighting citizens in jails; people recommend for psych evaluation for anger management for aggressive men. Men's instincts are suppressed. Maybe that is why men feel joy when they fight like how their ancestors did all these years.

Reading Gottschall's memories of his high school days resonated with me. Like Jonathan, I too was a kid who was pushed around and was too afraid to fight back. Reading his accounts of being verbally and physically bullied was like reading a script from my own life. I remember feeling absolutely helpless, like I knew that I needed to stand up for myself but I just couldn't. The start of every year in high school was the same for me. I would tell myself, "this is the year you stick up for yourself, this is the year you fight back', and every year I disappointed myself. The thought of physical confrontation both terrified and fascinated me. None of my mates were the fighting type. No one I was friends with had an aggressive bone in their body. I was by no means a weakling. I played rugby and lifted weights religiously, but when challenged by someone, be it at school or later on when I turned 18 and started going out, I would just freeze, look at the ground and get as far away from them as possible. If it came down to fight or flight, my natural instinct was always flight. Yet the thought of fighting still fascinated me.Gottschal's book literally felt like it was written just for me. His views on masculinity and why men are the way they are mirror mine. Modern western men might be civilized and well behaved, but don't think that men, even mild mannered, pot bellied middle aged men, haven't fantasized about thumping their high school bully or smashing another man's face who insulted them. But western men have never been further removed from violence than what they are today. We live in an age of almost complete safety. A hundred years ago a fistfight was nothing, now you can go to prison for partaking in one. There's no more living on the frontier. No longer any need to hunt or grow our own food. No more savage tribes to watch out for. If our country goes to war, we don't even notice. Professional soldiers will do the fighting for us while we stay at home and watch netflix. We in the west have it very easy compared to our ancestors. But does this safety come at a price? I'ts no joke that we have become soft, and the world seems to be becoming more and more unstable. When our societies start to become unsafe, will our years of being wrapped in cotton wool come back to haunt us? I think one of the best things any man can do is get in a fight at least once.I discovered this book at a point in my life when the anger that I had buried deep down within me from all those years of being a doormat was starting to come to the surface. Gottschall was a forty year old man who took on an amateur mma fight after two years of training. If that isn't inspiring I don't know what is. After reading about his journey through the world of fighting I decided it was time heal old wounds, and get into a fight. I started at a boxing club and signed up for a novice boxing event some seven months down the line. I trained, sparred and lifted, and seven months later fight night came. With my dad and girlfriend seated ringside, I gave it my all and lost by a very close split decision. Getting into a fight was one of the best things I have ever done. If you've ever wondered if you had the guts to step into the ring or octagon and just need that little bit of inspiration, then this book is a must read.

Gottschall dives deep into the male psyche and unlocks the patterns of behavior that men have used to resolve conflicts for millenia. All the seemingly stupid risks and bravado of your ancestors will come into perspective.

A fun read with some fairly solid arguments. Despite being written by an academic, this book was easy to follow and the way he moves between his study and his experiences as a fighter (ish) keep it fast paced and exciting to read. If you're considering reading it from the description, you'll enjoy it when you get it.

great

Very well written and would thoroughly recommend

Excellent read for any fans of MMA, boxing and other martial arts.

Read the whole book in just two sittings. An entertaining and enlightening read. Highly recommended