Martial Arts as a Key to Understanding Our Contemporary World
Monday, November 10, 2025 | 5:30PM-7:00PM PT | Zoom (meeting link will be emailed) | RSVP

EASC Guest Speaker Series: Talk by Prof. Alexus McLeod (Indiana University) with Faculty Moderator Prof. Jessica Zu (REL 135: Chinese Religions and Culture)

The myths of the martial arts, Prof. McLeod argues, are not simply untruths to be debunked or dismissed, but play important roles in the organization of society and the justification of some of its commitments and practices. Instead of focusing on whether martial arts myth is historically accurate, we should focus on whether the role of the myths in question ultimately have a positive or negative effect on society. In this talk Prof. McLeod focuses on one key myth discussed in his book Myth and Identity in the Martial Arts—the idea of martial arts as combat in contemporary myths surrounding MMA, particularly in the United States. He argues that much of our contemporary culture is based on identity formation that arises from martial arts myth, which grounds the idea of the consummate male associated with the image of transgressive violence. He traces the history of this myth from late 19th century Chinese and Japanese conceptions to the beginnings to the origins of MMA as sports entertainment, and considers the implications of these often harmful myths on contemporary ways of thinking. Prof. McLeod also considers how we might develop alternative myths to counter the corrosive ones and develop liberatory rather than destructive conceptions of the martial arts.