I wanted to make this video to talk (above) about the ways in which wearing a Lobloo groin guard has impacted, changed, and improved my Muay and my own mind-body connection, over the 8-9 years I’ve been wearing it, regularly.
Please watch the video, as I go into detail about each of these points, but in the same style of “What to Look Out For” that I use for Muay Thai Library sessions, here’s what to look out for in bullet-point for what I’ve learned about the importance of female groin protection in my Muay Thai.
A Physical Buffer: Thai Culture is conservative in many ways, and the physical interaction between male/female practicioners in gyms is a multi-faceted complication. There is a not a lot of physical contact between Thai boys and girls in polite, public spaces, once they’ve reached puberty, so it can be a complication as adult female bodies try to learn Muay Thai in what are male-dominated spaces. Shirts have been used as “polite buffers” during clinch, in my experience, and I noticed after a long time of not understanding, that male groin guards are also sometimes used as a buffer when working with me among my male teachers. The female groin guard, which I wear on the outside of my shorts, so it’s visible, also provides this “polite buffer” from my end, which I think is helpful in these social gray areas.
Curiosity and Education: because I wear my Lobloo on the outside of my shorts while training, it’s quite visible. I do this on purpose, because I want it to be seen, which initially invites a curiosity, when boys or men will ask with some surprise, whether it hurts women to be hit in the groin. Yeah, it does. Curiosity leads to knowing, and then it’s just known and not focused on anymore. It has this amazing impact of drawing attention to something that’s kind of hush-hush (being, female anatomy) and is always either medicalized or sexualized, and in the gym setting, really only sexualized. By drawing attention, curiosity, and then education and knowing, it throws the awareness into a space that is neutral-medical and not sexual.
Mind-Body Connection and Pelvic Power: having grown up identifying as and being socialized as a girl, I and everyone else I know have been taught that our genitals should be invisible, unless being medicalized or sexualized (usually by heterosexual males, not ourselves). This internalized misogyny does a number on one’s mind-body connection, awareness of the whole self, and obliterates the ability to easily connect many of the pelvic movements that Muay Thai requires to generate power. For me, wearing the Lobloo, and the buffer it creates as well as the awareness it brings to that area of my body, which is otherwise pretty disconnected, has really helped me forge this mind-body connection and improve my movements and body through intentional awareness.
The Politics of Male Pain vs Female Pain: it is not just boys and men who have asked with suprise about the very existance of a “female groin guard.” Women on the internet have also responded in shock, “do I need this?” I find this fascinating, the ways in which the erasure of female bodily knowledge is so widespread among even those of us with these bodies. Myself included, I would not have thought about a groin guard until I got kneed, very badly, and never wanted to experience that again. And yet, even as a person without male genitals, I’ve been aware for as long as I can recall that getting hit in the testicals is both painful and potentially dangerous. We’re made aware of this, socially, across the board and yet female anatomy is so thoroughly ignored that those of us living with female anatomy aren’t aware of the pain and potential injuries until we personally experience it… and then we’ve internalized the shame and need for secrecy about our bodies so thoroughly that we won’t even necessarily mention it, share experiences, or even address it.
Two Female Groin Guard styles – Lobloo has two female groin guard styles: Aero (striking) and Free (grappling). I’m a striker and wear both the Aero and the Free, so you don’t have to stick to the designations if you are drawn to one over the other, but you can use the company’s designation as a guide if you’re unsure which to use. There are no “sizes” to worry about, the only size considerations are the elastic bands – the flat one goes around your waist and the round ones go around your legs. They give you a lot of elastic in the packaging and it should accommodate many people, but there is never a “one size fits all” and if you need more elastic than what is provided, you likely can buy it by the foot at a craft store and thread it through. There are also 4 male styles, you can see them on the website and they’ve been around for a long time and are popular among practicioners, so you can find reviews on Reddit for the male versions.
Lastly, it means a great deal to me that Lobloo has been my sponsor for so long. They have sent me Aeroslim guards, which I’ve been able to give for free to Thai female fighters, who have responded largely with great enthusiasm (older, more experienced fighters) and occasionally with embarrassment (younger, less experienced fighters – there’s a lot of work to be done in normalizing groin protection for female fighters here). They’ve also shared my values by giving 15% of sales, when using my Promo Code: KRUFUND, to the Kru Fund, helping support the Legends and Krus of the Muay Thai Library, and Preserving the Legacy of traditional Muay Thai, which means an incredible lot to me.
You can order at Lobloo.com Promo Code: KruFund for 5% discount and 15% goes to the Kru Fund, helping support the Legends and Krus in the Muay Thai Library
