An Open Letter To Meryl Streep


Dear Miss Streep,

First of all, congratulations on everything you’ve accomplished.  I can’t say I’ve paid much attention to it, but many people have, and many of them seem to appreciate it.

Also, kudos on everything you said about Donald Trump. Indeed, I still toss and turn every night knowing that he is going to be at the head of the biggest military in the world.

With that said, I have to respectfully disagree with what seems to be your depreciatory comment about mixed martial arts (MMA).

To wit:

So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick them all out you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.

First, why exactly do you think there will be “nothing to watch but football and MMA”? Hollywood is filled with American-born actors, actresses, and directors. What exactly would happen that would leave the entertainment industry with nothing more than people hitting each other on a field and in a cage?

Second, MMA is also “crawling with foreigners.” For example, the UFC’s Women’s Bantamweight Champion Amanda Nunes is Brazilian. The same with former Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, former Heavyweight Champion Fabricio Werdum, Invicta Featherweight Champion Cris “Cyborg,” and a host of others too numerous to list (though I gladly will if you don’t believe me).

Going by your logic, wouldn’t MMA also disappear? Wouldn’t that leave us with nothing but football?

By the way, did I mention that Amanda Nunes (along with another UFC bantamweight, Liz Carmouche) is also openly and proudly homosexual. Tell me how many other sports have openly homosexual role models. Tell me how many are in Hollywood.

I assume, Miss Streep, that you also consider yourself a feminist?

Great! Me, too! (Hard to believe that a big, dumb ape like me, who enjoys watching people inside a cage getting punched in the face, could possibly care about women, huh?)

And that is why it’s so awesome to see women headlining mixed martial arts events.

Come to think of it, I can’t think of any other televised sport where women are the top draws at a competition.

Football?

Nope.

Basketball?

Nope.

Baseball?

Not a chance.

But mixed martial arts?

Well… see for yourself.

Tickets on sale today #UFCHOUSTON

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Okay, so maybe the “objectified” ring girls aren’t exactly going to win over many Jezebel or Everyday Feminism readers, but compared to other sports, and even compared to Hollywood, I think MMA does a damn good job of giving women the recognition they deserve.

I am bringing this up because you seem to take a rather disparaging tone towards MMA, and I can’t understand why. Certainly, as a liberal and feminist, there is much to appreciate in the sport.

Concluding, I hope you take Bellator President Scott Coker up on his offer.

Better yet, why not watch a UFC event headlined by one of the strong, powerful, female athletes who work their butts off every day in a sport that you, for some reason, think we’ll be left with if Trump chases America’s foreigners out.

Maybe you didn’t mean to put down mixed martial arts, but that’s the way many in the MMA community took it, and we would at least appreciate some clarification.

And if you didn’t intend to insult MMA in any way, then let me apologize for misinterpreting your statement.

Sincerely,

Chris Zahar

NOTE: This article was recently edited in order to clarify some of my points and give it a more polite and respectful tone. I felt it was a tad hypocritical to address what appears to be Miss Streep’s disparaging tone with one that is equally disparaging.


7 COMMENTS

  1. Jesus,
    is nobody paying you attention? WTF, you are making a mountain out of a molehill and deciding to get upset when there is nothing to get upset about. As a BJJ black belt, professional MMA fighter and gym owner, I am offended you wrote this crap. It makes us all look like pansies who need to immediately jump up and bark whenever anybody says anything that might be perceived as a slight against our sport.
    A little lesson in comprehension: she was drawing a comparison between sport and classical arts. This was off the cuff, not a written speech.
    Get over yourself.

  2. Shes just ignorant to martial arts, probably as much as I’m ignorant of the theatre. I’ve been doing this for over 15 years. Get in the ring with Maurice Smith on the mat with Matt Hume then tell me its not an art. You feel like you are punching yourself in the face and putting yourself into a submission. It takes at least as much artistic ability to do that asit takes for a top level ballerina to perform. There are martial artists and brawlers in mma just like there are ballerinas and strippers in the dance world. Don’t tell me its not an art.

  3. Most comical thing I have read in quite a while. One statement, taken out of context, then twisted, like your panties. Is this irony? I hope it is irony.

    You see she was talking about funding for the classic arts. Do you know what the classic arts are? I am a sport nut and a livid follower of MMA- but this makes MMA folks seem like idiots. Sports and arts are two different things. Nobody is saying it does not take skill, natural abilities, practice, determination, etc, etc… but they are two completely different things.

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