‘The Boxer’s Heart – A Woman Fighting’ is Kate Sekules’ first-hand account of boxing as a woman in London and New York in the very early days of women’s professional boxing, and at a time when women’s boxing was yet to be admitted to the Olympics.
Sekules began boxing (perhaps just boxercise-style classes) at All Stars in north-west London (incidentally this is also the first boxing gym I stepped into as an adult, as my good friend Chip coaches there), before beginning to train at Gleason’s in New York when she moved there for work.
Throughout Sekules’ boxing career there was a lot of uncertainty as to whether, because of her age, she would be able to box as an amateur, with the Golden Gloves tournaments just beginning to introduce women’s bouts, and with limited weight categories available. This led Sekules to turning pro with little amateur experience.
It’s a book that resonates with me as I always enjoy reading about people who came to boxing later in life, and who perhaps never considered their bodies in any way athletic (I did, but in other sports), and maybe also had a negative view of the sport in general. There are also a lot of themes that resonate, as I’ve watched my wife Lizzy fall in love with boxing over the last few years, both watching and training, so it was great to read similar reflections in this book.
The main threads in this respect were a woman, brought up to reject all acts of aggression and to forever assume a passive role, realise her potential for building, harnessing, but ultimately controlling, her own aggression as all boxers must. Also, a woman who had throughout her life been denied access to any sports considered too masculine, and pushed toward daintier and more feminine pursuits, finally being encouraged to build her body toward a more athletic ‘machine’.
Lizzy and I have had a lot of conversations about what it means to aim for and attain functional fitness rather than the, often just skinny, beauty and health ideals portrayed in the media. Just about every time we have these conversations it’s hard to escape the conclusion that (Euro-centric?) beauty standards prepare women’s bodies for nothing more than sitting around while everyone waits on them hand and foot. That body type, unless you are in the percentile of people for whom it is natural, will certainly not prepare you for any athletic endeavours.
This book is very much centred around a rejection of these ideals.
On boxrec.com Sekules stands at 0-2, with two bouts in 1997, but these almost seem irrelevant compared to how important her journey was, to self-acceptance and to forcing those around her to accept her dreams and motivations.
Writers on Boxing 
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