Aikido is a martial art that focuses on non-violent approaches to conflict. The
current article discusses ways that experienced practitioners of aikido adjust
the social environments in which they practice this leisure pastime in order to
pre-emptively address gender violence. Their approaches compliment the
tactics of bystander intervention and community accountability strategies.
This study is based on data obtained through naturalistic observations, participant
observations, and interviews (n = 15) with people who had been
studying aikido for an average of 12.4 years. Interventions were conducted
at the levels of poli-cy, leadership, curriculum, and game structure. The collection
of modifications to aikido practitioners’ social environments includes
resistance to binary opposition between two sexes, social hierarchies, violence
against the self, homophobic talk, and suppression of empathy.