(F*CK YEAH, FEMINISM!)
UFC ring girl Arianny Celeste and UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey have a lot in common in that they’re both women who have posed nude before. And while one of them is a former Olympian and the other is a former Ring Girl of the Year winner (2x!), it appears that the latter isn’t too high on how the former carries herself.
Yes, the woman whose breasts nearly destroyed CagePotato back in 2010 recently sat down with MMAJunkie radio (not nude on a hotel balcony, as previously speculated in this article’s title) to plug her show, Overhaulin‘. After a thirty second discussion about her social media presence that felt four hours long, the conversation eventually shifted to whether or not Celeste felt that Rousey was a good role model for our nation’s yoots. Her answer was so deeply profound that upon hearing it, Deepak Chopra allegedly threw his hands in the air and declared his life a sham:
I don’t really like the way she carries herself. I don’t think she’s a good role model for women. I think that women should empower each other and give each other a little pat on the back. (Ed. note: Or sometimes, a kiss on the backside.)
She’s paving the way for women’s MMA, and I’ve made being a UFC Octagon Girl into a career. She should definitely recognize that and be nice.
“The key to being a successful fighter…is being nice.” — Arianny Celeste
Obviously, Celeste is commenting on Rousey’s heel-esque turn in recent months/years, which has branded the champion as “crazy” in many an MMA fans eyes. While Rousey’s brash, unforgiving personality is seemingly turning off more fans by the day, it’s also fueling said fans desire to see her fail. It’s building her brand. In a division that is essentially a feeder system for Rousey, the outside possibility of seeing her fall from her pedestal could be the factor that puts asses in seats as her career progresses. The matchups themselves sure won’t, that’s for sure.
The fact is, Ronda Rousey is the antithesis of what MMA fans (and apparently, Ms. Celeste) expect of a female fighter, let alone one on her level. Without reducing this to a “sexism in MMA” argument, it is interesting to note that the same people who double over with laughter whenever Chael Sonnen embraces his heel role recoil with disgust whenever Rousey does the same. Maybe it’s because they feel that Rousey’s grating personality is more genuine than Sonnen’s, or maybe it’s simply because they, like Ms. Celeste, expect a woman to be prim, proper, and “nice” (or “fake nice” as Rousey would likely put it) even when they break arms for a living.
Then again, considering the source of criticism here is a woman whose understanding of feminism is right up there with Farrah Abraham’s, maybe we’ve already read too far into Celeste’s statements.