[presenterfan]

I've been a catfight fan for over half a century.   Near  the start of this passion, fights between girls or women were rare events,  or maybe just harder to learn about because news was more regionalised.  I often wonder if they are anymore prevalent now or is it just that the internet makes them easier to find.
I suspect like most people here the only chances I get to watch a fight is on line.  In years gone by if you were lucky enough to witness a fight you would never hear people shout stop pulling hair, or, if the girl got each other down,  no one would step in and pull the girls to their feet and ask them to start again.
I watched an enjoyable spat days ago.  The ladies flailed arms, kicked, grabbed hair and  grappled.  A section of onlookers laughed at their efforts while one saw fit to write a comment, 'Ha Ha neither could fight'. I suggest they should watch ladies who put cobra gloves on after extensive training.
I hope we are not seeing the demise of the true catfights. 

[wasteland1952]

I do think women and girls fight more now than they used to.  And, as you point out, they fight differently now.  I'm in my mid 60's, and I can't exactly pinpoint when things changed, but they most certainly have.

I'm not a sociologist, psychologist or psychiatrist, so I would only be speculating as to when and how things changed.  I can't help but wonder if it corresponds to when women and girls started standing up for themselves, and making their voices heard.  Might that be termed the feminist movement?  I don't want to offend anyone, but I don't know how else to put it.

I distinctly remember a conversation I heard when I was a junior in high school in 1969.  I was riding to school with a friend in his car (before I got my own).  His then girlfriend was sitting next to him in the front seat.  They were discussing another girl who had been talking about my friend's girlfriend.  The current terminology would be "talking shit," I guess.  Anyway, my friend advised her, the next time the other girl opened her mouth, his girlfriend should punch her.  His girlfriend replied, "but nice girls don't fight."  It seems that was the way it was back then.  Of course there were physical fights between girls, but they were rare.  I've also read articles in more recent years by school officials who indicate in some schools, girl fights are more common than fights between boys.

I also think the movie and tv industries reflect this change.  Back in the old days, mostly in western movies, when women fought, it was a good old fashioned catfight, with hair pulling and rolling over each other on the floor.  But now fights between women are mostly martial arts fights, with kicks and punches, but almost no hair pulling or elements of the traditional catfight.

Personally, while I watch girls fight with fists, I much prefer the catball type catfight.  I don't get as much of a thrill watching two girls in a stand up, toe to toe fist fight as I do when they are pulling each other's hair on the ground, in a body to body catfight.

[T aka Tony]

I think MMA/UFC has something to do with the changes you have mentioned. You know what I like. lol Two unskilled women/girls pulling hair, slapping, punching and barefooted.

Cheers!
Tony

[lumberjack66]

I remember seeing a news story not too long ago that discussed the skyrocketing rates of Violence among late teen girls.  This was gang violence but included lots of fighting.  I know many of the gangs give female members the choice to be fought in (fighting several existing gang members at the same time)(I believe of the same sex) or sexed in (having sex with one or more gang members) and from what I understand, most prefer to be fought in.  So I think you can say there is at least some emperical evidence  I am 52 so probably similar experience.  I don't think the prevalence of national news really has anything to do with it.  Not like you hear daily reports of the latest catfights in LA nationwide on CNN.  I believe when we were young, catfights were considered shocking, unladylike, and thus extremely rare.  Ladies didn't fight because they didn't want to be branded.  I would say that began to really change in the late 70's?  You started to see strong female characters in the movies and TV, you started to see women more involved in all sports including combat sports, and I think the label of "unladylike" pretty much completely lost its social stigma.  In fact, I think most young ladies were eager to shed that social norm.  In the 70's you can probably count the number of major movies with a single female fight scene on one hand.  Maybe two.  Now there are probably half a dozen in the theaters at any given time.  Usually it is women beating up on guys, but fight scene none the less.  Now I would say it is almost completely mainstream.  It is so normal that you don't see foxy boxing or oil wrestling hardly at all.  It is just too hohum to draw a crowd anyplace except maybe some biker rally's or spring break?  Not even sure they do it there anymore.

[DottiD]

Just my 2 cents, but what  ithink you are seeing more of is cause of social media and gang like or thug way of life, for whatever reason girls and women today are going crazy to get their 15 minutes on you tube, FaceBook or any other media, they see it as a way to break into the Hollywood frame over going to Hollywood and making or not, lets face it if you get enough likes and subscribers you can get paid so why wouldn't they go for it, Its how Kim Khardashian made it shooting her sex video a billionaire for doing nothing.

But the stop and restart stuff that is all controlled by the thug gang mentality their Gf's or BFs put them up to it, and force them to fight in some cases and instead of letting natural instincts take over they force them to start with "throwing hands" as it is called now Fist Fight rest os us call it, and when the girls aren't smashing each others face they want them to pause reset and try it again, Personally I think it is a mental disorder i nthe guys cause they are secretly nothing but pussies who are scared t fight that way so they get off seeing the girls act it out, I have seen my share of those live vids and more than not you will see the Mothers or an older sibling and a few times the Good Friend come break it up and smack their as all the way home, but sadly the girls today fee la need to please their thug Boyfriend or be bullied and out casted at school and more importantly to them on social medoa life, the stats on teen age suicide cause of peer pressure is almost as bad as the opium epidemic , my teenage son tells me daily the stuff these kids dare, or force others to do just to "fit in" is insane, thank god he idolizes his Dad a former Marine and took his advice thsat these same people who judge others will be either dead, homeless or be nothing in life and once schools over more than likeyly will never see r hear of them again and he took that to heart and doesn't bother with these idiots, but enough rant , your not seeing an end to "old style catfighting" and yes MMA does play int oit as well as WWE, but if two females were left to foght with no one pausing it the natural order of things will come out and hair would get pulled and faces clawed and yes punches as well but this forces to stand up and just go blow for blow to the face openbly is more for a BF to thump his chest and say "My Bitch can Hit" while the girls go home with eyes swelled shut , broken noses and cut lips and teeth loose, and their only claim to fame is getting compliments on FB after if they won , this sick trend will shift again, when we ALL stop making Social media the new quick Hollywood.

[sinclairfan]

  I am 52 so probably similar experience.  I believe when we were young, catfights were considered shocking, unladylike, and thus extremely rare.  Ladies didn't fight because they didn't want to be branded.  I would say that began to really change in the late 70's?  You started to see strong female characters in the movies and TV, you started to see women more involved in all sports including combat sports, and I think the label of "unladylike" pretty much completely lost its social stigma.  In fact, I think most young ladies were eager to shed that social norm.  In the 70's you can probably count the number of major movies with a single female fight scene on one hand.  Maybe two.

What was neat about around, say, 1976 to 1985, was that when two women were in competition, and it was getting heated enough that it was possible their clash would get physical, the two women involved could credibly assert that they were the only two women they knew of who had resorted to fighting to settle their differences--THAT's how high the stakes were between them.

Now, their argument is as pedestrian as last night's Real Housewives of New York or Little People of Dallas episode, and worse, even if it escalates, will end less violently than a run-of-the-mill Sunday afternoon Lifetime love triangle.

Small stakes, indeed.