It’s official, a transgender man just became the new face of one of the single most recognizable brands in the boxing world: Everlast—paving the way once more for yet more inclusive moves both inside and beyond the industry.
The man behind
Patricio Manuel is an exceptionally talented boxer with a history unlike many athletes before him. He happens to be the first professional transgender male boxer in America, an important title if there ever was one. Manuel is thus setting the example for many young people out there and redefining what it means to be a man within a sport considered by many to be the epitome of masculinity (though that’s always debatable, of course).
But it’s not being a transgender man what makes Manuel a notable athlete. In fact, he was already a very successful boxer before transitioning, having become the USA National Amateur Boxing Champion when fighting as a female. And many people don’t understand why he would give that up. In the video for Everlast, Manuel talked about this experience.
“A lot of people in boxing who I talk to, they would come to me and say, ‘You could have been, you know, one of the greatest female world champions,'” he said in the video. “They’re like, you would throw it all away to be yourself?’ And I tell them, ‘That’s how bad I felt living that lie.'”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=watch
That’s a truly powerful sentiment, and one that shows it’s not all about reaching the top, but reaching it well—to get there feeling comfortable with what you accomplished and with the person who accomplished it. For, how fulfilling could achieving your dreams possibly be if you don’t feel yourself when you do so? “If it meant that much to me, to risk the love of my life, boxing, then they knew that it was valid,” Manuel added.
But it was not always easy. Manuel confessed that he always felt and thought of himself as a boy when he was growing up. But he was told he was a girl, and this is never easy on a person that feels as he did. “So I learned to be quiet, I learned to stifle that part of me,” which led him to feel “completely disconnected from myself.”
And box is where he eventually found solace. “It was boxing that brought me back into my body,” he said, “and it was boxing that allowed me to be proud of actually what I was physically able to do. Unfortunately, when you deviate from the norms that society has constructed you have to fight for that identity.”
A time for inclusiveness
This is not the first time a big brand like Everlast moves more towards inclusiveness as they update their own standards to adapt to a rapidly-evolving society. Gillette, for example, famously hit a home run with his viral ad criticizing toxic masculinity, and recently featured a dad teaching his transgender son how to shave.
Everlast itself has made their “Be First” campaign—the one which includes Patricio Manuel—all about openness, tolerance, and inclusiveness, featuring an immigrant family and an amputee fighter as well.
As Everlast’s vice president of marketing, Chris Zoller, stated, this kind of stories “not only humanize the world of fight sports, but they also relate to many struggles people face around the world today. We hope these stories inspire you to rise above and be first.”
And indeed, we hope so too.
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