The Weekly Warfare   Musings martial from across the SCA

I don’t understand women.  I’m going to blame the Y chromosome on that one.
I can say to a male fencer “Take his sword, close, and kick ‘im in the balls” and the basic concept conveys: control the fight and aggressively end it.  I have no idea what to say to a woman to get her to do the same.  If it were Sunneva, I’d say “Hurt ‘im like he married you!” but that won’t work for most women*.  It seems that male fencers are, in general, more comfortable with dictating the terms of a fight and asserting their will upon their opponent.  Is this true, or am I missing something?  Is there a different mental path or a different perspective for female fighters?

Charlotte, I think, is embarassed by the idea of expecting recognition for her achievements.  How do I get her to take seriously the act of asserting her will?

Maybe it’s upbringing: to me, fencing is just the same fighting I did with my older brother, but better armed (though, we had masks and foils from a young age, and put them to good use as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, so the armament’s not much different).  And like good brothers, we were on an eternal quest to inflict pain upon each other.  From my anecdotal evidence, sisters don’t seem to have that same hunger.

Maybe it’s cultural: Even a full generation after the Sexual Revolution, I think there’s still pressure on women to not assert their will, and not dominate a relationship.  I’ve seen it in smart women who never raised their hands in class.  Hillary Clinton was the recipient of some pretty sexist attacks, both in the 90’s and in the most recent campaign, for being her own person distinct from her husband, and a dominant personality at that.  Whereas men measure their self-worth against The Terminator.  Or John McClane (I was always more of a John McClane guy).  Kinda different metrics.

Of course, this is not an absolute: I’m pretty sure that Argantan and Rosalind salivate a bit at the thought of running down an opponent and stomping on his neck.  And there are men who have a highly developed sense of self-preservation that warns them against charging anybody who is armed.  But it looks to be about 3:1 one way, and 1:3 the other.

I’m trying hard to figure out how to work up that sort of dominant mindset in the female students I work with.  I don’t do a good job of using non-violent language (“Poke” vs “Kill”), but am not sure I agree with that approach.  I specifically asked Mistress Isobel to teach her “female fencer” class at Academie because I need it.

Would a “Ladies’ Practice”, where the necessary skills could be worked on outside of gender politics, be condescending, or beneficial, if held in addition to regular practice?  Is there a better way to introduce females to fencing?  Or to practice concepts?  Or… or what?

*Sunneva’s rage at that transgression tends to be blind, though, and there’s an important element of controlled aggression needed on the fencing field.