The Weekly Warfare   Musings martial from across the SCA

So recently I received an email from a local fighter, concerned because someone told him that he treats women differently in a fight — more “softly”.

I’ve heard this same kind of complaint before; I’ve had people ( people I know and respect ) warn me that such-and-such fighter doesn’t respect women/won’t take a shot from a girl/ won’t give females a decent fight. Myself, I’ve never particularly noticed it ( or if I have, I haven’t attributed it to my gender ); the she-woman-man-hater in me that grew up with seven brothers would like to believe that anyone who didn’t take me seriously in a fight because of my gender was rather swiftly and painfully re-educated.

But the question remains — do people fight differently against different genders? Is it because of gender, or is it because different genders actually fight differently ( I feel like I meet more females who aren’t ‘aggressive’ as beginners than I do males, but my sample size doesn’t seem big enough ). What do you do to prevent it, both in yourself and others?

And more importantly — what the hell do I tell this poor fighter? 🙂