Tag: Shadiversity

Women and Swords



This particular subject has come to my attention more than once in the last few days. As it happens, I recently submitted an essay for a book on writing (I’ll let you know if my submission is published) on how to create likable and believable “strong female characters.” This expression, “strong female character” gets tossed around a lot these days by people who never clearly define what they mean by it; and the characters presented to us nowadays in comics and film as “strong female characters” seem often catty and unlovable as well as overpowered.

My perennial interest in this topic has led me recently to return to the first two Alien films, which created a memorable and believably tough character in Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, and I’ve also been exploring the original Video Girl Ai and Battle Angel Alita, manga that are now considered “old” according to the short memories of weeaboos, and both of which offer some high-octane feminine ass-kickery.

I’ve recently started watching Shadiversery, a YouTube channel by an Australian sword, history, and RPG enthusiast. The channel is mostly him going on about his subjects of interest, and I’m sure other enthusiasts or qualified experts would disagree with him on points, but he nonetheless appears for the most part to know what he’s talking about, and he offers an array of interesting opinions and factoids. When writing Jake and the Dynamo, I relied on him (and a few other YouTube channels) for the descriptions of Magical Girl Lady Paladin Andalusia’s sword work. Without the miracle of the internet, the descriptions of her sword would have probably been more Hollywood-ish.

Discussion

I’m fond of Shad because he avoids political dogmatism and just discusses his hobbies and interests with honest enthusiasm. Here, he takes on Andrew Klavan, another YouTuber I’ve sometimes appreciated, who sharply criticizes The Witcher for its depiction of women and swords. Shad reasonably breaks down the subject and corrects Klavan’s over-generalizations. Especially, Shad points to actual, real-life European martial-arts competitions that are mixed-sex, and in which women can effectively compete. He admits the disadvantages of reach, strength, speed, and endurance, but also emphasizes that weapons and skill can sometimes overcome these.

He points out something here that also happened to come up in another interaction I had recently: Klavan drastically overestimates the weight of a typical sword. Another acquaintance of mine, the prolific pulp author Ben Cheah, commented that he was reading an isekai series in which a guy who could handle an AK-47 could not lift a sword because it was too heavy. Cheah points out, correctly, that the sword should be considerably lighter than the variable-fire rifle.

Back to the original topic, I notice this issue coming up a lot when I listen to people skilled in martial arts talking about women in combat. Knowledgable as they are, they often get quite rigid on the subject. They correctly point out the physical disadvantages that a woman will almost always have in a fight against a man but tend to ignore other factors like differences in skill or technique—or chance.

Biology

After rebutting Klavan, Shad explains, reasonably, why it was practical, historically, not to have women in combat. He points specifically to biology: Men are naturally more aggressive, women are severely disadvantaged physically when pregnant, women are needed to produce the next generation when the men are off killing each other, and men naturally want to protect women.

Something else I would mention that he doesn’t—females generally fight differently from males, as attested by bar bouncers, soldiers, and anybody who scrapped on the playground as a child. Men create honor codes and fight for pride, and they peacock around before they start beating each other. Women, by contrast, can go from zero to claw-your-eyes-out in under a second. The reason for this may also be rooted in biology: Males establish social rank, either individually or nationally, through combat and dominance. Women, however, fight to protect their lives or their children. That’s why it’s usually the men go to war while the women only fight when the men are all dead.

Edit: As an additional forehead-slapper, someone in the comments on Shad’s video mentions St. Joan of Arc as a real-life warrior woman, so it is worth pointing out that, although St. Joan rode with the troops, she never fought herself and claimed she never personally killed anyone. However, I am made to understand she was a decent strategist who advocated an aggressive use of artillery, but that’s a role quite different from wielding a sword and hacking people.

On Female Armor

I recently stumbled on this video, a thoughtful discussion of the use of armor shaped to the female body, as frequently seen in anime and other fantasy works. The practicalities or impracticalities of such designs are of course interesting to me, since magical girls wear armor on occasion.

The topic, as the host acknowledges a few times, is perhaps over-generalized, since he is discussing a wide range of history with a lot of different armor designs. But it is an intelligent discussion nonetheless.

A few added notes on things the video mentions in passing but does not have the chance to discuss in depth:

  1. St. Joan of Arc, one of the few real women known to have worn armor, apparently did so for purely practical reasons. At her kangaroo trial, she was accused, among other things, of being a transvestite, but she in fact wore men’s clothing on the road and while imprisoned because it was a guard against potential rape. She wore armor on the battlefield for reasons even more obvious. These were understood at the time as acceptable reasons for a woman to dress as a man.
  2. I have been told, though am unable to confirm it from personal experience, that molding plate around each breast separately, as is popular in fantasy armor design for women, is impractical because it would inhibit normal movement of the arms. So although the video defends sculpted breasts on women’s armor plate, it might in fact be unrealistic—unless the breasts were sculpted on top of a cavity that allowed movement. That would, however, require a design very different from the body-hugging plate we typically see in fantasy art.