Ways that Modern People Have Overlooked Warrior Women as Historical Fact
(Historians have assumed this woman was holding a cleaning tool – um she looks more like she’s ready to cut someone’s head off with that thing than polish the floor.)
Cracked isn’t always the most accurate place for news, but the article I posted above makes some good points.
In modern depictions of the past, such as a TV series like Spartacus, we are shown an image of muscular slave men battling each other to death in the gladiatorial arena, while a woman’s maximum participation is cheering from the sidelines or later rewarding one of the gladiators with a blow job.
However, the truth is that female gladiators were quite common in Rome. There were many graves of decorated gladiators that historians assumed to be male, only to be surprised when the bone analysis revealed these warriors to be women – as if the woman just so happened to fall into the wrong grave!
The assumptions don’t just end there. Most heroic warrior figures, such as vikings or samurai are all assumed to be male, and this depiction is the norm in television dramas, comics and movies. Yet in most warrior societies – such as that of the Spartans, the Mongols, the Celts and the Vikings, the art of war was such an important skill that everyone was expected to know what they were doing – including the women. In ancient Celtic societies, there were even fighting schools where female teachers called a BAN-GAISGEDAIG taught boys the art of fighting and love.
In fact, in a DNA analysis of the Japanese battle of Senbon Matsubaru in 1580, 35 of the 105 bodies tested were female. Not to mention that this is only one of several archaeological finds that show a similar story.
Then there is the fact that most ancient societies had goddesses associated with war and death, such as Athena, Freya, Sekhmet, the Morrigan, Brigid and Kali. In fact, some of these named Goddesses were more terrifying than their male counterparts. If the idea of a woman fighting was really so unrealistic to the people of the ancient world, then why were there Goddesses entirely devoted to warfare?
So today’s reality of women in the military or police force actually isn’t anything new. If anything, it is a return to long term historical trends. Look at the fact that more than 30% of the Kurds fighting the ISIS scum are female. When a group of people are in danger, and bodies are needed to fight for survival, women will be among that number. This is why it is unrealistic for people today to think that women don’t need to know anything about fighting or self defense. What society has a better chance of survival – one where only half the population knows how to fight, or one where 100% of the population can kick some ass?
So next time someone complains that the portrayal of women warriors in historical dramas is “not realistic,” remind them that the more historically inaccurate fallacy is one where there are no women warriors at all in societies that prized the art of battle in all aspects of life.
Masha Scream of Arkona (Source)
LINKS OF INTEREST
Japanese Warrior Women – Onna-Bugeisha
Metal Gaia 
Reblogged this on Will the real reality please stand up!.
March 6, 2015 at 4:51 pm
Great blog post MG, and i love the links especially to that Tumblr site which i am going to start following. I also found your previous post on guns i will review also. Two of the Priestesses in our Coven are definitely lethal and i would Never want to get into a fight with them for sure as they usually carry knives but also know that Anything around you can be a weapon, and you yourself in one’s mind/body are the ultimate weapon even without knives and guns etc. Reblogging so TY. Live long. Fight hard. Blessings.
March 7, 2015 at 8:20 am
Thanks for the reblog Blau! Sorry it took me a while to get back to you.
April 16, 2015 at 2:19 pm
Reblogged this on Blau Stern Schwarz Schlonge and commented:
Great blog post MG, and i love the links especially to that Tumblr site which i am going to start following. I also found your previous post on guns i will review also. Two of the Priestesses in our Coven are definitely lethal and i would Never want to get into a fight with them for sure as they usually carry knives but also know that Anything around you can be a weapon, and you yourself in one’s mind/body are the ultimate weapon even without knives and guns etc. Reblogging so TY. Live long. Fight hard. Blessings.
March 7, 2015 at 8:20 am
Reblogged this on Moon of the Wolf and commented:
*whispers* this view of women comes from the Abrahamic religions. Women were expected to be submissive. Not fighters.
March 20, 2015 at 4:53 pm
Reblogged this on Lady Imbrium's Holocron and commented:
Metal-Gaia has been making this point over and over. When will people start listening?
March 21, 2015 at 6:09 pm
Reblogged this on Wolf and Raven.
March 21, 2015 at 6:56 pm
Do not forget that there is more than one side of the coin….
When female privilege backfires…
April 2, 2015 at 4:37 pm
I don’t remember where I read this, but there’s some speculation that the legends of the Amazons were inspired by Persian warrior women the Greeks encountered in battle.
August 3, 2016 at 5:17 pm
Transeurasian nomadic folks’ women, such as Schytians. Large portion of them, living around modern day Ukraine, spoke an Indo-European language, while the ones around lower Central Asia spoke Iranic languages. Persian is also an Iranic language, which is sub set of Indo-European. You are not completly wrong.
January 10, 2024 at 9:29 am