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Original Post: 10 Jun 2014

Original article in German by Susine Pomeranz, translation by Claudia Krause. Photos: Eva B.

An account of awesome things…

Last January we had our first Women’s Weekend for club members. In the first weekend in June we invited women fencers from all over Austria and also Germany.  This time we had to organise overnight accommodation , which helped to raise spirits even higher. No better way to get to know each other than watching Game of  Thrones together or having a feast at midnight!

 

ATMOSPHERE: We got to know each other on Saturday morning and started off with a sword focused meditation exercise, led by Julia P.  So everybody was happy and relaxed. We mostly trained in a very focused manner and did silly things in between. On the second day many suffered from “lack of sleep”,  but the workshops remained very intense. So an increasing number of girls took up an observing role as time went on.

 

WORKSHOPS: As mentioned: the program was intense. Sonja Here came especially from Northern Hessia and introduced us to halfsword techniques by Hans Czynner.  This was something we had had little experience with in Salzburg, and was therefore particularly interesting. Our very own Julia and Hannah drilled “Duplieren” with us.  There simply had to be another knife-throwing session with Roni. Leona, who is organising a rapier seminar in Salzburg this autumn, introduced us to this  elegant single-handed weapon. I showed a few ground wrestling techniques from our training program. And that was just the first day!

 

On Sunday half of the participants fell asleep during the body perception exercise according to Feldenkrais. Then Julia held an introductory dagger workshop,  where we even got to learn the  “super special bonus technique” that never works in everyday training. I followed by trying to teach all Meisterhaus and exercises  for good body alignment in 1 and a half hours. We skipped the Zornhau in the end! Leona’s workshop on active and passive free-fencing gave us participants quite a few  new and surprising insights. And then it was time to say good-bye. The small fechtschule-style tournament ended up being really small, because many had to head home already,  and others were simply too broken. Verena T., Sonja Here and I bashed each others’ heads (or noses) in, while Eva B and Julia P practised their newly acquired  judging  and refereeing skills.

 

ORGANISATION: This was the most awesome thing for me. Simply everything ran like clockwork. By now, the INDES members have become a seasoned organisational team.  Buffet, dinner, workshops, photography, collecting people, accommodation, breakfast provision for the guests and chauffeuring … everybody contributed.  I particularly want to thank Eva B. for photography and hosting, Julia F. for coordinating the program and tournament organisation, and Julia P for the lunch buffet.  And I need to mention one other person, who created something amazing through her own initiative: Barbara Keller of the  Freyfechter in Vienna, she created an emblem and a first draft for our own homepage. THANK YOU!

 

Original text by:  Susanne Popp Translated by: Claudia Krause Photos: Eva B
Eine Aufzählung an Dingen, die überwältigend waren
Nachdem im Jänner unser 1. Ladies Weekend noch vereinsintern statt gefunden hat, haben wir am 1. Juniwochenende Fechterinnen aus ganz Österreich und auch  Deutschland eingeladen. Dadurch kam dazu, dass auch für Übernachtungen gesorgt werden musste, was im Endeffekt für die gute Stimmung äußerst dienlich war. Wenn man abends noch gemeinsam Game of Thrones schaut oder Mitternachtsjausen nach dem Fortgehen abhält, dann schweißt das schon ordentlich zusammen!
STIMMUNG: Schon am Samstag Morgen war nach einem neugierigen Kennenlernen und einer schwertorientierten Meditationsanleitung (von Julia P.) das allgemeine  Gruppenklima heiter und entspannt. Wir haben meist sehr konzentriert trainiert und zwischendurch allerlei Blödsinn gemacht. Da am zweiten Tag viele von uns „übernachtig“ waren und das Training trotzdem sehr intensiv war, haben sich gegen Ende hin immer mehr Mädels in die beobachtende Rolle begeben .
KURSE: Wie erwähnt hatten wir ein dichtes Programm. Sonja Here ist extra aus Nordhessen angereist und hat in Halbschwerttechniken von Hans Czynner eingeführt.  Etwas, womit wir in Salzburg noch wenig Erfahrung haben und das deshalb umso interessanter war. Unsere Julia F. und Hannah haben uns das Duplieren eingedrillt. Messerwerfen mit Roni musste auch wieder dabei sein. Leona, die für Herbst ein Rapierseminar in Salzburg organisiert, hat in diese elegante, einhändige Waffe  eingeführt und ich hab ein paar Techniken aus unserem Bodenkampftraining gezeigt. Das alles nur am ersten Tag!
Am Sonntag, nachdem die Hälfte beim Feldenkrais eingeschlafen ist hat Julia P. einen Grundlagenkurs zum Dolch abgehalten wo es am Ende sogar die  Superspezialbonustechnik gab, die sich im regulären Training einfach nie ausgeht. Dann versuchte ich, alle Meisterhaue in eineinhalb Stunden inklusive  Übungen zur Körperstruktur zu vermitteln. Den Zornhau haben wir uns gespart! Bei Leonas Einheit zum passiven und aktiven Freifechten hat es einige Aha-Erlebnisse  für uns Teilnehmerinnen gegeben. Ja und dann war es auch schon Zeit zu verabschieden. Die Mini-Fechtschule am Schluss fiel leider wirklich nur sehr mini aus,  weil viele schon die Heimreise antreten mussten oder einfach schon zu kaputt waren. Verena T., Sonja Heer und ich haben uns noch die Köpfe (oder Nasen) eingeschlagen,  während Eva B. und Julia P. ihre neu erworbenen Kampfleiter-Fähigkeiten austesteten.

ORGANISATION: Dieser Punkt hat mich eigentlich am meisten überwältigt. Es ist alles wie am Schnürchen gelaufen. Mittlerweile sind die INDES Mitglieder schon ein  eingeschworenes Orga-Team. Buffet, Abendessen, Trainingspläne, Fotodokumentation, Leute zusammen holen, Schlafplätze anbieten, Frühstück für die Gäste machen und  Leute mit dem Auto abholen…da hat jeder dazu beigetragen. Aber ganz besonders hervor heben möchte ich nochmal Eva B. als Fotografin und Gastgeberin, Julia F.  für die Zeitplanerstellung und Fechtschule und Julia P. für das Buffet. Und noch eine Person möchte ich erwähnen, weil sie Unheimliches aus eigener Initiative  geleistet hat: Barbara Keller von den Freyfechtern aus Wien. Sie hat uns ein geniales Logo kreiert und vor ein paar Tagen einen ersten Entwurf für eine eigene  Homepage erstellt. DANKE!

Original Post: http://esfinges1.wix.com/e/apps/blog/the-womens-weekend-at-indes-salzburg

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Original Post: 3 Jun 2014

The views contained in this article are those of the author

By Imogen Rhia Herrad

Jeanne d’Arc is – perhaps – the most famous woman warrior in history, but she was emphatically not the only one. At all times and in all places women have taken part in the business of war: openly side by side with their brothers, their husbands, their fellow members of the tribe; or else secretly, disguised as men.

The Scythians, a nomadic people livinig in the Eurasian steppe, probably inspired the tales about the legendary Amazons – a nation of warlike women – told by the ancient Greeks. Amazons occur already in the ‘Iliad’, Homer’s 8th century BCE epic poem. In Greek minds, the stories about Amazons depicted a nightmare scenario. There was only one way for their philosophers and scholars (almost all of them men) to explain the reports of travellers who had met, on the shores of the Black Sea, mounted and armed women: Scythian women warriors.

 

Greek and Roman thinking was strictly dualistic: there were different and separate spheres for men and for women: men’s work was out in the fields, on the battlefield and in politics; women’s place was in the house. A people made up of women and women who fought side by side, in a kind of equality that probably really did exist among the Scythian warriors, was inconceivable for Greek men, and thinkable only as reversal of existing conditions: women dominating men instead of men dominating women.

For a long time, the Amazons were thought mere inventions; sisters of the sea monsters and centaurs who also inhabit the Greek tales. However, in the mid-19th century archaeologists excavating in the southern Russian and Ukrainian steppes repeatedly encountered ancient women’s graves which contained not only ‘typically female’ grave goods such as spindles, jewellery and cosmetics, but also spears and arrowheads.

Almost one in three of the Scythian women’s graves contain such typical ‘mixed grave goods’: weapons, jewellery and make-up. Well over a hundred of these tombs have by now been identified; the oldest is over three thousand years old. But there is no need to go as far away as the southern Russian steppes to find prehistoric women warriors. They existed elsewhere too, and much closer to home: for example, on the edge of the Swabian Alb [in south-western Germany].

 

Prehistoric graves have no headstones. All you have is a skeleton that has survived the centuries more or less unscathed, and a few grave goods. Name and identity of the dead are almost always unknown, as is their sex – unless you can draw conclusions from physical features or additions. Until very recently – in some cases still today – [German] archaeologists proceeded extremely simply, projecting traditional gender roles into the past.

In cases where a skeleton was found with weapons – arrowheads, spear, sword – it was declared male. Skeletons with jewellery or household items were identified as female; regardless of the fact that other – even past – cultures may have known different divisions of gender roles; regardless of potentially different individual cases and without allowing for transgendered individuals.

The warrior of Niederstotzigen was identified only through DNA analysis as, in fact a warrior woman. There is a second, not completely preserved, Niederstotzingen skeleton which is probably also that of a woman, as an anthropological investigation has found. It is quite possible, even likely, that these two Merovingian women warriors are not isolated cases.

Female burials containing weapons are known from the same historical period from known across the Baltic States, England and Scandinavia. Even written records about medieval warriors exist. The 13th-century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus wrote:

 

“There were once women among the Danes who dressed themselves to look like men, and devoted almost every instant of their lives to the pursuit of war, that they might not suffer their valour to be unstrung or dulled by the infection of luxury. For they abhorred all dainty living, and used to harden their minds and bodies with toil and endurance. They put away all the softness and lightmindedness of women, and inured their womanish spirit to masculine ruthlessness. They sought, moreover, so zealously to be skilled in warfare, that they might have been thought to have unsexed themselves.” [Sax. Gram. VII.359]

Like the ancient Greek and Roman authors, Saxo disapproves of those women. During his lifetime, in the High Middle Ages, stricter societal standards were being defined and enshrined in European societies, including standards for gendered behaviour. Distinct and mutually exclusive qualities were attributed to men and women. All women were now thought to be “soft” and “lightminded”, while all men now had to be “ruthless” and “skilled in warfare.”

Until the end of the Middle Ages, however, it continued to be possible for aristocratic women, at least, openly to go into battle, even if they were seen as exceptions. Virtue and femininity were not yet mutually exclusive in contemporary thinking, even though different gender roles were coming to be understood to be part of the divinely ordained order, which made it much more difficult for both men and women to break out of their prescribed gender roles.

 

If women still wished to go to war, they had to disguise themselves and pass as men. Again and again, we have reports about warriors or soldiers who turned out – on the sickbed or in death – to be women. One of the best-known cases [in German history] is Eleonore Prochaska, who fought under the alias of August Renz in the Prussian army, was wounded in battle in the autumn of 1813, and some weeks later died of her injuries. Plays and poems were written in her honour; with Ludwig van Beethoven setting a – now-lost – play about her to music.

 

We have no way of knowing how many women fought, disguised as men, in the 1813-1815 anti-Napoleonic wars. Twenty-three of them are known by name, but the real figure is likely to be higher. One of them was even awarded the Iron Cross for bravery: Sergeant Friederike Krueger, a 23-year-old farmer’s daughter from Mecklenburg [in north-eastern Germany] who fought as a man in a Prussian infantry regiment.

 

The West German constitution banned women from joining its Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) until a first breech opened in 1989, when the music and medical corps were made available to them. Combat remained an exclusively male preserve. At this time, Alexandra Klein joined to the German army as a medic. Today she has the rank of captain and works as Equal Opportunity Officer at the Bundeswehr Leadership Center.

 

Today the last legal hurdle has fallen: In Norway, combat functions were opened up to women in 1985, and conscription for women will be introduced in 2015. In Germany, electronics engineer Tanja Kreil went to court for three years, ending up in the European Court of Justice which on 11 January 2000 decided Bundeswehr had to make all areas accessible for women – including combat.

 

Today around 18,000 women soldiers serve in Bundeswehr, almost 10% of the total force. Captain Alexandra Klein explains that requirements are the same for men and women. In addition, she explains that while it is natural that men have more muscle mass and generally a bit more strength, this is complemented by the often stronger mental staying power of women.

 

But the mere fact that all areas of the military are now open to women, and that female soldiers and officers are now also exposed to combat, still heats some minds. Opponents of women in combat argue that women tend to have inherently less aggression and are possessed of more empathy and compassion. But scientific studies have shown that differences between men and women – both mental and physical – are far less than is commonly assumed.

 

Women continue to storm bastions that once were open only to men. In Germany, Ursula von der Leyen was inaugurated as the first-ever female defence secretary in 2013. It was hardly a revolutionary move. Previously, amongst European countries alone, Finland, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden had already installed women at the top of their defence ministries. Women in battle, women in command of armed forces: this is nothing new, but simply a normalisation. Women have always been warriors, soldiers and generals

 

Original article available in German as a blog post and podcast here.

Original post:  http://esfinges1.wix.com/e/apps/blog/women-as-warriors-gender-and-history

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Original post:  20 May 2014

The views contained in this article are those of the author.

By Nula Para Nada

I play with swords.

I love the way a sword feels in my hand: serious, balanced and dangerous; almost, when I train hard and often enough, like a part of me.

I love the dance. Circle, step, feint; counter, strike; the musical ring of engaging blades, the beat of footsteps in advance and retreat. Until I’m pouring sweat and gasping for air and the muscles in my sword arm scream and burn; and still I just grin behind my mask and keep on dancing. I leave every session with a euphoric high that fades after a few hours and a constellation of bruises that don’t, but I don’t mind: I’m already waiting for the next time.

HEMA is a rich mix of experimental history and competitive martial art. It teaches me so much; I now know more than I ever thought I would about renaissance duelling, for example. But it’s the other stuff that compels me to keep coming back every week, to stick with it when it gets tough. It teaches me certainty and intention; direction and clarity. To know my strengths and my weaknesses and to make weapons of them all. To focus my anger and my fear down three feet of cold steel. To watch, to wait, and then to seize opportunity and drive the point home. It teaches me to let go of both my failures and my triumphs, to neither anticipate nor fear what is about to happen but to keep my head in the single sliding moment between one step and the next, one cut and the next, ready and aware and open to opportunity. It teaches me to trust the work, to keep putting one foot in front of the other; that if I build my strength, practice, drill and spar and drill, and drill and spar some more then when I come to fight my sword will know exactly what to do. It teaches me to always keep the pointy end towards the enemy.

As a woman I’m in a tiny minority in my school. I don’t know why this is, there’s no culture of sexism in my club, I’m not singled out, excluded or given special treatment because of my gender; if I was I wouldn’t be there. Sometimes it’s tiring, fighting people who are mostly bigger and stronger and more aggressive, better at hiding their hurts. Sometimes I feel like quitting, because it’s hard. Because there are days when the sword is slow and dull as lead, my arms are weak, and when I take a hit it shocks my bones so hard I want to cry.

But I’m not quitting. Because there are monsters in the world, lots of them. They’re old and they’re strong and they’re much, much bigger than me, they’re holding hands and dancing ring-a-roses with my own personal demons, the ones that have been hitch-hiking my psyche since childhood. I don’t know how to fight them; I don’t even know if I can fight them. But I’ve picked up a sword and I’ve begun to learn and every day it feels a little bit more possible.

Growing up with the Star Wars films I, like every nascent geek and budding nerdlet of my generation, played out faithful playground movie re-enactment games, defeating the Dark Side and rescuing the galaxy time and again; space battle by space battle, duel by duel.

While the boys argued over who had to be Chewbacca each time, I was always cast as princess Leia, by default. I told myself I should be happy. I got to be a Princess, after all. Wasn’t that what all little girls wanted? But waiting in my climbing-frame death star prison to be rescued I harboured secret, shameful desires. I didn’t want to be a princess. I wanted to be a space pirate. I wanted a pet wookie and the fastest ship in the galaxy. Most of all I wanted a light sabre. I wanted to be a hero, and the captain of my own spaceship.

I wasn’t stupid. I knew that in the narrow world of primary school gender policing this was the sort of thing that got you branded with the dreaded gay, so I kept my transgressive mouth shut and buried my desire for independent intergalactic freedom while I waited, bored and restless, to be rescued by the boys.

My seven-year-old brain had intuited something very important about stories and about women and especially about women in films. In too many of the stories that I absorbed as a child girls played a marginal role, they never got to be the heroes. The most important thing about girls, it seemed, was that they were very pretty, and that they fell in love with the heroes. Leia, like most other girls, spent a lot of time waiting to be rescued. Yes, she was feisty; she strangled Jabba the Hut with his own chain. But she had to do it in a bra.

I heard the same message again and again and again: Girls do not have their own stories. It doesn’t matter how strong and brave they are girls only count if they’re pretty. They can strangle as many Jabbas as they like but if they don’t look good in a gold bikini while they’re doing it no-one’s going to write them into the movie.

It sucks to grow up with that playing in your head, it really does. It sucks every bit as much as it does to be a little boy full of normal, human fears and anxieties and emotions and dreams, told again and again that to be a man is aggression and domination and power, and nothing else.

I first started practicing Martial Arts in my mid-twenties. A friend saw an advert for a kick-boxing class in our local community centre and persuaded me to go along with her. The next day I ached like I’d never ached before but I went back the next week anyway, and the week after that.

My discovery of martial arts was physically transformative in a way that remains difficult to explain. At the time I was reminded of an essay I’d read as an undergraduate called ‘Throwing like a girl’. The essay examined the results of a study in which girls and boys were given a simple physical task – throwing a ball — and had their performance analysed. The results are predictably depressing: boys tended to engage their whole bodies, to throw their will into the action, angling their bodies and drawing their arms back to arc the ball as far as possible. Girls though threw awkwardly, without commitment, from the elbow, falling far short of the boys’ efforts. Even allowing for the physical differences between boys and girls the girls under-performed far more than their bodies should have allowed. It was as if, the writer of the study observed, they decided before they even approached the task that they were going to fail. And then they did.

The essay writer compares this to her own experience of trying to jump across a stream. She clings to a branch, hesitant, watching her fellow hikers cross easily. I will fail, she tells herself. I can’t do it, she tells herself. Her body freezes, hostage to fear and self-doubt.

There have always been women of great physical accomplishment; athletes and explorers, duellists and pugilists, trick riders and trapeze artists; fearless, strong and expert in their fields. Likewise, there have always been men who fail miserably at getting a ball anywhere near a target (and consider playing with balls something best left to dogs and simpletons). These are generalities; it’s complicated. But the essay resonated with me when I first read it, and it resonates with me now.

When I began to apply myself to the physical challenges of martial arts a choir of voices in my head piped up to tell me I would fail, and why I should give up. You’re uncoordinated, they said. You’re no good at this, they said. You’re going to look stupid, they said. You can’t do it, they said. But I learnt, gradually, not to listen. I switched them off, let myself flow through siu lim tao on trust and muscle memory alone and broke through a barrier in my mind that I’d never even known it was there. I no longer said to myself: ‘I can’t do it.’ Instead, I asked: ‘how will I do it?’

I felt more powerful, confident and comfortable in my own skin than ever before. In martial arts I learned the value of patience, humility and hard work. My training became a much-needed source of focus and calm. I loved it. It lit me up from the inside. My friend and I analysed the fight choreography in every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and attempted to replicate it in the local park. We considered ourselves trainee slayers. We scared the crap out of some dog walkers.

When I’d been training for a year or so my teacher suggested I enter a tournament to improve my sparring. I told my boyfriend at the time, expecting him to be as thrilled as I was.

‘I don’t want you to do it,’ he said.

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t want to be in a relationship with that sort of girl.’

It felt like he’d slapped me in the face, hard. Only worse. ‘What do you mean? What sort of girl?’

‘I don’t want to be in a relationship with the sort of girl who beats people up. It’s not attractive.’

Dear reader, I wish I could tell you that I laughed in his face and didn’t bother to slam the door on the way out, but I didn’t. I suppose the primary school gender police were still living in my head; I don’t know if those bastards ever quite go away.

My experience of martial arts was one of camaraderie and dedication and of hanging out in community centres with computer programmers arguing Donnie Yen versus Jet Li. But the question people always asked me, like I’d become a testosterone fuelled meat-head itching to test my bare-handed killing skills, was always: ‘So, do you reckon you could beat someone up?’

I turned down the tournament. Honestly? I was scared anyway. Scared I’d end up spitting teeth and gobs of my own blood onto the mat; scared I wasn’t any good. That time, the monsters won.

Ever since my Han Solo/Princess Leia epiphany I’d been seeking out stories of heroic girls and women. Some of my favourites live in the Irish myths; riotous, powerful and even down-right nasty. Queen Maeve the cattle raider, Scathach the weapons master in her island fortress, teaching the secrets of the salmon-leap and the dreaded Gae Bolg; the war goddess Morrigan; the terrible, the three in one.

A few years ago my warrior women began nagging at me. They whispered geasa, demanded tribute. Not enough stories told of us, they said, not enough songs sung. They poked me with their bony fingers. Your turn, they said.

I began researching, looking for the right story to tell. I wanted to find some evidence of real Celtic warrior women, discover how they lived and why they died. I scoured the archaeological record for the tracks of their chariots and the marks of their weapons but I found nothing.

The consensus was that beyond a few stories told by medieval peasants to the monks who transcribed them and some untrustworthy anecdotal evidence from contemporary Romans there was nothing to suggest that women in pre-history had ever borne arms. In the re-enactment community, an inspirational source, ever helpful and full of detailed practical knowledge, someone even suggested that women shouldn’t be ‘allowed’ to fight in demonstrations of period warfare even if they wanted to, because it would be misleading. Boudica, it was suggested to me, had been only a figurehead. Just like Princess Leia she didn’t get to be the hero in her own story; she might be leader of the rebel alliance but when it came down to the final battle the boys moved in for the kill and Admiral Akbar took the helm.

Archaeologists say that ‘absence of evidence is not evidence of absence’; I refused to give up. And while I never found the hard evidence I was looking for – a manicured, skeletal hand still clutching a sword hilt, perhaps? – I did discover why they might be so conspicuously absent.

In September 2013 archaeologists discovered the 2,600 year old body of an Etruscan Prince laid on a slab in a tomb in Italy, clutching a spear, with the cremated remains of another body (his wife, the experts surmised) at his feet. A month later the bone analysis came back with surprising results. The Etruscan Prince was, in fact, an Etruscan Princess; and her ‘wife’ was actually her husband. The experts changed their story. The spear was not, as they had previously suggested, an indicator of high status and military prowess. It was there to ‘symbolise the strength of union’ between the woman on the stone slab and the man at her feet.

Accurately determining the sex of skeletons has only been possible in recent times. Before DNA testing, the gender of a skeleton was determined by the objects it was buried with. If these were cookware, bowls, jewellery or mirrors, the skeleton was classified as female. If it was buried with axe-heads, shields, spear points or swords then it was declared male.

For hundreds of years archaeologists have re-written the past according to the stories they were told, when they were growing up, about what girls are and what boys are. How many warrior women’s stories – or those of men who divined in looking glasses and wore amber beads in their hair – were lost to us?

I kept practicing martial arts. It gave me something too precious to lose; I couldn’t walk away from it. And I kept looking for my warrior women. And I found them, all over the world. I kept thinking about stories, about how our lives are stories that we tell each other and ourselves, how we grow up turning the stories we’re told into what we believe about ourselves and the world, and so we make them true. When I discovered HEMA it felt like the beginning of a new story. It’s a quest story. It’s a hero’s journey; it’s a tale of rags to rapiers. I don’t know how it ends yet.

I’m telling new stories. They’re for me, and my monsters. They’re for my nieces and for the daughters of my friends because I don’t want them to grow up worrying whether they’re pretty, I want them to grow up knowing that they’re beautiful. I’m telling stories about a sword-wielding auntie who salmon-leaps over great rivers in one bound. About an Iron Age boy with a magic mirror and amber beads threaded in his hair. About a roguish space-pirate who answers to no-one and drives her spaceship like she stole it.

I play with swords. Because I’m not waiting around to be rescued.

I’m slaying my own damn dragons.

Original Post: http://esfinges1.wix.com/e/apps/blog/fighting-like-a-girl

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Original Post: 17 May 2014

The views in this article are those of the author.

By Iole de Angelis

I am fully aware of the issue that people may feel offended by the term “handicap” but be aware that the French government addresses sport issues related to disabled people as “handisport” and it is not my intention to offend anyone.

First of all, I want to explain the reasons why I want to talk about the practice of HEMA in the case of the differently abled people, as they are called in French. In fact, I belong to this category that has been called handicapped, disabled or differently abled. My handicap (obstacle) is not visible, and this fact adds a handicap to the handicap since “I do not look sick”.

Most of the time, when you talk about handicap, disability and so on, people think about wheelchairs, people who cannot see, people with learning difficulties and other visible issues. There are also other obstacles related to depression, to autoimmune diseases (like my case), to accidents, to personal stories (shocks and so on) that create great weaknesses or barriers for people that make it difficult to do certain things. Personally, I like the expression “handicap” since it means obstacle and “differently abled” since it means that to do something you need to find out a personal solution or you need to do it in a different way. I do not like the term “disabled” since it means “not able” because I am able to do things even if in some fields it is more difficult than for the average person.

In my case, I suffer with several autoimmune diseases (Lupus and others) and one of them almost killed me. I needed dialysis, I have a shunt for hemodialysis and in January 2014 I received a transplant. During dialysis I suffered a double detachment of the retina but luckily it solved by itself. So, I have first-hand experience of several kinds of handicap/disability and my purpose here is to talk about historical European martial arts and how they are open to differently able people.

In the past, warriors could suffer injuries that would lead them to lose parts of their body, but, in most cases they kept fighting since it was their way to gain the resources to live, so they learnt how to fight even if they had physical handicaps. One famous example is Lord Nelson. He partially lost the sight in his right eye in 1794. In 1797, as Rear Admiral, he lost his right arm during an assault on the Spanish base of Santa Cruz in the Canary Islands. He also received a severe head wound at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, after which he spent two years recuperating in Naples where he met Lady Hamilton. He used his injuries to his advantage: during the Battle of Copenhagen (1801) where, ordered by Admiral Parker to cease the attack on the Danish fleet because of early losses, Nelson raised a telescope to his blind eye and announced “I really do not see the signal”, before going on to destroy the fleet and preventing its use by Napoleon. It is a way to change a weakness into a strength and it is what a good fighter is supposed to do.

Admiral Lord Nelson

 

OBSTACLES AND HEMA

We rarely fight hand to hand for a living anymore, but many like me will not want to give up their martial art even if they suffer from a handicap or obstacle. In my case, if I receive a hit on my shunt I have a good chance to die for real and I need to find the right solution to keep my practice and preserve my life and well-being. Others might discover martial arts as a way to overcome their limitations. In some ways visible handicaps are easier to deal with, as restrictions are more obvious and easier to classify. This makes it, for example, easier to create competitions where fighters with a handicap can measure their skills.

The International Fencing Federation has created categories for people in wheelchairs and with impaired vision to compete in Olympic fencing. Invisible handicaps pose a particular challenge in martial arts, as it is often up to the instructor to determine if these pose a threat not just to the martial artist with the handicap, but possibly to others. Since they are invisible, the others may not be aware of the limits or the risks related to the practice with this person. Sometimes a warning is enough and sometimes it is not enough. I use myself as an example: if I explain to the other person that because of a microscopic polyangiitis ANCA, by the time the training partner has understood what I can and I cannot do because of my problems, it is time to change partners.

 

In other terms, invisible handicaps that pose no danger to others still imply a particular challenge: it is often difficult for other club members or the instructor to understand how the handicap affects the fighter. It is hard for somebody with an invisible handicap to explain that they cannot do certain things, and that this is not because they are lazy or overly afraid, but that they have real reasons not to take part in some exercises. It is easy to feel excluded and misunderstood. On the other hand, certain psychological and hormonal illnesses as well as certain drugs like cortisone might make fighting with the affected person unsafe since he or she may have no control or lose control and go berserk. In particular, berserkers (or berserks) were Norse warriors who are primarily reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word berserk. This may be good to slash people in a war, but it is not good in a martial art practice. On the other hand, martial arts can be beneficial for emotional well-being and aid the recovery of a person with a psychological illness, and it would be unfair to exclude them just because of their particular handicap. I personally have met a young lady who had a very difficult personal story (father in prison and so on) and thanks to a Japanese martial art she could avoid the downhill path she was taking, she ended in the French national team and she lives a normal life.

Other handicaps might make injuries that occur in free fencing very dangerous. It is for example extremely risky to get hits on the forearm, if one has a dialysis shunt. If you get a cut in your shunt you die in about 5 minutes and if you receive a hit you may not be able to have dialysis and thus you die. For such handicaps “Kata competitions” might be interesting. Wouldn’t it be great if such opportunities were available in historical fencing as well? In addition, Judging and refereeing can also be very rewarding, if one enjoys the thrill of the fight without being able to take part oneself. Luckily, not everything in HEMA is about competing. A large part of the spectrum of HEMA activity is historical research and study of the original manuscripts and their techniques. For this reason there is room for people with a large variety of skills, abilities and limits.

Everybody is valuable. This is why I keep up with HEMA: I find this aspect of HEMA is particularly fascinating and I am certainly not alone in this. It is important to carefully consider each handicap individually and adapt the practice to the limits of each person. Special equipment can help. For example, a person on dialysis needs to preserve their life-saving fistula or dialysis catheter. Consequently special protections for the arms or the abdomen are required. Transplanted people will need to protect their organ. People with cancer may find it useful to stop more often, people with heart diseases may find it useful to practice at a slower speed and so on. But since a sport activity improves all kind of physical conditions, HEMA is useful for people with health problems especially because it is quite easy to tailor and adapt the training.

In conclusion, given the many ways one can be involved in Historical European Martial Arts, this is an open world for whoever has a passion for history, research and/or physical activities. When you find the right club for you and you practice with the right people, you forget your handicap, you forget your problems (at least for a while). This is a most amazing moment and feeling, because I feel normal and I take a holiday from my limits since I feel that I have no limits.

 Original Post: http://esfinges1.wix.com/e/apps/blog/hema-beyond-limits

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Original Post: 27 Apr 2014

Louise Labé: A rope maker’s daughter, she was the leading figure in the literary culture of mid-sixteenth century Lyon, a prolific writer and early feminist.

Although her father was himself illiterate, he had Louise educated like her brothers in Classical and modern languages, and in fencing and equitation.

Her half-brother François was a fencing master, and Louise was an accomplished fencer in her own right, as amply documented by contemporary writers. Indeed a number of poems praise her brilliant performances in the lavish tournament of 1542, in honour of the Dauphin Henri’s passage through Lyon.

Read Original: http://esfinges1.wix.com/e/apps/blog/women-fighters-from-history-louise-labe

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Original post: 13 Apr 2014

Four presidents, two continents, one HEMA.

Interviews by Fran Terminiello

Karin Verelst – First President of the Belgian HEMA Federation

 

 

How did you first become involved in HEMA?

I’ve always dreamt of being a warrior, even as a young girl. During my time at university, I’ve been wandering through several Asian martial arts (karate, aikido), but I never stayed for longer than a year or so. I thought I had found my place when I started shaolin kung fu in the year 2007, but then I was elected Scaliger Fellow at Leiden University during academic year 2007-2008, which brought again an interruption to my fighting career. When I came back home I wanted to resume my martial activity, and somehow I fell during a search on the internet on a site on European medieval swordfighting. I was instantly mesmerised, looked for a group that practised this strange new art in a way that appealed to me (i.e., a combination of source based techniques and demanding physical training, and with ringen as a full part of the curriculum), and not two weeks later I participated in my first Sunday afternoon SwArta-training dedicated to HEMA, a pattern that I have followed for six years ever since. In the mean time, I also took up boxing and tai jutsu.

How did you become the president, what is the process and how long will you hold office?

I am one of the seven founders of the Belgian Federation. We decided to start our federation after Dijon 2013, where the first formal steps toward an international HEMA-federation were taken. We felt that we should, as Belgian HEMA-community, be a full part of this exciting process. As for my presidency: the constituting meeting of the founding members of a non-profit organisation according to Belgian law acts legally as the first general assembly, during which I was elected as president. So I am the founding president. I shall remain in office for three years.

Belgium has an old tradition of the fencing guilds. When you set up the federation, was there an aim to emulate the original charter in some way?

Well, we chose a nice latin name — Societas Belgarum Scientiae Nobilis — to start with. But the Belgian Federation is a modern organisation that takes in its statutes the legal requirements for formal recognition on the national and the international level into account. So in this respect we are moderns. However, our founding general assembly took place at the Kruispoort, a historical site which is home to one of the oldest Belgian fencing guilds still in active existence, the Sint Michielsgilde at Brughes. Moreover, our seal represents weapons favoured by our martial ancestors. We are at the moment investigating how we can balance our future rôle as cultural heritage community and upcoming sports federation, and it is really encouraging to see that the responsible ministry at state level is very supportive in this respect. It is, moreover, absolutely true that deepening both knowledge and practices along the lines of our rich martial heritage is one of the top priorities of our federation. Study of the Belgian sources with respect to the guild structure and the rule sets used at various occasions is but one important aspect of this aim. Nothing has been decided yet, but there are serious plans to organise a traditional “Spelen naar het Koningschap” tournament according to the old guild rules, in an appropriate setting. You’ll definitely hear more about it when the time is ripe!

What is it about HEMA in Belgium that makes it unique?

As you already mentioned, the country has an extremely rich and venerable martial tradition. The surprisingly small number of preserved fight books in the proper sense of the word contrasts with the presence of an enormous living historical memory with respect to it because of the many shooting and fencing guilds that survive. The oldest uninterruptedly active fencing guild in the world is the Belgian “Gentse Koninklijke en Ridderlijke Sint-Michielsgilde” — Royal and Chivalric Guild of Saint Michael, in Ghent. They practice only modern sport fencing these days, and at a very high level. Then there is the Sint Michiels Gilde in Brughes which took up the practice of the original medieval arts again several years ago. But even for recently founded HEMA groups the presence of such a vast array of historical reference points presents a unique and extremely fertile context.

What has been the most surprising aspect of your role as President?

The ease with which everything goes up to now! The HEMA-community in Belgium is not very big, but it is, like everything else in this country, complex. It comprises schools that go back centuries as well as very recent creations; there are groups at either side of the linguistic border (although at the moment more in Flanders than in the French speaking part of the country); some groups meticulously work according to the sources, while others focus more on a combination of HEMA and living history. Nevertheless, when the initiative of the two longest active HEMA-groups (SwArta and Hallebardiers) came to start a Belgian federation, everybody at once wholeheartedly embraced the project. Also, even though, like in most countries, women are still underrepresented in Belgian HEMA, they are really well received and get opportunities to play a key rôle if they wish. My election as founding president may serve as a humbling example. I will therefore do everything in my power to broaden the way for other women, in my country and abroad, who seek to join this fabulous and empowering HEMA-community!

Bob Brooks – President of the British Federation of Historical Swordplay

 

 

How did you first become involved in HEMA?

I began as a sport fencer around 1988 and did quite well in competitions. In 1994 I was studying at Napier University in Edinburgh for my professional journalism qualifications and joined the university fencing club.

It was there that I met Paul Macdonald and Guy Windsor, who instigated the idea of studying historic methods of fencing. This appealed to me greatly, coming from Northumberland which has a very rich and turbulent history of warfare! The group we set up was the Dawn Duellists Society, which I am proud to say was among the first HEMA groups in the UK and which is still going strong today.

In 2003, I started my own school, the Hotspur School of Defence.

How did you become the president, what is the process and how long will you hold office?

I was elected as President of the British Federation for Historical Swordsplay in September 2013, at the BFHS Autumn Exchange – which my school happened to be hosting! I saw myself very much as a ‘wild-card’ nomination.

Voting is done by the Board of Representatives, in which a nominee from each member group acts on their behalf. I was quite stunned to be told that I had been elected, particularly over the incumbent President Mark Hillyard, who did a superb job of taking the BFHS forward in previous years.

Since the BFHS is a Limited Company, I am now one of three directors on the Board of Executives. This means we have strict legal obligations to run the company in a fit and proper manner.

I’ll be in post until September 2016, when the next election takes place.

How does the BFHS operate, when was it formed and what are its goals?

The British Federation for Historical Swordplay is a national, independent umbrella group for the benefit of all individual UK societies involved in the research, study and practice of historical fencing and the European martial arts.

It was officially formed in 1998, making it the second oldest national federation for historical fencing in the world (after FISAS in Italy, formed 1995), and I am proud to have been among the founders. I acted as Secretary until 2004, when life – including a full-time job in journalism and two babies! – finally caught up with me.

While the BFHS is concerned with the specific disciplines belonging to the European martial arts tradition, it also recognises and respects the other sword related disciplines of sport fencing, theatrical stage combat and Eastern martial arts.

Our primary aim is to provide support and advice to all member groups, including the opportunity for insurance. We also have an outreach service for groups interested in joining the BFHS, or those who are thinking of setting up a school or study group.

Every year we host our keynote event, SWASH, at the Royal Armouries in Leeds – arguably the world’s finest single collection of arms and armour. This includes a range of workshops with some of the world’s best instructors, as well as a chance to handle actual manuals, treatises and weapons held in the collection which are not ordinarily accessible to the public.

We also have the Autumn Exchange, which is hosted by a different member group each year, and again this provides an environment for members to meet, fence and socialise.

The BFHS provides its own Instructor Level Certification, in line with the recognised UK Coaching Certificate, for its member groups, which sets a benchmark for safety and good practice.

I want to make HEMA far more accessible to people. At HSD we have a very high proportion of women students and have just had our first wheelchair user become a full member.

We have a lot of things in the pipeline as we speak, so it should be an interesting few years ahead!

What is it about HEMA in the UK that makes it unique, how do you see things changing in the future?

Growing up in Northumberland, I was surrounded by castles and steeped in history from infancy and I think this is what has driven me – and many others across the UK – to pursue HEMA with real passion.

The HEMA community in the UK is incredibly diverse and in that lies its strength. I also think that its lineage and pedigree is unmatched – we have the likes of Alfred Hutton, Egerton Castle and Sir Richard Burton, who first pioneered research into ‘old swordplay’ back in the late 19th century.

Inheriting that mantle brings great responsibility and I believe that the UK community will embrace it.

Perhaps the biggest change I see in the future of HEMA – not just in the UK, but across the world – is the emergence of a thoroughly modern, sport-orientated approach. This has happened in virtually every martial art and is not necessarily a bad thing, just a different way to ‘play’, so to speak. Who knows – we may ultimately see rapier and dagger or longsword at the Olympic Games!

However, I believe that the hardcore traditionalists will remain as ever, and the serious scholarship side of things will continue to develop in tandem.

Above all, getting more people interested in their martial culture is what it’s all about and I expect the numbers of students to grow considerably in coming years.

What’s the best thing about being the president of the BFHS?

To quote Darth Sidious: “POWER! UNLIMITED POWER!”

No, seriously, it’s the people. Hands down. There are so many incredible folks out there who I cross paths with, both nationally and internationally, that it makes my HEMA life an absolute pleasure.

As an old hand, with 20 years of HEMA study under my belt, I particularly love meeting those who have only recently discovered it. Compared to where I started, pre-internet with grainy photocopies of period sources and few people to talk to or train with, they have access to an astonishing amount of resources and networking. Yet when I see the gleam of enthusiasm in their eyes, it takes me back to the beginning of my own HEMA journey – and that’s a feeling I can’t easily put into words. Magical, perhaps, but even that doesn’t do it justice.

I’m most looking forward to adding to the considerable amount of progress made by those before me. We have great things ahead of us, so watch this space!

Read Original: http://esfinges1.wix.com/e/apps/blog/meet-the-presidents-part-2-of-2

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Original Post: 13 Apr 2014

Four presidents, two continents, one HEMA.

Interviews by Fran Terminiello

Barbara Cheblowska – President of FEDER, Poland

 

 

How did you first become involved in HEMA?

My brother Szymon was one of the best reenactment tournament fighters in Poland. I admired his fighting and also wanted to participate but this type of fencing was too difficult for me due to my physique. Szymon found out about Fechtschule Gdansk and I started training HEMA in August 2007.

What was your path to presidency, what is the process and how long will you hold office?

Since 2007 I have trained longsword intensively. When I first started I was the only female in Poland that fought in tournaments, so I was easily recognisable. I joined SMDF, which is the oldest HEMA event in Poland (and the only one at the time). After this I started producing kit for DESWu, and in May 2013 I was chosen as president of FEDER.

How does FEDER operate, when was it formed and what are its goals?

FEDER was created in Feb 2008 . I have been a member since the beginning. Our main goals are promoting and helping HEMA to grow, networking with other fencing associations, ref training, creating fencer ranking and events rules. Every group in Poland can ask FEDER for patronage or financing.

Poland has a reputation for being a strong fighting nation. What is it about HEMA in Poland that makes it unique?

The fighting spirit of Polish fencers is deeply rooted in our history- Poles always had to fight against stronger opponents, and a passion for history brought most of us into HEMA. In the Polish mentality the picture of a strong, honourable fighter – an individualist who never gives up, is strongly rooted. Besides it is a very difficult and expensive sport. If someone went all the way from basic guards through getting expensive kit up to tournament level it means the person if very strong physically and mentally and always gives 100%. We also have excellent instructors who give a lot of time to their students and fight analysis.

What has been the biggest challenge to you as President so far?

It’s hard to say because as President you need to give a lot attention to many different things. But I think that the greatest challenges for me and the FEDER management team were participating in the creation of IFHEMA and the unprecedented case of banning of Jan Chodkiewicz from all events organised by the Swedish HEMA Federation. It’s still an ongoing case and FEDER is not agreeing with this decision and waiting for the Swedes to reply. I hope that a positive outcome of this case will be the creation of standards that will help to avoid such misunderstandings in future.

Richard Marsden – President of the HEMA Alliance, USA

 

 

How did you first become involved in HEMA?

I was a member of the Loyal Order of the Sword run by Greg Hinchcliff from 1994 to about 2008. Greg was a wonderful mentor! We’re still in touch and he’s happy to see where I’ve gone.

John Patterson and I formed our own organization which from around 2008 on developed into the Phoenix Society of Historical Swordsmanship. At the High School I teach at we formed the Peoria Historical Fencing Club for the kids. Our organization has been steadily growing and is designed to quickly create competent Historical Martial Artists and leaders.

In 2011 I joined the HEMA Alliance after finding that I liked the idea of a service organization whose purpose was to facilitate the various clubs and schools in the country.

How did you become the president, what is the process and how long will you hold office?

The HEMA Alliance members elect their unpaid and entirely volunteer Governing Council (GC) and President to serve from August to August of a given year. After serving a year as General Secretary under President Mayshar in 2012, and heading the Polish Saber project, I was elected President in 2013.

A President serves for a year, but can be re-elected with term limits currently set at five years. I parade around as a Tyrant, which is a part of the humor of our organization. In my year as President, the GC and our Curriculum Council (CC) under Lee Smith and now ‘Tiger’ Mike Edelson have accomplished quite a bit. One of my goals as President was to see things accomplished. Great ideas are meaningless, because everyone has great ideas. Making them a reality is what counts- and that has been my focus. We have organized a fund-raiser for Wiktenauer (A HEMA Alliance project under Michael Chidester), we are reorganizing how we track membership, we have increased member-benefits in the form of discounts from both events and vendors, we have created a policy where we can sponsor events, the CC has put forth an instructor certification program and also critiques videos. We have more in the works- especially in the behind-the-scenes nuts and bolts of the organization, from insurance to budgeting to organization of material and all things in-between.

How does the HEMA Alliance operate, when was it formed and what are its goals?

The HEMA Alliance was created by ‘Papa’ Jake Norwood and several others to be a non-profit organization and service provider. The HEMA Alliance’s primary purpose is to provide services for its members and affiliates such as discounts and insurance, and to facilitate the community, through things like our Facebook page and forum as well as our sponsoring and promotion of events.

The Alliance is a Big Tent and not a Super-Club. The Alliance wants to support clubs, schools, events and believes its members should be free to study how they wish within the bounds of our bylaws and insurance. We strongly promote researchers, fencers, organizers, teachers and students because that is HEMA as a whole.

The Alliance has a board of directors whom watch over the organization as a whole. They leave the operations in the hands of the yearly elected President and Governing Council. The GC picks a Director of the Curriculum Council, whose task it is to operate separately, but in cooperation with the GC to provide members with resources and services.

What is it about HEMA in the United States that makes it unique?

I’d like to think that it is not unique and that wherever we are in the world, we are all trying to bring to life the arts of the masters who came before us.

What advice would you give to the next president of the HEMA Alliance?

I’ve already written an extensive guide on that. However, for some quick advice.

1- Be patient and love all of God(Nature/Odin/Mother Gaia/Great Cthhulu Who Dreams/The Emperor of Mankind)’s creatures. The community is small, full of personality, and balancing personalities, without compromising the Alliance and its mission, is a large part of the service.

2- Ideas are worthless. Everyone has ideas. Only getting things done matters. Compliment and support the do-ers of the organization.

3- Do not reach beyond the scope of the Alliance. Do a few things well, improve on the mission, and do not over-create things that need close management. The Alliance is to provide services and interference with the way its members practice should be limited to meeting our legal needs (cash and insurance).

4- Be visible. The community likes to have a face, so they can cheer that person on, or yell at them.

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Original Post: 10 Apr 2014

The views contained in this article are those of the author.

By Kristen Argyle

“Why don’t more women/girls do X?”

I’m not a stranger to participating in activities that are perceived to be male-dominated. HEMA is just about the third or fourth one I’ve taken up in my lifetime, and was certainly not the last. I’d like to say that being a girl has never interfered with my enjoyment of these activities or caused any degree of cognitive dissonance, but that hasn’t been true since that odd day that girls tend to have where we suddenly realize that not only are we girls, but that being a girl means something. Put bluntly, whether a slow realization or a sudden shock from reality, at one point girls have to somehow reconcile that they are different; In a lot of ways, that will probably mean it suddenly dawns on us that we aren’t considered the default for human. Not necessarily non-human, for sure, but this sort of after-thought of, “Oh yeah, some people are female.”

Simplistically, a lot of people imagine this moment as one or two crystallizing moments: a parent sadly revealing to his/her daughter the facts of life and culture and as gently as possible trying to lower her expectations and prepare her for harsh reality, or a girl brushing up against that harsh reality in the form of a unkind nay-sayer telling her exactly what being a girl means and it’s a bleak, limiting existence where only the kindness and protection of others or utter ruthlessness and deceit will save you. Both of those things happen to women for sure, but it’s not as cut-and-dry, nor is it something that happens once and then you’re set for life. If I may try to characterize my experience, it can feel a bit like a daily struggle against a never-ending tide of facepalm. And nowhere else is this tide greatest than that inescapable monolith: the media.

I don’t have to tell HEMA-ists that sometimes the popular portrayal of something is completely, utterly, and even dangerously wrong, wrong, wrong. As much as we can attribute our interest in sword fighting to various media, we still take a mixture of glee, heavy sighs, and outright gnashing of teeth in pointing out misconceptions of weaponry, weapon use, armor, history, culture, and anything else that falls under the wide purview of any combination of “Historical,” “European,” “Martial,” or “Arts.” I love Dungeons and Dragons, but I still get an eye-twitch when I read a two-handed sword as being 20 lbs (9kg). There is a distinct dissonance between the fondness we have for the things that led us to HEMA and the knowledge HEMA brings to us that make those things seem utterly ridiculous.

If that sort of dissonance makes sense to you — whatever reconciliation you personally have decided on — then with that in mind recall how women are portrayed when they are engaging in some decidedly non-feminine pursuit. I will humbly identify two archetypes that I sincerely believe you will see whether it’s video games, martial arts, construction, chess, or whatever — the Virgin and the Dominatrix.

(And yes, those two terms are deeply tied in to sexuality and yes, part of the point is that women tend to be defined by the view of them from outside, in relation to others and not in themselves and for some reason sex is involved. That’s another article. However, please note that I’m not passing judgment on either of these archetypes as “good” or “bad” at the moment. Perhaps just “limited.”)

The Virgin: cute, innocent, clumsy, kind, inexperienced, unskilled. The Virgin’s purpose is to be non-threatening and unintimidating. This isn’t a bad thing — after all we all come into the world that way.

The Dominatrix: hard, determined, cold, experienced, skilled. The Dominatrix is the ultimate bad girl that does all the things we want to. This, as well, isn’t necessarily bad — people want to be powerful and in charge.

Here’s the key with these two archetypes: there is little to no room in between. They are supposed to be polar opposites. Yes, you can be a Dominatrix with a soft, squishy heart or a Virgin with a tendency to explode, but you tend to fall roughly into one or the other based on how “badass” you are. If you are immensely skilled and talented, you are pegged as a Dominatrix that likes to win. If you are hilariously unskilled and clumsy, you are pegged as a Virgin that just wants everyone to have fun and get along.

The Virgin, quite simply, is not supposed to beat you. The Dominatrix is. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about beating or getting beaten by a female because everything is as it should be.

This tends to be what women and girls have to go on when they approach something perceived as male-dominated or male-oriented. These are the two images that stick in our heads as “the way women are when they do these things that aren’t for women,” no matter how much we might know better. What if you don’t know any better? Then suddenly two-handed swords just are 20 lbs and people in the Medieval era just bashed at each other with them because all combat was truly a competition of strength and constitution while skill and technique wouldn’t be invented in the West until the rapier was introduced. And other quite incorrect things I will not enumerate here. The point is that we tend to go with what imagery we’ve seen and makes sense to us at the time as our point of reference until we have something better.

What I think this does to women in HEMA, and indeed other things as well, is cut out the lifeblood of doing or learning anything — the middle part.

We may start any new activity as relative Virgins where it’s safe to be a little clumsy and nervous and unreasonably perky. It’s okay to get beaten by pretty much everyone and it’s okay when you win by a fluke or because someone was going easy. They’re happy, you’re happy, everything is good. I believe that many well-intentioned women start HEMA this way.

But then they have to wonder what the end goal is. And then that Dominatrix in our heads shows up. Ah ha! At the end of all this training and hard work and learning is that woman! And she’ll be me!

Then we find ourselves thinking we can’t possibly be that woman because we’re not good enough, strong enough, dedicated enough, or whatever, or maybe we just don’t want to be that way or don’t care all that much about beating and winning. At that point, why keep going? We’re learning, but it’s always with a caveat. The caveat being, “I will never be that woman.” What’s the purpose of all the work if you’re always going to just be the under-competent klutz because you can’t be the over-competent badass?

This is where I think that otherwise committed individuals quit. Not just women either. They’ve gone for awhile, gotten to a degree of competency, spent a not-insignificant chunk of money, and then suddenly, poof. Gone. What happened? It’s possible they got to a point where they feel comfortable leaving because they have a level of proficiency they’re proud of and don’t feel like they need anymore. Not everyone who leaves is a victim of something. But perhaps some of those who leave do so because they don’t know what the middle looks like.

We know what starting looks like. We know what the pinnacle looks like. What’s in between? We’re probably aware the montage is a great story-telling device, but a terrible reflection of life. After all, the montage takes maybe 5% of a movie’s time and represents a few weeks or months of work, while for the rest of us it can be a lifetime dedication to achieve such levels of skill. Despite knowing better, the “Montage Model” still remains perniciously hard to get rid of. It robs people of the ability to recognize progress, because it doesn’t happen as starkly. It encourages them to make radical changes we can’t possibly maintain all at once, because it’ll only be for a little while and the results will last forever. Finally, it maligns training, sweat, and hard work as means to merely one end, instead of the myriad of rewards we know they are and perhaps even worthy ends themselves.

The middle is where most people will spend most of their time. The Virgin and the Dominatrix are just convenient constructs representing slivers on either end of a spectrum that is mostly “middle” and probably not even one-dimensional. You probably don’t want to be, or frankly can be, either of them when it comes right down to it.

It’s easier to be mediocre or average when you have an idea of what that looks like. We’re familiar with heroes struggling against forces greater than they and breezing through lesser challenges. Heroes are accorded more “middle,” even if they conveniently skip the area between total incompetence and better-than-average. What the Virgin/Dominatrix dichotomy tends to do is limit that middle ground even more for women. It’s more absolute. Being average or better-than-average isn’t good enough for a heroine.

Without these kinds of reference points, it becomes hard to imagine oneself as a developing fighter with some degree of competence and for that to be okay.

Without that visualization, it’s easy to feel like it’s just “not your thing” and give up because you’re not getting better. The truth is, you are getting better. All the time. In ways you might not even be aware of.

And y’know what? It wouldn’t matter if you weren’t anyway. Most of us will never have to defend our lives with Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, or Early Modern weapons, and that’s a good thing. We study because we want to. Because there’s something about the sword that draws us in. It’s in the process — the time between the Virgin and the Dominatrix, the montage, the work and sweat, the opportunity to learn the ways of the sword — that the true satisfaction lies. And that is where you must look for your inspiration.

About the Author — Kristen Argyle studies and sometimes even teaches HEMA at True Edge Academy and is pursuing Computer Engineering at University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. She spent her childhood searching for toy weapons that wouldn’t break and running around the foothills playing pretend. Strangely enough, it turned out to be a plastic Xena: Warrior Princess sword. She’s since realized she can’t really explain what draws her so inexorably to weapons, but is concerned that people know she holds no fascination with hurting people. The penchant for analytic writing comes from a degree in Philosophy she also has and declines to discuss in detail. She doesn’t always play Dungeons and Dragons, but when she does she especially enjoys Fighters.

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Original Post: 30 Mar 2014

By Sarah Cosgrove

Views contained in this post are the author’s.

It can take a split second. You’re fine one moment, and the next you’re feeling pain, knowing that something has gone very wrong. It can take weeks, or months – a gradual strain that creeps up on you, and it’s only too late that you realise that you hurt.

Everyone gets injured from time to time.

Now, I’m not saying that this is something you should expect; especially not in HEMA. Martial arts classes are an environment in which there should be a great awareness of safety and control. (There are whole discussions on safety equipment, respect and confidence which I will not delve into here – but do keep in mind that prevention is better than cure! Respect your body and your health, and don’t take chances.)

Rather, I’m going to talk about what happens when you have an injury, and how to overcome it.

I suffered a neck injury just over ten years ago. The short version of the story is: I was in a martial arts class with a toxic environment. I got put in an arm lock in a timed sparring match. I was fighting for the draw; ten seconds to go. The instructor told my opponent (the attitude there was that we were opponents, not sparring partners) to put the lock on harder. He twisted my arm. Damage done.

Over the years of coping with this injury I’ve learned many things, and I’m going to share some of my wisdoms here with you, in the hope that it will help overcome injuries, be they your own, or that of someone you know.

1. It’s not your fault.

I can’t tell you how many times I cursed myself for getting injured. “I should have tapped out.” “I should have left the class before then.” “I should have known better.” It took a long time for me to accept that perhaps I wasn’t entirely responsible for the injury. It doesn’t even have to be something with a specific cause; I’ve known people to blame themselves for repetitive strain injury from computer use!

Absolving yourself of blame is the first step to recovery.

The more you tell yourself that the injury was your fault and avoidable, the more likely you are to fall into subconscious mental traps of feeling like you deserve the injury, or re-running events over and over in your head about what you could have changed.

If it was a friend that got injured, would you tell them it was their fault and they deserved it? Probably not; we are harder on ourselves than others.

2. See your medical professional.

This sounds like it should be an obvious step; but it really isn’t. It took me two years to go to see a doctor and get referred for physiotherapy. I’d lost a significant amount of movement in my arm by then, and couldn’t raise it above my head. Why didn’t I go sooner?

I’d fallen into the “it will get better” trap. In those first few days I knew I’d hurt it; but I’d never been seriously injured before and was convinced it would get better on its own.

The days turned into weeks, into months, into years. I got used to the pain. I got used to not being able to use my arm fully. I’d accepted that it was “too late” to go to the doctor; the damage was done. How wrong I was. The very first physio session I had, I regained the ability to move my arm above my head!

If you get an injury; see your medical professional as soon as possible. If it’s an injury that has built up over time (such as repetitive strain) go as soon as you recognise that you are in pain. This leads us on to:

3. No injury is “too small” or “unworthy”.

“It’s only a [fill in injury here]”. Unless you yourself are a medical professional, it’s likely that you don’t know what you’re talking about. (And I don’t mean that nastily at all – I am so guilty of doing this!) If you are in pain; go and get it looked at. If you have limited movement; go get it looked at. If things are not normal; go get it looked at! Your body is good at telling you when something is wrong. Trust your instincts and get the injury checked out. It is infinitely better to hear that something will get better on its own than to leave something that won’t because you are afraid it will waste the doctor’s time.

4. Always have a recovery plan beyond treatment.

Even once you have finished your course of treatment for the injury, recovery doesn’t stop there. If you haven’t been using muscles, you will be weak. Muscular injuries may want to lock back up; you may “put something out” again. Discuss what you can do to recover with your medical professional. It may be some specific exercises. It may just be general strengthening by doing something like swimming. Have a plan and work it into your routine.

5. Accept it will take time.

You want to get better; but don’t push yourself too fast. A friend of mine had a fall and broke her wrist. Once the bones were on the mend, she was given exercises to do to recover the movement in her wrist. She was so determined to get full use back she did far more than the doctors had advised, which put strain on it and actually set back the recovery. Remember: You will get there, but you aren’t Wolverine. Your body needs time to heal.

6. Overcoming injury

Overcoming an injury isn’t just a physical process. It’s a mental one too. There are days that you will feel like you can never get better, never get back to normal. There are days where you will feel fear or anxiety. Long term injury and pain could even lead to depression.

In HEMA, (or any other physical activities) you should make sure that your instructor and your class are aware of your injury. This is not only so that they know what exercises you may have physical limitations in, but also so that they can support your mental recovery.

One example of this is when my class was doing an unarmed session, and we were looking at throws and locks. This was nearly five years after my injury had occurred; I was still having trouble with it, (I was unaware my vertebrae was sitting in a twisted position; this would not be discovered for another few years until I returned to a physio) but I had my movement, and I had built up some strength.

My training partner was aware of my injury and as we were practising an arm lock, he put the move on slowly and gently.

I panicked.

My heart started racing, my muscles tensed (not the best thing to do in an arm lock) and he had to release me immediately.

Clearly my mind had latched onto the fear that this was going to hurt me again. Few people will probably have an injury so specifically caused by a martial arts move; but that doesn’t mean that the fear won’t be there. If you’ve hurt your arm elsewhere, you may still react when your subconscious perceives that something will put strain on the injury and hurt you further.

There is no fast solution to this; and you have to accept that you may need time to overcome the mental block before you even learn certain movements. Discuss with your instructor and classmates how they can help you to overcome this. It may be something simple like having one of them move your arm around (without putting it in a lock) until you feel comfortable in trusting that you will not be hurt. Accept that this may be something you have to do over several sessions; you’re not going to be over it in one class.

You may feel embarrassed or ashamed for having the injury. You may tell yourself you are using it as an excuse to avoid doing a move you are uncomfortable with. Take a step back and assess these feelings again: neither you nor anyone else should be pushing you into doing something you are not mentally ready for, even if your physical recovery is going well.

Never be afraid to ask for support when you need it. HEMA and other sports and activities should be fun. If you are feeling anxious about going to class because of your injury, always talk to your instructor.

I hope this has helped anyone with an injury to be able to assess where they are and how to take the next steps to recovery.

I would also recommend checking out:

Superbetter:

This is a free “game” where you can set yourself quests and gather allies for support. You can track your recovery progress and award yourself and friends achievements for goals reached.

And of course, as an online community, we can support one another; sometimes even just talking about your experiences of injury can move you along the path to recovery.

Read original: http://esfinges1.wix.com/e/apps/blog/fighting-back-from-injury

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Original Post: 28 Mar 2014

Photograph: AzulOx Photography

Theresa has been practicing HEMA since 2007. She began her HEMA career training with the Chicago Swordplay Guild, then moved to Colorado in 2011 where she trains with the Rocky Mountain Swordplay Guild.

She currently live in Fort Collins, Colorado. Her favorite weapon is the longsword, but her true passion is equestrian combat/rossfechten. She especially enjoys wrestling on horseback.

Read original: http://esfinges1.wix.com/e/apps/blog/inspirational-fencers-theresa-wendland