The Riddle of the Sphinx

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By Fran Terminiello (School of the Sword, UK)

The last few months have been filled with much excitement since Esfinges started. In late April I was introduced to Mariana and Ruth, two remarkably industrious young women, who told me about their grand plans to unite all the women in HEMA and to encourage more to take up the art. A Facebook group and logo was created, and we’ve now got over a hundred female fighters reading and contributing ideas towards the group. The attitude of the members has been fantastic; suddenly we have people to meet up with at events, friendships are being struck, and knowledge is being shared – it’s a great feeling. I am thrilled that we now have a website to share with the world.

Here’s why I think Esfinges is important.

We are promoting HEMA to all

We want to show people that Europe has a martial heritage of its own, and that martial arts are not just a province of the East. Luckily for us the masters of the past wrote down their teachings and we are able to rediscover these lost arts. Even rarer still, within the Western Martial Arts community, are women. There is historical precedent for women taking up arms to defend themselves, their loved ones and their lands. The i33 manuscript is the oldest surviving text on swordsmanship, and in its final plates it features a woman and a monk practicing with sword and buckler.

We are here for women: those who practice HEMA, and those who want to practice HEMA.

Some find themselves one of only a handful of women fencers or sometimes even the sole female member of a club or school. While this in itself is not necessarily a problem for the individual, there are issues affecting women in particular, which (we have found since starting the Facebook group) can be resolved through discussion and sharing of experiences.

Until Esfinges existed I had no idea how useful this network could be. For example; at tournament men are usually obliged to wear groin guards – the suggestion is that women have no groins to guard! As a result of this many women don’t wear them, and risk injury. We had a lengthy and educational discussion on this and about the best options available.

Within a mostly male environment it’s easy to see how the ‘boys club’ perception can put potential female fencers off.  Our primary goal is to bring more women into Western Martial Arts. In order to do that we want to bring the women within HEMA together, so that we can show others what we are about and how this art can enrich women’s lives.

This benefits the entire HEMA community

If we can get more members from the other half of the world’s population we can challenge perceptions and prejudices about women fighters.  Much has been made in mainstream media about the challenges of getting women into sport, especially combative sports. And these pursuits are only now starting to lift off in terms of acceptability and popularity. Once upon a time female boxers were seen as a joke, now they take part in Olympic events. This is the ideal time to encourage women to take part in Western Martial Arts.

Often women fencers only get to talk to one another, briefly, at events. As an online international network we are able to discuss women fencers’ issues, share our resources and our experiences to make the HEMA community an even greater place to be.

I want to thank Ruth and Mariana for creating this group, and inviting me to write the inaugural blogpost. I really wanted to get to the heart of what Esfinges is striving for. Enjoy the rest of the website, join the forums, get in touch if you want more information or have any ideas you want to contribute. We hope you will return to us in the near future, where more of the sphinxes will be posting on this space.

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