women only tournies

[jsrechts@imap.unc.edu]

Poster: jsrechts@imap.unc.edu

Duchess Lorelei of Atenvelt sent out an annoucement for a women only
tournament.

I'm must chip in my two highly opinionated cents on this one.  I am
against segretational tournies of all sorts,
this includes, squires tournies, women's tournies, knights tournies and
the like.  I think it only encourages the sentiment that if women
are happier on a "more level playing field" (using Lorelei's terms here)
then perhaps women should be grouped in a separate class like 99% of the
contact out there.
One of the joys of SCA fighting is that it is inclusive.

Yes, women do need to adopt some alternative styles to suit a different
build.  I think a far better forum for this sort of thing is a women's
fighter practice
(with men invited but the focus on women) which fosters a spirit of
cooperation rather than competition.

On a personal note, I fought in a women's tourney a long time ago at the
request of some friends.  It was a very sad waste of time.  First of
all, it was humiliating as the guys stood around watching
and making derogatory comments about the combatants.  Secondly, it
really showed the very poor level of fighting that most of the women
had.  It gave a level playing field to the lowest dominator.  Instead of
being a learning and bonding experience,
I found it remarkably disenhartening and adding fuel to the "women can
try, but not on the same par as men" argument.
If it had any positive effect, it brought to light that most women do
not receive suitable training to make up for some of the physical
shortcomings while working on the natural strengths
(lower center of gravity for instance).

There are many reasons aside from physical as to why most women have a
hard time being sucessful fighters, one of the biggest are that women
tend to do many other things aside from fighting.  But that's another
topic
entirely.

Lyanna

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