Someone is WRONG on the Internet

[telerib]

Must not engage in Merry Rose discussion, must not, must not...

(For the non-subscribers: the hoary old flame-bait as to whether or not "he/him/brother/mankind" are gender-neutral or not has been raised. Marshal your "I am not a man!" arguments to this side and "Do you hate the English language?" arguments on that one. Love how I can be told in the same breath that it's silly to pretend there are no differences between the sexes and then insist that I allow myself to be referred to as a man.)

Comments

[beatrixherald.livejournal.com]

I hear you on the context thing. I grew up with everyone being DUDE. Male or female, but this morning, a dj refered to a person called Nancy as DUDE. It was intended to insinuate that she was a guy because of her deep voice. It kinda pissed me off.

Sexism is harsh in the SCA. We are all "Forward" but we cling to old timey gender roles in a lot of ways. I almost feel like the fighter community is one of the worst examples of sexism. (against women and men).

I have always lived my life pushing back against anything that says, you cant do that because you are a girl. I Swear, and tell raunchy jokes, and talk about sex, and (when I was single) was proud of my sexual conquests, and spoke up in public, and...well you know how I am.

The hardest pill for me to swallow was accepting that I CANT be a fighter. I CANT even be a combat archer. I'm not sure if it is a gender thing, but it IS an I'm not strong enough thing. I feel bad for the guys who have to swallow that as well. In the Fighters Eyes (who are at the top of the SCA Hierarchy) I get a free pass because I am "just a girl"... But for other dudes who dont measure up, it must be worse.

Especially in Atlantia, they set it up so that most women are not able to swing hard enough to get a guy to take it, never mind win a tourney.

[telerib.livejournal.com]

but it IS an I'm not strong enough thing.

Are you sure? I don't want to make assumptions about your body, but I fought heavy for a year. Before I started working out.

Granted, I never fought in a tourney, but they'd take my blows (the few I managed to land :/... I sucked) at practice. I did totally suck, but that was more lack of talent and no dedicated practice to make up for it. I entirely believe that practice and skill can overcome a lack of innate ability, but I was not practicing outside of once a week - and if I'd wanted to be good, I should have been doing footwork drills and pell work at home.

Then we had a spate of hand injuries in the barony, and I was all, "Wait, I need my hands for my HARP" and wasn't really having fun anyway. So I quit.

(So Mars/Venus... first practice, they hit you in the head three times and ask you how you are. "Okay," I said. It didn't hurt, it wasn't scary.

Months later, I watch some new guy get hit in the head three times, asked how he is. "AWESOME! THAT WAS AWESOME!" Seriously? Dude, you just got hit in the head!)