Tobias Mock16h ago
Gerry McGovern

Modern, scientific man has written women out of history

Half of Japan’s samurai were women, groundbreaking new exhibition at British Museum says
https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/japan/british-museum-samurai-women-warrior-myth-b2913476.html

The Viking Woman Warrior of Birka, Sweden
https://www.history-channel.org/a-viking-mystery-the-woman-warrior-of-birka/

Early Women Were Hunters, Not Just Gatherers
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/early-women-were-hunters-not-just-gatherers-study-suggests-180982459/

‘Woman the hunter’: Studies aim to correct history
https://news.nd.edu/news/woman-the-hunter-studies-aim-to-correct-history/

The sports where women outperform men
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240731-the-sports-where-women-outperform-men

Half of Japan’s samurais were women reveals groundbreaking new exhibition at British Museum

‘Samurai’ explores over a thousand years of Japanese history related to the elite warrior class

The Independent
Mar 22 at 10:53amWeb
Show threadGerry McGovern15h ago

Scáthach, legendary Scottish warrior woman who trained legendary Ulster hero Cú Chulainn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sc%C3%A1thach

Scáthach - Wikipedia

Show threadDIRT WIZARD16h ago

@gerrymcgovern "In peacetime, particularly during the early 20th century that was a politically charged period for Japan as it engaged in colonial expansion, Dr Buckland says the samurai image was manipulated for the purposes of galvanising a national identity. " The word this writer is failing to use is "fascism". In a world that is rapidly accelerating back into fascism, not using it is definitely a choice! Early 20th century Japan was fascist. The re-writing of Japanese history in that time was fascist action done by fascists. I hope that in 100 years people are not lying about our fascists here in 2020s USA. Our fascists are also re-writing history, RIGHT NOW.

An accurate and also more useful way to say this would have been "the Japanese fascists wrote women out of their history to build up a warrior myth to justify imperial atrocities."

Show threadGerry McGovern15h ago
@dirtwizard666 Too true. Fascist indeed. And what underlies fascist movements is the cult of the macho man, the cult of violence. Fascism is a particular sport that men excel at for they wrote all the rules.
Show threadRatsnake Games 🔞16h ago
That "Independent" tagline really massively oversells the actual content of the article
Show threadSoftspeak16h ago

@gerrymcgovern

My favorite female warrior was Boudica, and her tale is rooted in the wisdom of never pissing off an angry mother.

Show threadToni Aittoniemi15h ago

@gerrymcgovern And MAGA is the force trying to rewrite history again.

I’m quite sure this happens again and again and again. Because that’s the nature of dominance hierarchy behaviour.

Co-operative people, egalitarian people, build. Then the dominators show up and pretend like they built it.

Show threadGerry McGovern15h ago
@gimulnautti That's it. Nothing but the same old story, but some manage to resist, and now that is what we must do.
Show threadChris Haynes15h ago
@gimulnautti Or the dominators extract rent where they can and 'liquidate' community-built assets where they can't.
Show threadMagnus Ahltorp15h ago
@gerrymcgovern Many women were warriors, yes, but to say that ”half of samurai were women” is as obvious as saying half of any hereditary group is/was women. Samurai was the social class.
Show threadJoe W14h ago
@ahltorp @gerrymcgovern Yes. That. And apparently this is lost on many....
Show threadMarsh Ray13h ago
@drchaos @ahltorp @gerrymcgovern Just deceptive clickbait IMO
Show threadMagnus Ahltorp13h ago

@marshray @drchaos @gerrymcgovern Women were regularly educated in fighting, I think that’s quite uncontested, but most were probably educated with a focus on defence, although that’s murkier, and has probably been made murky by misogyny.

During the whole Edo period, I would say most samurai focus was on ”appropriate behaviour, etiquette and the right cultural preparation”, regardless of sex. But I’m prepared to be challenged by the course I’m starting tomorrow in Edo era history.

Show threadMarsh Ray12h ago

@ahltorp @drchaos @gerrymcgovern “They were a vital part of the elite order”

Look at the original post and consider whether that usage of ‘samurai’ fits with the other four examples given.

It’s a shameless motte-and-bailey, clickbait-and-switch, underhanded tactic by The Independent.

Show thread🏳️‍🌈Quin11h ago

@marshray You're missing the point. The point is not so much "women were warriors" it is "our reductive telling of history* is heavily tilted to disregard most of what is important, and so our idea of what 'samurai' means, is just plain wrong."

We're so used to "hero stories" and main characters that we're oblivious to this.

*) let's be honest, this is true for the stories we tell today.

@drchaos @ahltorp @gerrymcgovern

Show threadMarsh Ray8h ago
@einalex The three other articles linked are about literal women warriors, hunters, shooters, athletes, etc
Show threadAcin Fals 💜🏳️‍🌈13h ago

@ahltorp except that's not obvious from media featuring samurai. The weapons, armor, attire, tools, and training of samurai women are often left out of historical records and references, which imply these things were relevant only to men.

For the same reason, there's a note currently on Wikipedia's "Homosexuality in Japan" page saying, "This article is missing information about female homosexuality in historical Japan."

@gerrymcgovern

Show threadMagnus Ahltorp12h ago

@shadowfals @gerrymcgovern From a Japanese perspective, I would say it’s obvious that samurai was a social class, and that the women were as much samurai as the men. Europeans mangling this is their own problem.

But then there is the issue of what type of military education and engagement samurai women had, and there I think there are internal Japanese problems in the historical records, based on misogyny.

But also, ”samurai” were two very different things before and after 1600.

Show threadLevka14h ago

@gerrymcgovern

Tomyris

Show threadluca13h ago
@gerrymcgovern Unfortunately, if you read well the article about samurai women, it doesn't recall a role too far from a male-dominated culture.
Maybe, what's notable is that our modern, western, patriarchal society inferred that the role of a samurai was male exclusive. This discover then changes our view, but doesn't shake the modern Japanese society.
Show threadyak10h ago
@gerrymcgovern the first link has a highly misleading title. Half of the samurai class were women, because half of any social class are women. This is clearly explained in the article.
In fact the article makes it sound as if female samurai *only* were samurai in the sense of being in the samurai social class, which is also not true. Many bones found on battlefields are female. Terrible article all around.
Show threadNoortje Van Leeuwen10h ago

@gerrymcgovern @girlnamedwar

Something intresting

Show threadEdwige de Dood10h ago

@gerrymcgovern thats cool to read...

I am a descendants of one :)

Show threadDennis Mansell9h ago
@gerrymcgovern History is written from the view of the writer. Are current day historians perhaps selecting competitive individuals more than cooperative groups?
Show threadNazani9h ago
@gerrymcgovern Evidence for women gladiators seems to be accumulating - not that being a slave expected to fight to the death is something to be seen as an accomplishment