lit20h 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 McGovern1d ago

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

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

Scáthach - Wikipedia

Show threadGerry McGovern11h ago

"Female gladiators are often referred to in ancient texts as ludia (female performers in a ludi, a festival or entertainment) or as mulieres (women) but not often as feminae (ladies) suggesting to some scholars that only lower-class women were drawn to the arena. There is a significant amount of evidence, however, that high-born women were as well."

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/35/female-gladiators-in-ancient-rome/

Female Gladiators In Ancient Rome

Female gladiators in ancient Rome – referred to by modern-day scholars as gladiatrix – may have been uncommon but they did exist. Evidence suggests that a number of women participated in the public...

World History Encyclopedia
Show threadDeb Nam-Krane10h ago
@gerrymcgovern Something I read years ago in a book about women in Neo Confucian states is that "woman" meant different things depending on socioeconomic status. Obvious to anyone who's a feminist, but first time I saw it articulated. All to say, I'd be as surprised to see an upperclass female gladiator as I would an upperclass male gladiator.
Show threadGerry McGovern5h ago
"Kawahara Asako was among several Aizu women determined to defend the castle against invaders. Their education had prepared these women for war. They received extensive combat training and were educated to be “equally skilled in the ways of the pen and the sword.” These warriors stand in a long tradition of women in Japan who joined battles alongside their male counterparts and immortalized themselves as Onna-Bugeisha, literally, “female martial arts masters.”
https://daily.jstor.org/onna-bugeisha-female-samurai-warriors-feudal-japan/
Onna-Bugeisha, the Female Samurai Warriors of Feudal Japan - JSTOR Daily

In 1868 a group of female samurai took part in the fierce Battle of Aizu for the very soul of Japan.

JSTOR Daily
Show threadDIRT WIZARD1d 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 McGovern1d 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 🔞1d ago
That "Independent" tagline really massively oversells the actual content of the article
Show threadSoftspeak1d 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 Aittoniemi1d 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 McGovern1d 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 Haynes1d ago
@gimulnautti Or the dominators extract rent where they can and 'liquidate' community-built assets where they can't.
Show threadToni Aittoniemi4h ago

@clfh And when they’re done, society collapses, the original builders leave, and leave the dominators to fight over the ashes.

This is how civilisations fall.

Show threadMagnus Ahltorp1d 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 W1d ago
@ahltorp @gerrymcgovern Yes. That. And apparently this is lost on many....
Show threadMarsh Ray1d ago
@drchaos @ahltorp @gerrymcgovern Just deceptive clickbait IMO
Show threadMagnus Ahltorp1d 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 Ray1d 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🏳️‍🌈Quin1d 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 Ray21h ago
@einalex The three other articles linked are about literal women warriors, hunters, shooters, athletes, etc
Show thread🏳️‍🌈Quin10h ago

@marshray yes, women were also warriors, and there are articles about how that has been suppressed. The article you cite though, makes its point already in the second paragraph.

Both phenomena are connected though, they have the same cause.

Show thread🏳️‍🌈Quin9h ago

@marshray We have created a false divide between men and women, with associated boxes of expected and appreciated behavior for each.

In that pursuit, many have purposefully bent reality to support this narrative. In effect, others think the divide is natural rather than created -- A rationalisation of their sexism.

"Women naturally prefer certain jobs."
"Some jobs naturally pay less."

In reality, wages for jobs, women take, fall in consequence.

This all serves to maintain control over women.

Show threadMarsh Ray46m ago

@einalex I don’t think anyone here is disputing that womens’ accomplishments in combat and sports tend to be systematically under-reported.

My post is about the intentionally-misleading title, subtitle, and image of The Independent article, and how that appears to have trickled OP into including it at the top of a list of other articles actually giving substantive examples in support of the basic claim.

Show threadAcin Fals 💜🏳️‍🌈1d 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 Ahltorp1d 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 threadLevka1d ago

@gerrymcgovern

Tomyris

Show threadluca1d 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 threadyak23h 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 Leeuwen23h ago

@gerrymcgovern @girlnamedwar

Something intresting

Show threadEdwige de Dood23h ago

@gerrymcgovern thats cool to read...

I am a descendants of one :)

Show threadEdwige de Dood13h ago
@gerrymcgovern i even am an honorary onna-musha myself, it means nothing to most, but to me and my family, it means quite a lot.
Show threadDennis Mansell23h ago
@gerrymcgovern History is written from the view of the writer. Are current day historians perhaps selecting competitive individuals more than cooperative groups?
Show threadGerry McGovern11h ago
@dennmans That's for sure.And "modern" is the story of the great man triumphing over the group, collective. When it comes to lying, we were AI long before AI.
Show threadNazani22h 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