"Dude, Look, a Chick with a Sword!"

[Lorraine Munoa]

(title an actual response to my practicing)
As most of you have probably noticed, ARMA tends to be made up of mostly guys. How many other ladies have we got out there?
There have been some awesome articles written concerning advice for the female practitioner. Which pieces of info do other ARMA women find useful?
What historical evidence do we have of women weilding the sword?

(I'm not a femiNazi, hahah, just curious.) <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

[Jaron Bernstein]

Well, at the Texas event Sidney (a female ARMAteer) beat the tar out of me with sword and buckler. Ask her. <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Shane Smith]

Catherine Ferrier trains with us in VAB. There is a woman depicted in 1-33(The oldest manual we know of).

[Randall Pleasant]

At least five adult women have at one time or another practiced with the ARMA DFW study group. One of them is currently an ARMA member. We have also had three minor females practice with us in the past, including my daughter who is an ARMA Youth member. We have not see the other two girls in some time and my daughter is currently not practicing because she is distressingly and grievously afflicted with pre-teenest. <img src="/forum/images/icons/tongue.gif" alt="" />

[Allen Johnson]

Utah, Provo has had 3-4 regulars in the last few years. There are usually a few more that come and go. I know Jen is a regular up in the Ogden group.

[SzabolcsWaldmann]

Hiyah,

We have in the Order of the Sword wait a minute... 11 girls in a group of 55, 3 o them adults <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />
I belive, there always have been warrior woman around - just think of Jean D'arc! Okay it was probably not average, yet it was historrically pre-destinated, that not so many girls could train to fight. In Hungary, many richer families trained their daughter to Rapierfight in the 17th-18th century. I do not know what was before that, but generally, war was not the business of girls - that does not mean, they were not trained.
http://thearma.org/arttalk/at80.htm I like this one!
But what's that question in the age of feminism anyway? <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />


Byez

Szab

[Mike Chidester]

In case you've forgotten, here in Provo we've got Meghan, Meru, and Marianne, all of whom are GFSs, and a few others who aren't serious enough to join ARMA yet (such as yourself and Tiger).

[JeffGentry]

and don't forget Katherine Johnson in TN, she is ferocious, it seem's we have a good amount of female practioner's here in ARMA.

[Gene Tausk]

Here in the Houston Southside group, we have had 3 females, one still with the group.

The female version of the Gladiator was the Gladiatrix, and until the Severans and the Soldier-Emperors put a stop to Gladiatrix combat (along with putting a stop to allowing noblemen and women to volunteer for gladiator combat), they were just as popular as the 'regular' Gladiators.

There was an excellent show about a Gladiatrix narrarated by Xena herself, Lucy Lawless, on the History Channel not too long ago.


----------------&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;gene tausk
SFS
Study Group Leader - Houston ARMA Southside

[KatherineJohnson]

Just checking in, thanks Jeff <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

There is also another woman in my study group who recently started.

[John_Clements]

About a dozen on the member rolls. Nearly all actively practicing.

[Travis Beamon]

from Albion's 2004 lanzefest. She got a free Baron. Lucky lucky girl.

-Travis Beamon
ARMA DFW

[Craig Peters]

Here's a good picture of Walpurgis from I.33: http://freywild.ch/i33/i33en.html

[Ashley Bishop]

Hi Lorraine!

We have about 33% female membership here in Chicago. At any given practice, about 25% of the attendees are female. We've just "lost" one to new mommy-hood, but for the most part, our female members are quite active.

At Racine, only 10% of the attendees were female, but I had the pleasure of crossing swords (or pints of beer) with a number of incredibly talented and martial ladies from across the country. And let me tell you, nothing I've seen has ever been as inspiring as seeing Kristi Charron cut tatami from horseback. I mean, seriously...wow.

You're in excellent company!

[Ashley Bishop]

Just realized I didn't answer the rest of your question:

What resources do I find useful? - Same ones the guys do! Seriously, just train hard, stay fit, don't be afraid to ask questions or for help. Try to not be afraid of making mistakes in public. I think guys are much more willing to just jump in a fail spectacularly, whereas the women I know (including myself) tend to want to be more assured of success before trying a thing - but you have to be willing to just throw yourself out there sometimes.

Here are some ladies who play hard:

http://www.fscclub.com/main/main.shtml

Historical evidence:
A great site:
http://www.lothene.demon.co.uk/others/women.html


Catalina De Erausa tells her own tale
book on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0807070734/qid=1126983500/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0858893-0603364?v=glance&amp;s=books&amp;n=507846
my review:
http://chicagoswordplayguild.com/library.htm#basque

And La Maupin, one of my fav's:
http://home.comcast.net/~brons/Maupin/LaMaupin.html

enjoy!