Women warriors in literature and culture

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For other uses, see Warrior woman (disambiguation).
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Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret, William Etty (1833)

The portrayal of

gender roles
in society.

Folklore and mythology

Medieval women helping to defend the city from attack
See also: List of women warriors in folklore

Greek legends of the Amazons

The Amazons were an entire tribe of woman warriors in Greek legend. The earliest known recording of the Amazons can be found in Homer's epic poem the Iliad, in which Homer described them as Amazon antianeirai, a term with multiple translations including "the equal of men."[2] "Amazon" has become an eponym for woman warriors and athletes in both modern and ancient society.

In British mythology,

Queen Cordelia fought off several contenders for her throne by personally leading the army in its battles as well as defending her home from her own warring family members, until she eventually commits suicide due to grief. Another example in ancient British history is the historical Queen Boudica, who led a rebellion against the Roman Empire
.

In his On the Bravery of Women, the Greco-Roman historian Plutarch describes how the women of Argos fought against King Cleomenes and the Spartans under the command of Telesilla in the fifth century BCE.[3][4]

Scythian women

Among

Mithridates VI of Pontus, and in his triumph displayed female warrior rulers among the leaders he defeated. Scythian lifestyle included equality among the sexes, and some women took the opportunities that a warrior lifestyle offered to both men and women.[5]
Scythian culture touched on both Greece and India, both of whom have tales of warrior women in their histories and mythologies.

Indian folklore

Accounts of martial women were included in the

Shikhandini was a princess who learned "archery, martial arts, war-techniques" and fought to avenge herself for past wrongs in another life; she eventually became a man (through supernatural intervention). Kaikeyi was the wife of a king who drove his chariot in battle and saved his life.[6]

Other examples of warrior women in India may be seen in sculpture.

  • India, Bala Krishna Temple at Hampi. Woman with bow, an attendant removing a thorn from her foot. Early 16th century C.E.
    India, Bala Krishna Temple at Hampi. Woman with bow, an attendant removing a thorn from her foot. Early 16th century C.E.
  • Srirangam, India. Sculpture of warrior woman from the Vijayanagar period, 16th century, Sesha Mandapa hall of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple.
    Srirangam, India. Sculpture of warrior woman from the Vijayanagar period, 16th century, Sesha Mandapa hall of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple.
  • Sculpture of warrior woman from the Vijayanagar period, 16th century, Sesha Mandapa hall of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple
    Sculpture of warrior woman from the Vijayanagar period, 16th century, Sesha Mandapa hall of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple
  • India. A warrior woman sacrifices herself, cutting her own throat.
    India. A warrior woman sacrifices herself, cutting her own throat.

Religion

Several women are described in the Hebrew Bible as participating in wars or battles, including the prophetess Deborah, Rahab, and the unnamed "woman of Thebez".

Battle of Yarmouk in 636, fighting the Romans and encouraging the male soldiers to join her.[7]

Khawlah bint al-Azwar was a prominent woman Muslim warrior in the 7th century, leading battles in what are today Syria, Jordan and Palestine.[8]

Kharijite was also a commander in battle, making famous generals like al-Hajjaj
flee. Her courage was extolled in poems.

Roman Catholic saint. In modern popular culture, Joan of Arc has been depicted many times, including in The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928 film), a silent historical film from Danish director Carl TH. Dreyer.[10]
The film depicts the real trial of Joan of Arc leading up to her execution.

Nanded, Maharashtra
. Many ballads and folksongs glorify her bravery and she is revered as a Feminist Icon.

Folk and fairy tales

In one Chinese legend recorded by

Li Ji Slays the Giant Serpent or Li Chi Slays the Serpent).[11][12][13][14][15]

The narrative of the woman warrior sometimes involves the motif of crossdressing or disguising herself as a man or a male soldier. These stories belong to the cycle of La Doncella Guerrera, or The Warrior Maiden.

Consiglieri Pedroso.[21] These stories are classified in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index index as ATU 513, "The Extraordinary Companions" and subtypes, and ATU 514, "The Shift of Sex".[22]

Other fairy tales include:

Literature, film, and television

See also: List of female action heroes and villains

Literary women warriors include "

La Gerusalemme liberata, and Grendel's mother
.

The woman warrior is part of a long tradition in many different cultures including Chinese and Japanese martial arts films, but their reach and appeal to Western audiences is possibly much more recent, coinciding with the greatly increased number of female heroes in American media since 1990.[27]: 136 [28]: 25  Films have brought women warriors to the silver screen, such as in King Arthur (2004 film), in which Keira Knightley plays heroine Guinevere, originally the love interest of King Arthur. In this iteration, Guinevere is portrayed as a warrior of equal strength as her male counterparts.[29]

Women warriors have also grown in recent years in part due to the popularity of comics and franchises inspired by them, most notably films by Marvel Studios and films within the DC Extended Universe. Characters such as Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Wasp, Black Widow, and, more recently, Jane Foster, a female iteration of the hero Thor, originally were superheroines in popular DC and Marvel comics series, as well as others.[30]

In feminism

Women warriors have been taken up as a symbol for feminist empowerment, emphasizing women's agency and capacity for power instead of the common pattern of female victim-hood.

girl power.[33]

Violence

Although there is a distinction between positive aggression and violence, fictional representations of female violence like

Kill Bill still have the power to function positively, equipping women for real-life situations that require outward aggression.[34]: 108, 237  Beyond the individual level, fictional depictions of violence by women can be a political tool to draw attention to real-world issues of violence, such as the ongoing violence against Indigenous women.[35] Others say that a violent heroine undermines the feminist ethics against male violence, even when she is posited as a defender of women, for example in films such as Hard Candy.[1]
: 269  The 2020 film Promising Young Woman also explores the idea of a warrior woman railing against deadly sexual inequity, using either passive or active violence in order to restore some sense of justice to a world skewed towards sympathy for sexually violent men. Often the violence is only implicit, or threatened, and exists in juxtaposition to the film's pastel colour palette and stereotypically feminine aesthetic.

See also

Lists
Related articles

Notes

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-203-15241-6
    .
  2. ^ Foreman, Amanda. "The Amazon Women: Is There Any Truth Behind the Myth?". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
  3. ^ "Plutarch • On the Bravery of Women — Sections I‑XV". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2014-11-18.
  4. ISBN 9780806136219
    . Retrieved 2014-11-18.
  5. ^ Smith, Patrick Scott, M. A. (30 June 2020). "Scythian Women". World History Encyclopedia.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Rashmi Vajpayee. "Discovering the Forgotten Female Warriors of Mahabharata".
  7. ^ Azmy, Ahmed (7 March 2017). "Arab Women at War: Battles, Assassinations, and Army Leaders". Raseef22. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  8. ^ "15 Important Muslim Women in History". Islamophobia Today. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  9. ^ "Joan of Arc | Biography, Death, Accomplishments, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  10. ^ "The Passion of Joan of Arc". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  11. ISBN 0-8047-2506-3
  12. JSTOR 40312235
    .
  13. ISBN 978-14384-6-7078
  14. ISBN 978-0-8248-3215-5
  15. ^ He, Saihanjula (2000). Critical Fantasies: Structure of Chinese Folk Tales (Thesis).
  16. doi:10.3406/casa.1984.2419
    .
  17. ^ "'The Ballad of Mulan': A Rhyming Translation". Society of Classical Poets. 2018-09-23. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  18. ISBN 978-1-60384-871-8
    .
  19. ^ "Mulan: the history of the Chinese legend behind the film". HistoryExtra. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  20. doi:10.3406/casa.1985.2446
    .
  21. ^ Pedroso, Consiglieri. Portuguese folk-tales. London: E. Stock. 1882. pp. 53-59.
  22. ISBN 978-0520035379
  23. ^ Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. Russian fairy tales: a choice collection of Muscovite folk-lore. New York: Pollard & Moss. 1887. p. 108.
  24. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1990.9715792
    .
  25. ISBN 978-0-8204-6769-6
  26. S2CID 167043433
    .
  27. ^ Dawn, Heinecken (2003). The Warrior Women of Television: A Feminist Cultural Analysis of the Female Body in Popular Media. New York: Peter Lang.
  28. ^ Tasker, Yvonne (1993). Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre and the Action Cinema. New York: Routledge.
  29. ^ Gaboury, Jennifer. "Women Warriors Are the Rage in Hollywood--But What Was the Truth?". History News Network.
  30. ^ "Avenging Women | Avengers | Marvel Comic Reading Lists". Marvel Entertainment. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  31. ^ Tough Girls: Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture
  32. ^ Athena’s Daughters: Television’s New Women Warriors
  33. ^ Book review
  34. ^ Lavin, Maud (2010). Push Comes to Shove: New Images of Aggressive Women. London: MIT.
  35. ^ Verstraten, Katelyn (22 June 2013). "For Indigenous Women, Radical Art as a Last Resort". The Tyee. Retrieved 1 November 2015.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Legendary women warriors.
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