Apologies for the "radio silence", so soon after "getting back on the horse" but another couple of life events have arisen which have once again taken all of my emotional energy. I will be back soon and thanks to all of you for you kind words of support in private messages and also for the ideas for blog posts... See you soon....
Commander Xaan.
As some of you may have noticed. I have become more active again on the blog recently, having been distracted by several traumatic life events in the last 2-3 years. I feel the time is now right to resume my passion and to kick start things again, I'm opening a new open thread.
Also, if anyone comes across interesting articles or videos that they think would be useful for the readers, please e-mail the links to: CommanderXaan@gmx.co.uk rather than post them in the comments where they may remain unseen by many. Thanks
So, what are we not talking about that we should be? Go go go!...
For anyone interested in the Tales of Amazonia comic book stuff. There is a lot more uploaded on the Deviant Art website. Please head on over to have a look and comment...
https://www.deviantart.com/pupstar95
Thanks
Xaan
I know I've not posted for a while. The truth is that I get really demotivated when I see how many 1000s of page views each article gets on this blog with and yet somehow it generates virtually nothing in the way of comment or debate after the initial publication. So when people ask me if the blog is dead - I say yeah - It's as dead as you want it to be ....Anyway here's a little something, let's see if my readers can type as well as read?
Official mixed gender bouts are a joy to behold, but nothing beats a real life incident. Check this out...Dude thinks it's OK to disrespect a female in public but quickly gets a bloody eye and choked unconscious - just what he deserves. This would be a common occurrence in the New Amazon Nation...
After the last two years, it's gotta be third time lucky, right?
My new year's resolution is to be more active on the blog - and not to be bothered about not getting any comments on old posts...any more.
Sorry for being AWOL most of the year - had a lot to deal with. And thanks to those of you who have kept the discussion going in my absence. The historical battles posts continue to generate interest and it makes for some fascinating reading. What I love most, apart from the diligent research is the absolute and irrefutable evidence that female warriors were completely superior to males and that whole civilisations were based on this fact. It's wonderful to realise that what you thought was just a fantasy, has actually been a reality in the past. Whether it will be again in the future is up to us of course...
I was planning to feature individual battles as separate posts - and may still do that depending on what research turns up, but in the meantime, thanks to some brilliant research from Anja - here's a quick round up of the possibly the most impressive....We are still trying to find just one instance of an all male army defeating an all female army...........
The real "battles of the sexes". Known historic instances of an all-female armies fighting against all-male armies
There are five known historic cases of a purely female army facing a purely male army that are acknowledged even by the patriarchal male historians.
1) 494 BC: Women of Argos vs Spartan men
We know about this real historic "battle of the sexes" from historians Plutarch and Pausanias. The Spartans waged war against the city of Argos and managed to kill all the Argive able-bodied men by crushing them in a battle and tricking the survivors into a trap under false promises of truce and then burning them alive. After they dealt with the men, they marched towards the city of Argos which was exclusively defended by women. The women were rallied under the local female poet named Telesilla who urged them to take arms and defend the city from the Spartan men. The Spartan men then faced this all-female army and much to their shock and humiliation, they were soundly defeated by the women of Argos!
The historian Plutarch explicitely writes about this battle that "Under the lead of Telesilla, they [the women of Argos] took up arms, and, taking their stand by the battlements, manned the walls all round, so that the enemy were amazed. The result was that they repulsed Cleomenes with great loss, and the other king, Demaratus, who managed to get inside, as Socrates says, and gained possession of the Pamphyliacum, they drove out. In this way the city was saved." In other words, the mighty Spartan men got their butts kicked by a female poetess and ordinary women of Argos who had no prior military training. Plutarch writes that the women of Argos established a matriarchy afterwards, showing "disrespect and an intentional indifference to [their] husbands in their married relations from a feeling that they were underlings." The Spartan men, who suffered heavy losses, learned their lesson and never tried to revenge their shameful loss, and they never dared to attack this newly established matriarchy of Argos. We can also reasonably assume that in the absence of Argive men, the surviving Spartan men who were captured by the triumphant women of Argos were turned into their sexual slaves and used for reproduction. The women of Argos really had their way with Spartan men in every sense of the word.
2) 1149: Spanish women of Tortosa vs Moorish men
This happened during the war between Christian Spanish and Muslims Moors in Spain. In 1149, the city of Tortosa was abandoned by Spanish Christian men as they went to fight elsewhere under Ramon Berenguer IV, count of Barcelona. He mobilized all the able-bodied men he could find to fight against the Muslims elsewhere. This left the city open for an attack by the Muslim Moors. The women of Tortosa, however, decided to fight back. The city was defended exclusively by women with no military training. Furthermore, there were hardly any weapons left so they had to use improvised weapons like hatchets, knives and axes. This didn't deter them from not just defending the city but actually decided to sally out of the city and attack the Moorish men openly. The charged at them and a real battle of the sexes followed in which the Spanish women of Tortosa were able to soundly defeat the Moorish male soldiers, despite having inferior improvised weapons and no training and facing a very feared army of professional male mercenaries. Even more shockingly, the victory of women seems to have been very one-sided. The battered, humiliated and defeated Moorish men were slain all over the battlefield by a bunch of poorly armed untrained women.
In honor of these women, count Berenguer established an all-female chivalric order named Order of the Hatchet, named after the most common improvised weapon that these women used. These women were then given rights and privileges, they were exempt from taxes and took precedence over men. It looks like this was count's attempt to bribe these women so that they wouldn't try to establish a real matriarchy in Tortosa.
3) 1542: Matriarchal tribe of Native American "Amazon" women vs Spanish conquistador men
While the Spanish women won their battle of the sexes against Moorish men centuries prior to that, it was the Spanish men who lost their battle of the sexes against a handful of Native American women. This was not just a battle between the two sexes but also a battle between the patriarchy and matriarchy as the Native American women had their society organize in the warrior Amazonian matriarchal way. Hence, the river and the area in which they ruled was named after the mythical Amazons by the humbled Spanish men.
It happened in 1542 during the Spanish expedition on the Amazon river by Francisco Orellana. After crushing the Incas, the Spanish were looking for the mythical land of gold named "el Dorado". This lead them deep into Amazon rainforest and Orellana became the first (Western) man to sail the entire length of the river.
We know a lot about this expedition from the writings of the priest named Gaspar de Carvajal who was present on this journey and wrote a diary. He wrote that the local Indian men told them about a rich tribe of warrior women called "The Great Ladies" who ruled the interior of the Amazon and dominated the men who had to pay tributes to them. The Spanish men didn't listen to the warnings and sailed ahead, until they were eventually attacked by these Amazons in battle! This is how Carvajal described the Amazon women they were fighting, noting that a single Amazon was worth "10 Indian men" and were much more skilled than local men, "These women are very white and tall and their hair is long and braided and wrapped about the head, and they are strong and go about naked, with only their genitals covered, and with bows and arrows in their hands, fighting as much as ten Indians."
According to Spanish, they fought with these women and claimed to have killed some of them, but they also admit their defeat at the hands of women and that they had to rout in shame. So even the Spanish sources admit that their armored Spanish macho men with steel swords were fleeing back to their boats battered and humiliated by a group of scantily clad Indian women with primitive weapons. They were very lucky that they had their armor and boats, otherwise they would have suffered the same fate of the Spartans, turned into slaves of the clearly stronger and better skilled women warriors.
4) 1647: Bregen Forest Women vs Swedish men
The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) was very devastating in Central Europe and caused a lot of casualties, both among soldiers and civilians. By the end of the war, the Swedish proved themselves to be the most capable professional army and plundered territories in southern Germany and modern day Austria. Much like the Spartans, they were the most feared male soldiers of their era, achieving numerous victories against other men. And just like the Spartans, they also faced an all-female army.
The local Austrian women of Bregenz Forest (Bregenzerwald) in the Alpine region of Vorarlberg were left completely to themselves in face of the Swedish threat as their men were either gone serving as mercenaries or were deceased as this war had claimed a lot of casualties. The Swedish looted the local area and the women decided to defend it. Once again it's a story of a group of regular local untrained women picking up improvised weapons like pitchforks and scythes and taking on the most elite male soldiers of their era. The women of Bregenz Forest attacked the Swedish soldiers and to their utter shock and humiliation, the Swedish men were soundly defeated! The elite professional Swedish male soldiers wearing armor and leather and armed with muskets and halberds lost to a group of untrained farmgirls wielding pitcforks and scythes, dressed in feminine white gowns. The battle was named as the "battle of the red Egg", as the grass became red from the Swedish men slained by victorious local Austrian women.
This is how the battle is described in the book A Companion to Women's Military History:
"Female civilians in rural communities sometimes banded together to attack enemy forces which threatened their homes. During the Thirty Year’s War, the women in the forest of Bregenz were living in villages left undefended after their male relatives went to fight elsewhere. When Swedish troops arrived in the region, the women organized themselves to defend their homes. Using sickles and pitchforks, they successfully drove the Swedes away."
The women not just beat the men, but their victory was completely one-sided. The women themselves were surprised in how easily they achieved their victory. A bunch of local farm girls with no training managed to beat the most elite male soldiers of their time. Supposedly only one Swedish soldier was left to survive to deliver the news to other Swedish men about their humiliating defeat at the hands of local women. Of course, it's easier for men to accept that all of their defeated fellow male soldiers were slain by the victorious women than to deal with the much more likely but more shameful scenario that the surviving men were captured and sexually violated by the victorious women. Let's be real, a group of horny Bregenz Forest women who had been without male company for a long time just got their hands on handsome but helpless Swedish men. It's safe to assume that they were doing other things with them than killing them out of senseless bloodlust. Interestingly enough, there is a 1870 novel based on this event which alludes to this faith of Swedish men being used as sexual slaves by Bregenz Forest women Der Marsch Nach Hause by Wilhelm Raabe who writes about a surviving Swedish man who is taken captive by one of the Bregenz Forest women and turned into her servant. In any case, another impressive victory by a group of untrained women over elite male soldiers!
5) 1917: Russian Women's Battalion vs German men
During First World War, the Germans were starting to completely dominate the Russians on the Eastern Front and the Russian society was collapsing with the Tsar just being deposed and replaced by a liberal government. The morale of the soldiers was very low. The Russian government tried to raise the fighting spirit by creating an all-female army unit called the Women's Battalion of Death, thinking that it would shame their men into fighting when seeing their women at the front. These women had very little to no training when they were sent to the front. On July 9th, they experienced their first battle. They were meant to advance together with men, but the men hesitated and the women decided to attack without their support. To the shock of both Russian and German men, they managed to beat the Germans in their engagement and advanced in their territory, conquering the first and the second line of German trenches and suffering very few casualties in the process. The Germans were humiliated. They were destroying Russian men, but now they got spanked by Russian women! They wanted to retaliate badly and restore their honor, and put together 6 counterattacks, but the Women's Battalion defended each one of them successfully, despite being outnumbered and poorly armed. The Russian women were easily beating the German men and captured many of them, including highly ranked officers who felt utterly demoralized and humiliated after they realized they lost a battle to an all-female unit and were captured by them.
The book Warrior Women: An Unexpected History by Pamela Toler describes their humiliation extremely well:
"They [The Women's Battalion] captured two machine guns and a number of Germans, including two officers, who were not happy about being taken prisoner by women. One officer was so distraught with the shame of being captured by women that the Russian women tied him down for fear he would commit suicide."
Unfortunately, despite these successes, the Russian authorities were not pleased by the Women's Battalion as it was creating unrest among male soldiers. I wonder why? They didn't admit this openly but it sure had a lot to do with being outperformed by a group of barely trained women. In any case, the Women's Battalion achieved the victory over enemy men on the battlefield and contributed yet another victory to women in the historic battles of the sexes.
The final score? 5:0 for women!
A total one-sided crushing of the males!
Men have yet to win a single victory against women and considering the advantages they had in the previous ones and still lost, it's hard to imagine a scenario in which they would be successfull!
I also have to add that there were many other cases of women warriors in history and all-female units having success like for example Kenau Simonsdochter leading a group of 300 women and inflicting a lot of losses on the Spanish who were besieging her Dutch city of Haarlem in 1572-53, or Kurdish women spanking ISIS men recently, but these were not purely female vs male battles so I didn't include them on this list.
There are now countless examples of mixed combat situations where young men in their prime, get humbled by much younger girls. Many like to point out that girls go through a growth spurt earlier than boys which accounts for this phenomenon and that boys catch up and overtake in the late teens early 20s.
Well the sibling rivalry judo match proved that is not necessarily true and I've always thought that is a woman maintains a physical fitness regime throughout her life, there is no need to lose any of her strength. So it was great to be contacted privately by a reader who's mother had done just that and remained active in Judo well into her 50s. He told of how he had lost serious bouts to her, most recently when he was 25 years old -in his prime.
Another example of an older woman beating a younger guy was discovered by Giovanna (one of our new readers) on a social media site and she managed to conduct a short interview the woman concerned. She has given permission for me to publish the interview, which is an excellent read - Thanks so much Giovanna!
Q: First of all, let me congratulate with you for your achievement. Defeating an almost 30 years old younger man is impressive. How do you feel about that?
A: Thanks! I can't say it came as a surprise. We had several matches in the years and I always defeated my son, this time was just a bit easier, cause he gained weight and became incostant with the training. But I am a 9th dan in judo, so...
Q: I found interesting the fact that you posted the outcome on facebook. Do you think it could be seen as a further humiliation?
A: I think that exposing the losers on internet is part of the game, nothing to be ashamed of. Plus, it can be useful to show girls their potential, and even to make understand to some chauvinists that men lose against women more often that they'd like to think. I encourage girls to expose losers on social media after their victories, so others can read. After the match I told him: "I am going to post this on facebook".
Q: How did the react?
A: Well, he didn't...He knows what I think about that. He was disappointed.
Q: Did you think of taking a picture in a victory pose on him or maybe taking something as a trophy from the match? Like the girl did with her older brother on a post in this blog?
A: I think that the girl did great and I am very proud of her, but this situation was totally different. Like I said, we had several matches and I have always defeated him, so there was really no need to perform a victory pose or taking a trophy from him. I don't condemn humiliation if conceived with an educational intent, but if the guy accepts the defeat, then there is no need to rage further on him.
Q: In a hypotetical match between your son and another girl, would you root for him or for her?
A: I root for sport! If she's better than him, then I'd hope for her winning. Otherwise, I would root for him!
Q: Would you assert that women are superior to men?
A: It may sound a bit unpleasant for some readers, but in my experience I had several proofs of the fact that, yes, women are the superior sex.
In light of the recent brilliant post by Anja, I thought I would do as she suggested and post some articles on successful female armies of the past. It seems there is plenty of evidence of women organising themselves into trained, militarised outfits and trouncing their male enemies. The concept of a New Amazon Nation is not so far-fetched after all...
By Adrienne Mayor (Regular Contributor)
King Cleomenes and the Spartans thought their war against Argos was over. Victory was theirs! The Argive army was decimated and a few survivors had fled the battlefield into a sacred grove for refuge. Those men were easily wiped out–burned alive when the Spartan soldiers set fire to the pine trees. Now all that remained was to march on Argos and take over the city so renowned for music and poetry.
The battle (about 510-494 BC) was celebrated in Greek art and literature. According to legendary accounts recorded by Herodotus, Pausanias, and Lucian, the Argive women saved their city from the Spartan attack. Inside the city walls, a distinguished poetess named Telesilla took charge. She sent old men, young boys, and household slaves to man the walls. Meanwhile she and the women of Argos snatched up weapons and armor from houses and temples. Dressed in men’s clothes, the women massed where the Spartans were beginning the final assault. Resolute and unfazed by the Spartans’ terrifying battle cries, the women met the Spartan charge with valor, stood their ground, and fought back with surprising strength.
Now Cleomenes and his men faced a dilemma. It would be an inglorious kind of victory if they slaughtered such brave women. But on the other hand, what a shameful disaster it would be if crack Spartan warriors somehow failed to defeat the women.
The Spartans withdrew and yielded the battle to Telesilla and her forces.
Because of the women’s victory, it was said that the women of Argos worshipped Ares, the god of war. Writing about 600 years after the battle, Pausanias visited Argos and described a relief near the theater and sanctuary of Aphrodite honoring Telesilla as the poetess-warrior. She was depicted donning a helmet, with her poetry books lying at her feet. That sculpture no longer exists but tiny fragments of Telesilla’s poetry do survive; it seems that she wrote songs for girls and poems on mythic topics. Given the Amazon-like courage of Telesilla and her female recruits, perhaps it is no surprise that the beautiful head of an Amazon, pictured above, was made in Argos in the late fifth century BC.
–Adrienne Mayor is the author of The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World(2014)
Hi everyone. For some reason Disqus closed the comments on the previous post automatically, despite me disabling this function in the settings, so I've opened a new thread just in case anyone wants to add anything...
There's not many ways you can deal with internet trolls, engage with them, block them, mute them or ignore them, that's pretty much it. Unless of course you're an MMA fighter in which case you can accept a challenge and try and rip your opponent's arm off.
Will us men ever learn? There's no point in challenging a woman to something she's really good at just because she's a woman, you won't automatically be better than her.
Bobby Riggs found that out during the battle of the sexes back in 1973. Sure he beat Margaret Court but he still lost to Billie Jean King after claiming the Court match was proof he could be any woman.
Back in June 2017 internet troll Kris Zylinski tried to copy Riggs but 45 years later but in a stupid twist was talking about fighting and women fighters:
Step forward Florida MMA fighter Tara LaRosa, a bantamweight with a record of 22-5 in MMA, winning three fights by knockout and a further 12 by submission.
As you can see from the video, from around the 11 minute mark to the 13 minute mark it's pretty one sided before LaRosa finishes it off with an armbar and a very quick submission:
One YouTube user commented: "Seeing how bad he moves, my wife would destroy him in a street fight, even without breaking a sweat."
Another posted: "he taps and starts lecturing, lmao. shut up."
While a third said: "he said he was in control... i must have saw a different video."
A fourth added: "Dude she MANHANDLED you at every point......"
After all that Zylinski is still trying to claim that the only reason he lost is because of fitness whilst also admitting that once he was winded he was done for. Surely fighters overcome being winded in the octagon to win all the time, so it was her skill that won it, moron.
She's marched for miles carrying gear that weighs as much as she does, killed animals for food during survival training and practised jumping out of planes to get behind enemy
But Jannike, a pony-tailed 19-year-old from northern Norway, will only concede that she's "pretty tough".
She is part of the Hunter Troop, the world's first all-female special forces training programme.
"I wanted to do something bigger, the toughest the army could offer me," Jannike says. "I wanted to [see] how far I could push myself."
After six months, despite some "really low moments", she is determined to get through the course.
Next up on the training schedule is close-combat fighting and offensive driving.
In between rounds, the women, who are all aged between 19 and 27, rest, and the dynamic changes completely.
They sing, and joke around. Three women sprawl out on an equipment box, enjoying the brief downtime. Later they light a fire, and get a barbeque going.
Back in the mid-1980s, Norway became one of the first countries in Nato to allow women to serve in all combat roles, although the numbers actually doing so have remained low. Women were allowed to apply for the special forces, but none had got in.
The United States and Britain, in comparison, have only recently begun lifting restrictions on women officially enlisting in combat units.
Special forces soldiers in the US have shown particular resistance to the changes. A 2014 Rand Institute survey of men in the US Special Operations Command found that 85% were against letting women do their specialised jobs, with 71% opposed to women joining their units.
The main concerns were that tough standards would fall and team cohesion could be affected.
But men also complained about the feared effects of pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS), dealing with their wives' complaints, and the effects of having segregated living quarters.
Magnus, a male Norwegian special forces soldier who has trained the Jegertroppen, doesn't have patience for what he calls "man-made" problems.
Male and female soldiers mostly share rooms in Norway, and PMS is "not an issue at all" in training, he said.
He recognises that there are some valid concerns: most pertinently, the ability of a female soldier to quickly carry a wounded male counterpart to safety.
Most of the members of the Jegertroppen were elite high school athletes, but they bring other strengths to the table apart from their physical capability.
Venderla, 22, passed the course last year. "Women think outside the box," she says. "Men just do what they are supposed to do. Maybe we are more capable of seeing another solution, a better solution."
Although gender equality is well-entrenched in the Norwegian military - as it is in the country's society - just 11% of personnel are women, reflecting halting progress in recruiting and retaining females.
This compares with 10.2% in the UK and more than 15% in the United States.
Conscription was extended to Norwegian women last year and they made up about 25% of the 8,000 youngsters recruited, meaning the share should increase over time.
Venderla says she has not experienced sexism in the special forces, but has in another battal
She was told by some soldiers that she was weaker and less capable as a woman, and one man made sexual comments, she said. The problem stopped after she complained.
"I think he was maybe a little insecure. I knew I was good enough passing the tests so it's his problem."
Norwegian special forces are currently deployed in Jordan, helping to train Syrian rebels in the fight against so-called Islamic State.
None of the women who have passed through the Jegertroppen so far have been deployed on a special operation, but the commanders say that the important thing is that they are trained and ready should the need arise.
Jannike speaks calmly but with conviction. She says that in a peaceful country like Norway, it's difficult for her to keep in mind during training that they are actually "learning to kill".
"But I try to have that perspective, because that's what we're really training for."
Hey everyone!
Great news!! The Blog has had an upgrade!!! Now features DISQUS so we can have proper discussions with more interaction and I can comment again Yay! Please have a look around and use the up vote and down vote features so that I can see which articles and comments are most popular....Thanks
Hi Everyone!
Sorry for the recent blog blackout. I have installed the latest software update and since then have not been able to comment on the blog. I'm just posting this as a test. As soon as normal service is resumed I will start uploading more articles. If anyone comes across anything interesting please contact me directly at: CommanderXaan@gmx.co.uk
Thanks
Just a quick note to the so called "Feminist" trolls who have taken to e-mailing me directly in recent month, in particular those that go by the names "Aleera van Helsing" and "Creeping Death". I'd like to save you some time and effort, so please be advised that your e-mails are directed straight into the "Junk" folder and do not get read. If you don't believe me, put a "Read receipt" on your next one...Thank you x
A Sydney woman has revealed she was “asked to leave” her gym after being told her outfit was showing “so much skin”.
Gabi Goddard from Hornsby was wearing a pair of grey bike shorts and a black crop top on Friday when she said she was approached by a member of staff and asked to go home and “change” before she could continue her workout.
When she asked why, the 27-year-old was told a class of teenage schoolkids were being taught in the same fitness facility and the teacher was concerned about the “children seeing so much skin”.
Angry, Gabi shared a photo of her outfit on Instagram, stating it was a “hot day” and the gym had “no airconditioning on”.
She also shared a screenshot of the complaint she sent to the school where the teacher worked, claiming the teacher behaved “inappropriately”.
“I am horrified that your school has sway over the clothing choices (and freedom to exercise) of an independent adult woman,” Gabi wrote.
“Moreover, your school is perpetuating the values (with real life consequences) that are demonstrably harmful. Namely that we live in a world where 14-year-old boys are given priority over women. Where women are punished for boy’s and men’s propensity for objectifying women.”
Gabi went on to say that her outfit was in “no way gratuitous” and violated “no dress codes”.
“I have worn such outfits at many gyms and never had a single complaint,” she said. “It is discouraging that this particular complaint came from a person charged with moulding our next generation into well-round (sic) adults, ones who respect women and shun rape culture.”
Gabi’s letter quickly caught attention, with her post being shared by well-known feminist Clementine Ford and the Instagram page The Nasty Woman Club.
“This stuff drives me crazy, I wouldn’t want my daughter being told what to wear by a stranger,” one person wrote on Instagram.
“This is infuriating, please tell us how we can support this complaint, I am outraged,” another said.
“I’m the mother of an 11yo boy and I expect no one to change their outfit for his benefit,” someone else added.
Others said they were “mad” and branded the situation “unacceptable”.
Gabi said many asked her why the gym owner didn’t stand up for her, explaining while they “absolutely should have” she was aware the owners had “struggled during COVID” and didn’t feel comfortable saying no to the teacher as it could jeopardise the gym’s contract with the school.
She shared her letter of complaint addressed to the school where the teacher worked. Picture: Instagram/Gabi GoddardSource:Instagram
In it she expressed concern at what the complaint teaches the students. Picture: Instagram/Gabi GoddardSource:Instagram
