How exactly did longbows, known for requiring significant arm strength, end up becoming the Default Female Protagonist Weapon? Is it just Hunger Games?
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Replying to @BootlegGirl
I think
@mfictionist is on to sth. Tolkien imagined his elves as exceptionally strong but that detail got kinda lost when his work became a bedrock of fantasy pop-culture. It looks like an elegant weapon, too and since it's ranged you don't have to show woman doing melee.2 replies 1 retweet 9 likes -
Replying to @DerSchwede_nrm @BootlegGirl
Ironically, women were often used to operate siege equipment. There is literally a thing called the women-powered mangonel.
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Replying to @mfictionist @BootlegGirl
I did not know that. That's amazing!!!
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Replying to @DerSchwede_nrm @BootlegGirl
Found a picture! It’s from Osprey Publishing, though I’m not sure exactly which book.pic.twitter.com/k5tjPfYUlp
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Before the Age of Gunpowder you really couldn't get around the fact that weapons were powered by human muscle and therefore strength is a factor with any weapon But you can reduce that factor with weapons designed to store human muscle power over time, like a catapult
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Replying to @arthur_affect @mfictionist and
And, yes, like a crossbow as opposed to a longbow But for that exact reason crossbows tended to get branded as sinister or dishonorable weapons
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Replying to @arthur_affect @mfictionist and
Crossbow is the real pre-modern ranged weapon for women
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Replying to @Media__Pundit @arthur_affect and
At least the more sophisticated designs which came with a device or mechanism that made it easier to stretch the string. But keep in mind that the idea "weapon for woman" woul have been rejected as a whole by most medieval people
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Replying to @DerSchwede_nrm @Media__Pundit and
"Women shouldn't fight" is related to issues of physical strength and capability but it's not solely grounded in them, arguably maybe not even primarily -- the angle of control over women's "reproductive value" is, I would argue, much more important
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(This is where we run into arguments about heteronormativity, cisnormativity, etc. The social roles of "men" and "women" are built around the idea of uteri as a resource to be controlled, one that biology to a degree reflects)
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