Howard Fielding, commenting on 'Real Amazons and Esrolia' says
>Given equal weapons the initial charge of the amazons might have broken the
>morale of their foes...the ensuing rout would have been a slaughter.
The FFF were not (and still are not) noted for breaking and running, they are much more like RW Humakti than overemotional Orlanthi.
>In Erolia the women are not part of any harem. Their dedication and training
>are not in dispute. Their foes in patriarchal societies might have the same
>sort of prejustices against the killing of the _weaker_ sex. Everyone is
>more-or-less equally armed. To compare a male vs female in our presentday
>patriarchal society is no help. Compare a female martial artist vs a male
>martial artist. I think that they might be more equally matched than the
>popular prejustice allows.
In martial arts size / mass strength do matter - given equal reflexes, training and experience the bigger and stronger competitor normally wins, if nothing else because greater reach means that your attack radius is greater than your opponent so that they mass pass through danger before they can attack (as a relatively short (5' 6") person I am acutely aware of this, having had to fight a tall (6' 8") person earlier this month).
Certainly in the last couple of years I have only been to one kendo competition where the open was won by a woman (indeed it was the only one of the 10 tournaments I have attended in the last 2 years where I can recall a woman taking one of the top 3 positions), even though kendo (Japanese fencing with 2 handed bamboo practice sword) is practiced equally by men and women, and they compete together. There are techniques, especially in close or against the lower torso, or based on counter attacking after avoiding or deflecting a blow that are particularly suited to the small person, but likewise there are techniques suited to the large person.
Aden
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