This week’s blog is on the fighter women of House Clovenshield, mostly because there were some awesome pictures from Pennsic of the group. (This was supposed to post Friday, apparently the auto-poster thing decided not to. Oops!)
While women are of course equally able to fight in the SCA as men, often women fighters are quite outnumbered by their male counterparts, and in some (hopefully rare or apochrophal) groups there is even talk of animosity towards women fighters. Not so for House Clovenshield! There were five lady fighters present in the group at Pennsic.
1 Siobhan an Einigh, right after inspection, Pennsic 2015
This is me in my kit! My persona is of an Irish woman from around 1030 CE, so my kit is mostly Nordic based. Armor wasn’t really a thing for the Irish at the time, and what armor was worn was usually based off of other cultures. I’m wearing a leather coat of plate made in a viking style, with metal shoulder-cops (that I made myself!) Under that is a linen leine, or tunic, which covers my knees. As we don’t actually want to hurt our friends, our swords are made of rattan, a kind of stick, and covered in duct tape. When out in the field, I’m also wearing a helm.
Of particular interest to me, however, is my shield. I finished it just a few days before this picture was taken, and am particularly proud of it. It is a La Tene style Irish war shield, and is made to the exact dimensions of extant pieces. 48" x 24" is quite huge when someone 5’2" is using it! The shield is made of birch and fiberglass, with a canvas cover. It worked quite well throughout the war!
2 Castle Battle, Pennsic 2015
And this is a line of battle. That person in the red circle? That’s me, fighting with my old kingdom of Calontir (the purple and gold folks). As a shieldman, my job in battle is to defend the spears around me, then rush in with other shields to make a hole in the oposing line. Tis quite fun!
3 House Clovenshield Lady Fighters, Pennsic 2015
And here’s a picture of the five lady fighters of Clovenshield, in our armor! From left to right, they are Susan the Irresponsible (archer), Vixi (shieldman), Haelga (shieldman), me (shieldman), and Susan the short (shield sargent). As you might gather, the lady fighters make up most of our shield line!
4 Silliness, Pennsic 2015
And to end with a bit of silliness, here are Susan and I after a battle (or between battles), being mature adults. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!
This week:
Lady Fighters of Clovenshield!
Next week:
A year in Arts and Sciences!
3rd week:
Pennsic recap!
4th week: Tournament of Chivalry Review!
Another example that people in SCA/LARPers all want the same kind of fun, including practical armor, regardless of gender.
This week’s blog is on the fighter women of House Clovenshield, mostly because there were some awesome pictures from Pennsic of the group. (This was supposed to post Friday, apparently the auto-poster thing decided not to. Oops!)
While women are of course equally able to fight in the SCA as men, often women fighters are quite outnumbered by their male counterparts, and in some (hopefully rare or apochrophal) groups there is even talk of animosity towards women fighters. Not so for House Clovenshield! There were five lady fighters present in the group at Pennsic.
1 Siobhan an Einigh, right after inspection, Pennsic 2015
This is me in my kit! My persona is of an Irish woman from around 1030 CE, so my kit is mostly Nordic based. Armor wasn’t really a thing for the Irish at the time, and what armor was worn was usually based off of other cultures. I’m wearing a leather coat of plate made in a viking style, with metal shoulder-cops (that I made myself!) Under that is a linen leine, or tunic, which covers my knees. As we don’t actually want to hurt our friends, our swords are made of rattan, a kind of stick, and covered in duct tape. When out in the field, I’m also wearing a helm.
Of particular interest to me, however, is my shield. I finished it just a few days before this picture was taken, and am particularly proud of it. It is a La Tene style Irish war shield, and is made to the exact dimensions of extant pieces. 48" x 24" is quite huge when someone 5’2" is using it! The shield is made of birch and fiberglass, with a canvas cover. It worked quite well throughout the war!
2 Castle Battle, Pennsic 2015
And this is a line of battle. That person in the red circle? That’s me, fighting with my old kingdom of Calontir (the purple and gold folks). As a shieldman, my job in battle is to defend the spears around me, then rush in with other shields to make a hole in the oposing line. Tis quite fun!
3 House Clovenshield Lady Fighters, Pennsic 2015
And here’s a picture of the five lady fighters of Clovenshield, in our armor! From left to right, they are Susan the Irresponsible (archer), Vixi (shieldman), Haelga (shieldman), me (shieldman), and Susan the short (shield sargent). As you might gather, the lady fighters make up most of our shield line!
4 Silliness, Pennsic 2015
And to end with a bit of silliness, here are Susan and I after a battle (or between battles), being mature adults. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!
This week:
Lady Fighters of Clovenshield!
Next week:
A year in Arts and Sciences!
3rd week:
Pennsic recap!
4th week: Tournament of Chivalry Review!
Another example that people in SCA/LARPers all want the same kind of fun, including practical armor, regardless of gender.
While the article focuses on the cell phones, I was personally impressed by the concept art also being interested in which parts where comfortable and what challenges costumes presented.
Creating designs based off needs and functionality can do a lot to build immersion and tell stories via the visuals.
It’s also particularly timely given how many people seem to assume that the existence of cosplayers means a costume is perfect and hence above criticism – clearly at some of the people who design the costumes believe there’s always room for improvement.
While the article focuses on the cell phones, I was personally impressed by the concept art also being interested in which parts where comfortable and what challenges costumes presented.
Creating designs based off needs and functionality can do a lot to build immersion and tell stories via the visuals.
It’s also particularly timely given how many people seem to assume that the existence of cosplayers means a costume is perfect and hence above criticism – clearly at some of the people who design the costumes believe there’s always room for improvement.
– wincenworks
Posted on
So if you want to wear some sculpted armor to the Ren Faire because you feel fabulous-looking in it, go forth and have fun! But if you’re drawing lady soldiers, or creating female characters who are depicted as actual warriors, please err on the side of reality when designing their armor. Science says your boob plates are killing the women you hoped they would protect. And none of us want that.
So if you want to wear some sculpted armor to the Ren Faire because you feel fabulous-looking in it, go forth and have fun! But if you’re drawing lady soldiers, or creating female characters who are depicted as actual warriors, please err on the side of reality when designing their armor. Science says your boob plates are killing the women you hoped they would protect. And none of us want that.
Just out of curiosity, what is your opinion of female cosplayers that perpetuate the horribly designed costumes prevalent in comic books and video games? Now that I’ve been enlightened by your blog (thank you, btw), I cringe any time I see cosplayers that wear costumes that display the problems you discuss. I can appreciate the effort and craftsmanship that goes into their costumes, but I wonder if they think about the bigger issue.
Our opinion is that cosplayers are people with their own agency, acting on their initiative and (hopefully) not putting themselves hence they’re entitled to dress as sexy as they like.
If the choices of cosplayers heavily influenced studios then Harley Quinn would still wear her full body outfit and mainstream media would have a lot greater diversity in character race (eg cosplayingwhileblack ), body types (eg chubby-cosplay ) and gender expression.
More important than telling the story. More important than making the character interesting and unique. More important than expanding your audience outside of straight white cis men. More important than making the character human or relate-able.
This mentality is upheld by myths such as sex sells, only boys play video games and that focus groups of straight white men can reflect everyone’s opinions.
The decisions are made by executives, marketers, creative directors and occasional auteurs who make these decisions on behalf of businesses that need to sell millions of units to stay in business. They’re re-enforced by media aboutfantasy art and loud groups who are dedicated to halting all progress.
Sexy cosplay ladies are not a big enough demographic to keep a AAA title in business and they’re generally not respected by society – they have no more say in what goes in mainstream media than slash fiction writers, furries, let’s players or anyone else who has a hobby related to popular culture.
Our opinion is that cosplayers are people with their own agency, acting on their initiative and (hopefully) not putting themselves hence they’re entitled to dress as sexy as they like.
If the choices of cosplayers heavily influenced studios then Harley Quinn would still wear her full body outfit and mainstream media would have a lot greater diversity in character race (eg cosplayingwhileblack ), body types (eg chubby-cosplay ) and gender expression.
More important than telling the story. More important than making the character interesting and unique. More important than expanding your audience outside of straight white cis men. More important than making the character human or relate-able.
This mentality is upheld by myths such as sex sells, only boys play video games and that focus groups of straight white men can reflect everyone’s opinions.
The decisions are made by executives, marketers, creative directors and occasional auteurs who make these decisions on behalf of businesses that need to sell millions of units to stay in business. They’re re-enforced by media aboutfantasy art and loud groups who are dedicated to halting all progress.
Sexy cosplay ladies are not a big enough demographic to keep a AAA title in business and they’re generally not respected by society – they have no more say in what goes in mainstream media than slash fiction writers, furries, let’s players or anyone else who has a hobby related to popular culture.
