Women and the Jolly Roger By Cindy Vallar Elizabeth I once told her people, “I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king….” (Dunn, Wendy J. Tudor Women Weak? No Way!) A common fallacy throughout history was that women couldn’t do what men did. Time and time again, however, women stepped forward to prove otherwise, whether they did so tactfully – as Elizabeth did – or whether they were as cheeky as Anne Bonny when she told Calico Jack Rackham, “If you’d fought like a man, you wouldn’t be hung like a dog!” (Eastman and Bond, The Pirate Trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read) Women rebels have always intrigued me. My first heroines were Deborah Sampson, Harriet Tubman, and Joan of Arc. Growing up, I was a Tomboy who preferred to play with my dump truck and gas station than my dolls. Perhaps this was why I gravitated toward women who dared to be different and why the heroines of my novels were rebels. In 1976 Life published “Remarkable American Women, 1776-1976.” The section on “Wild Wild Women” particularly fascinated me. What made these women — Lizzie Borden (accused of murdering her father and step-mother), Hetty Green (the richest investor in New York who refused to spend money), Calamity Jane (dressed, cussed, and drank like a man), and Evelyn Nesbitt (a femme fatale) — step outside the boundaries of proper society? Of the 166 women included in Life’s special report, there were flyers, writers, singers, mothers, actresses, First Ladies, politicians, reporters, activists, and criminals, but no pirates. Articles of Agreement that pirates swore an oath to uphold often included a ban on women aboard their ships. After all, “women were weak, feckless, hysterical beings who distracted men and brought bad luck to ships, calling forth supernatural winds that sank vessels and drowned men.” (Cordingly, Women Sailors and Sailors’ Women) Historical records provide evidence that women did go to sea — sometimes as pirates or sailors. While Anne Bonny and Mary Read were perhaps the most famous women pirates, others of equal or lesser renown included Grace O’Malley, Alwida, and Cheng I Sao. In order for a woman to succeed in her new persona, she had to do more than don a disguise. She had to adopt the mannerisms common to men — fighting, carousing, swearing, walking, and dressing as the men did. Sarah Collins enlisted with her brother during the Civil War, but was discovered “by her unmasculine manner of putting on her shoes and stockings.” (Hall, Patriots in Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War) Getting aboard a ship disguised as a man wasn’t that difficult in the Age of Sail. A sailor’s clothes easily disguised a woman’s shape. Mariners already wore their hair long, tied in a pigtail and tarred. Petticoat-breeches and the baggy shirt worn under a jacket easily hid her curves, especially if she bound her breasts. Sailors rarely removed their clothes and the only time a doctor insisted they undress was to treat their wounds. Billy Bridle, a daring sailor who served aboard a vessel for two years, challenged a shipmate to climb the highest mast. The mate was reluctant, but finally agreed to the challenge. Soon after he climbed down, Billy followed, but burned his hands as he slid down the topgallant halyards. Twenty feet above the deck, Billy lost his grip, fell to the deck, and died. Not until the inquest did anyone discover Billy was actually Rachel Young. Taking care of bodily functions posed a more challenging problem, but not an impossible one. Some affixed a tube inside their breeches to appear to urinate as a man when they went to the head. Since many sailors contracted venereal diseases, they wouldn’t have thought anything strange about a sailor bleeding. It was a common complaint. As for having her period, there’s a good chance she ceased menstruating from the poor food and strenuous exercise of working aboard a wooden ship. Since she didn’t shave, men just assumed she hadn’t gone through puberty yet. Furling and unfurling sails, working the pumps and capstan, rowing boats, and a myriad of other tasks requiring hard labor wouldn’t have been a problem for most working-class women of the seventeen and eighteenth centuries. Even as women living ashore they worked long hours and did physically demanding chores. If she were strong and able, a woman was capable of doing sailors’ work. It took a remarkable woman to assume a male persona and carry it off successfully. Why would any woman choose to do so? Perhaps because she wished to earn her way in life without prostituting herself and to keep her wages instead of having to relinquish them to her husband or father. She could learn a trade forbidden to women. As a man, she had rights, unlike a woman who had few if any rights under the law. As long as men believed her to be one of them, they treated her as a man. As soon as her true identity was discovered, she was no longer taken seriously and had to return home to mind her place. While an untold number of accounts of male pirates and warriors exist, the same isn’t true of women who donned male attire and changed their names. Many pirates were illiterate as were the majority of the lower classes. Women would have been doubly so, for educating them was seen as folly. Pirates, who kept journals or diaries, rarely mention women, “except as victims of men.” (Exquemelin, The Buccaneers of America) In spite of this dearth of primary documentation, we know women became pirates, sailors, and soldiers. As Mary Livermore, a Sanitary Commission agent, wrote in 1888 about disguised women who fought in the Civil War: “Some one has stated the number of women soldiers…as little less than four hundred. I cannot vouch for the correctness of this estimate, but I am convinced that a larger number of women disguised themselves and enlisted…than was dreamed of. Entrenched in secrecy, and regarded as men, they were sometimes revealed as women, by accident or casualty. Some startling histories of these military women were current in the gossip of army life; and extravagant and unreal as were many of the narrations, one always felt that they had a foundation in fact.” (Blanton and Cook, They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War) The same was probably true of women pirates throughout history. Some disguised their sex. Others did not. Some achieved notoriety in their lifetimes. Most, however, disappeared without anyone being the wiser. The list of women pirates numbers approximately forty, but some may never have lived. Four lesser-known women pirates Lady Mary Killigrew The Killigrew family, which lived in Cornwall, had a notorious reputation for seizing ships, appropriating the cargo, and selling both to finance their lifestyle. On the first of January in 1583, the Maria docked at Arwenack Castle where Lady Killigrew entertained them. For several days the Spanish captain and others visited Penryn. On their return they discovered the Maria had disappeared. During their absence and after a storm passed, Lady Killigrew and her servants rowed to the ship, killed those Spaniards still aboard, and absconded with the cargo. Although many believed her guilty, no proof existed that she had participated in the theft and murders. Angry at the lack of justice, the Spaniards journeyed to London where they complained to the authorities there. When it was learned that Lady Killigrew’s son, a judge, had tampered with the investigation, she and two of her gang were arrested and stood trial. All three were sentenced to death, but Queen Elizabeth I pardoned Lady Killigrew. Charlotte de Berry Born in England in 1636, Charlotte de Berry fell in love with a sailor. When the Royal Navy ordered him to sea, she donned male clothes and joined him on board his ship as his brother. One version of how she became a pirate said the two fought side by side in six major battles. An officer discovered Charlotte’s ruse, but said nothing because he wanted her for himself. When his first attempt to get rid of her lover failed, the officer accused him of trying to start a mutiny. He was found guilt and flogged around the fleet, a punishment that killed him. Charlotte refused the officer’s advances, stabbed him, and fled ashore. She became an entertainer in waterfront saloons that sailors frequented. One sea captain kidnapped her, forced her to wed him, then set sail for Africa. Charlotte convinced the crew to mutiny and turn to piracy. Another version says that sometime after the navy ship departed England, pirates attacked it. The pirate captain discovered Charlotte’s true identity, but she engaged him in a duel and lopped off his head. The pirates rejoiced on hearing of his death, and made Charlotte their new captain. Rumors soon spread about her ferocity and cruelty. One claimed she had sewn shut one captain’s mouth. Throughout her life as a pirate she pretended to be a man. How and when she died is uncertain, but one story claims she married a wealthy Spaniard who joined her crew. A storm sank their ship and they survived without food and water for eight days aboard a raft. The survivors decided the only way they would continue to live was if they drew lots. The loser would forfeit his life to feed the others. Charlotte’s husband was the first slain just before a merchantman rescued them. Pirates attacked that ship. Charlotte fought them off, saved her rescuers, then leapt overboard to join her dead husband. Rachel Wall Rachel Wall may have been the first true American woman who became a pirate. She was born in 1760 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to devout Presbyterians. A runaway, she eloped with George Wall, a fisherman and former privateer who had served during the Revolutionary War. Soon after they arrived in Boston, Wall deserted Rachel and she earned a living as a servant. Several months later, her husband returned, showed her his plundered treasure, and convinced her to join him in his piracy. Their modus operandi was somewhat unique amongst pirates and resembled the boy who cried wolf so many times that when he really saw a wolf, no one came. They anchored near an island during a storm. After it ended, they made the vessel appear as if she would founder, then set her adrift. When another ship was sighted, Rachel screamed for help. Once the rescuers came aboard, the pirates murdered them, stole all the valuables, and sank the ship. Those ashore just assumed the victimized ship sank during the storm. Rachel, George, and their cohorts became quite adept at piracy. Between 1781 and 1782 they captured twelve boats, murdered twenty-four sailors, and appropriated $6,000 worth of cash and merchandise. Trouble came in September 1782 when a storm really did batter their sloop and broke the mast. George and the other pirates were washed overboard and drowned, leaving only Rachel on board. She was soon rescued and returned to Boston where she became a maid. Seven years later Rachel was accused of robbing a woman on the streets of Boston. In spite of her innocent pleas, Rachel was found guilty of the crime. She confessed to being a pirate, but not to being a thief. Even so, she was the last woman hanged in Massachusetts. Loi Chai-san A petite woman, who appeared harmless, Loi Chai-san was known as the Queen of the Macao Pirates. She hunted the waters around Hong Kong in the 1920’s. She amassed a sizeable fortune through sea raiding and kidnapping. The sole account of her life and escapades came from Aleko E. Lilius, a journalist who paid Loi Chai-san $43 a day to accompany her and write about her exploits in an article entitled “I Sailed with Chinese Pirates.” On shore she dressed in white silk and knotted her hair at the nape of her neck. When aboard one of her twelve armed junks, which she inherited from another pirate named Honcho Lo, she discarded her footwear and wore a simple uniform of jacket and trousers. Two maids always accompanied her on her raids, and they delivered any communications between Loi Chai-san and her men. She, herself, never spoke to the pirates and she forbade them entry to her cabin. When she took captives, she sent a message to his or her relatives. If they hadn’t paid the ransom after receiving a second warning, Loi Chai-san sent them the captive’s finger or ear. If this failed to persuade them to pay the ransom, she killed her prisoner. What became of Loi Chai-san remains a mystery. One account says she attacked a torpedo squadron during the Chinese-Japanese War and died. Another tale says the International Coast Guard arrested her in 1939 and sentenced her to life imprisonment. It is believed she was the model for the Dragon Lady in the comic strip, Terry and the Pirates. If you’d like to read more about women pirates and women warriors, I recommend these books: Non-fiction Blanton, DeAnne, and Lauren M. Cook. They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War. Louisiana State University Press, 2002. Bold in Her Breeches: Women Pirates Across the Ages. (edited by Jo Stanley) HarperCollins, 1995. Cordingly, David. Women Sailors and Sailors’ Women. Random House, 2001. Druett, John. She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea. Simon & Schuster, 2000. Eastman, Tamara J., and Constance Bond. The Pirate Trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Fern Canyon Press, 2000. Hall, Richard. Patriots in Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War. Paragon House, 1993. Johnson, Cathy (Kate). Pyrates in Petticoats: a Fanciful & Factual History of the Legends, Tales, and Exploits of the most notorious Female Pirates and also Some Lesser Known Women Who Plied the Seas and inland Waterways for Fortune, Adventure & Romance from Ireland, China, the Bahamas, and the Barbary Coast to the Americas. Graphics/Fine Arts Press, 2000. Klausmann, Ulrike, Marion Meinzerin, and Gabriel Kuhn. Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Roger. Black Rose Books, 1997. Stark, Suzanne J. Female Tars: Woman Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail. Naval Institute Press, 1996. Fiction Canham, Marsha. The Iron Rose. Signet, 2003. (Juliet Dante, privateer and daughter of the legendary Pirate Wolf) Gold, Alan. The Pirate Queen. HarperCollins, 2003. (Grace O’Malley, pirate) Jensen, Lisa. The Witch from the Sea. Beagle Bay Books, 2001. (Tory Lightfoot, pirate) Meyer, L. A. Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy. Harcourt, 2002. ( Jacky Faber, pirate hunter) Nau, Erika. Angel in the Rigging. Berkley, 1976. (Lucy Brewer, pirate and Marine) Garrett, Elizabeth. The Sweet Trade. TOR, 2001. (Anne Bonny and Mary Read, pirates) Rees, Celia. Pirates! Bloomsbury, 2003. (Nancy Kington and Minerva Sharpe, pirates) Simonds, Jacqueline Church. Captain Mary, Buccaneer. Beagle Bay Books, 2000. (Mary, pirate) Slaughter, Frank G. The Deadly Lady of Madagascar. Pocket Books, 1977. (Bonita Carter, pirate and daughter of pirate Red Carter) © 2004 Cindy Vallar Published 1 March - 1 April 2004

Women Warriors 

      On Memorial Day, we remember those who died for our freedom, especially our fallen warriors. Women have always fought along side men; women have often lead women and men into battle, too. This month I will introduce you to a long line of distinguished women warriors, two of whom may only be legends.Hatshesut, (c. 1520-1483 BCE) ancient Egypt’s greatest woman Pharaoh: After the death of her husband and half-brother, Thutmose II, this 18th dynasty queen was crowned Pharaoh c. 1503 BCE and ruled until her death in c. 1483. She lead men into battle in order to claim the masculine power to govern and rule. She worshipped for eight hundred years after her death

Deborah (active c. 1296 BCE) biblical judge of and prophetess in Israel who successfully lead troops in a war against the Canaanite invader Sisera.

Semiramis (9th century BCE) more legends than facts are known about the Assyrian Queen Sammuramat. After conquering Babylonia, she erected the famed Hanging Gardens and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World as a memorial to her success. For the first time in history, she expanded landlocked Assyria’s borders to touch not one sea, but four. She repulsed attacks by Alexander and India then conquered Bactria and Ethiopia. Her army allegedly had 300,000 foot soldiers, 5,000 horses, plus cameleers and war chariots. She was worship after her death.

Pentesilea in the _Illiad_, Homer claims the Achilles’ fame would rest on his defeat of the Amazon Queen, Pentesilea. If you ask, “Were there such things as Amazons?” I would reply, I can imagine that a group of women, women who had been abused, or women who weren’t satisfied with their restricted lives in the company of men, or women who were lesbians, decided to form their own community. Such a community would require women to fill all necessary jobs including military ones. I think that they would become so notorious that legends about them, embellished legends perhaps, could survive for thousands of years. So, yes, in that sense, I believe that there were Amazons. Is Pentesilea real or legendary? I don’t know but I sure do like the story.

Xanthippe, (late 5th century BCE) Socrates much maligned wife (if I was his wife I’d be fighting mad, too) and Amazon sabrer in the Attic War was lead by the Amazon Orithia.

Judith, an Israelite widow, while her city was under siege by the Babylonian General Holofernes used her wealth, her beauty, and her feminine wiles to gain access to the general’s tent, where she drank him under the table. She decapitated the drunken general, placed his head in a bag, and strolled out of camp to return to her city. At dawn, the head was placed atop the city’s wall and the enemy fled in terror. Most scholars take her story to be apocryphal but its a nice story about a woman resistance fighter using brains, not brawn, to defeat a much more powerful foe.

Boadicea (aka Boudicca) (d. 60/61 CE), Iceni warrior queen, lead troops in a revolt against Rome. After the death of her husband, the King, Rome seized her territory, she was tortured and beaten, her daughters raped, and her nobles enslaved. She raised an army, sacked several Roman settlements including Verulamium (St. Albans), and set fire to Londinium (London). The Roman historian Tacitus claims that seventy thousand Romans and Romanized Brits died. Her victory lasted only a year; she died either in battle or shortly afterwards. (There are conflicting stories about the time and manner of her death.) Her conquered troops were so conditioned to women warriors that when her troops were presented to the court in Rome, to the amazement of on-lookers, they marched straight for the throne of the Empress Agrippa and ignored the Emperor Claudius.

Zenobia reigned as Queen of Palmyra from about 250-275 CE. She ascended to the throne upon the death of her husband as regent for her young son. She extended her realm to include all of modern Syria, Egypt, and most of Asia Minor. She repulsed Rome’s first attempt to conquer her country. After the defeated Claudius’ death, his successor, Aurelian, launched a long campaign to subdue the Syrians. The defeated Zenobia was permitted to retire to a rich villa outside of Rome where she wrote a history of her nation.

Martial nuns and women warrior saints: During the Middle Ages, nuns fought for a variety of reasons: as self-defense against outlaws, to become adjuncts to the fighting minks of the Crusades, to defend their lands and convents in an unlawful age. From the sixth century to the sixteenth century, history is replete with stories of warrior nuns, abbesses, and saints. Saints Barbara, Catherine, and Ursula are patrons to many, including warriors.

Joan of Arc (1412-1431) probably the best known woman warrior of the modern era, the maid of Orleans, and the French national heroine successfully lead troops into battle against the English to liberate France. Captured, she condemned as a witch, in part for wearing men’s clothes, and was burned at the stake.

      Closer to home and more recent in time, like women from earliest antiquity the world over, ordinary women fought America’s wars, too. Colonists fought to defend their homes against Indian attack while Native American women fought to repel invaders from their homelands. Women fought in the Revolutionary War, in the War of 1812, in the Civil War, in both world wars, in Korea, in Vietnam, in Desert Storm and in many other wars and skirmishes in between. Women soldiers and sailors, later marines and airwomen, served for many reasons: to defend their homes, for the adventure, to stay with their husbands or lovers, for the pay, to keep their country, our country, safe and free.

      Often women fought in disguise because if they were known to be women, they would be sent home. We know of many of these women today only because their disguises were penetrated during the war when they were treated for illness or wounds, when they were buried, when they were captured, or through some other accident. (During the Civil War, six women had their disguises penetrated only when they gave birth) Even when women shared tents with their lovers, their identities went undetected. Apparently, men soldiers were more willing to assume that a fellow recruit was a homosexual rather than speculate that their fellow soldier was a woman. Some women concealed their identities until long after their war ended and they finally told their stories. Others took their secrets to the grave.

      Women were camp followers, too. Often they are portrayed as prostitutes but many of them were wives of the soldiers who cooked, cleaned, and cared for their husbands and who nursed them if wounded. The services these women rendered were no less important to the successful completion of the war than the services rendered today by soldiers who are not front line troops.

      So this Memorial Day, when talk turns to the many men who died defending their homes and country, talk about the many women, high born and low, who died defending their homes and country, too.

Burgess, Lauren Cook ed., _An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman alias Pvt. Lyon Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers, 1862-1864_, Burgess, The Minerva Center, 1994

Salmonson, Jessica Amanda, _The Encyclopedia of Amazons: Women Warriors from Antiquity to the Modern Era_, Anchor Books, 1991

Encarta

 
Quotable QuotesMen create war to compete with women, who create life.
            Sharon Doubiago (1946- ) “The Football Players and the Poet: Mother and Child Reunion”, _Clinton Street Quarterly_, Fall 1986, entry 2424.1Upon women the burden and the horrors of war are heaviest. . . . When she sees what lies behind the glory and the horror, the boasting and the burden, and gets the vision, the human perspective, she will end war. She will kill war by the simple process of starving it to death. For she will refuse longer to produce the human food upon which the monster feeds.
            Margaret Sanger (1883-1966) _Women and the New Race_, 1920, entry 1328.5

As a woman I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send someone else.
            Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973), Prologue (c. 1941), quoted in _Jeannette Rankin: First Lady in Congress_ by Hannah Josephson, 1974, entry 1292.1

The cult of “arms and the man” must reckon with a newer cult, that of “schools and the woman.” Schools, which exalt brains above brawn, and women, who exalt life-giving above life-taking, are the natural allies of the present era.
            Katharine Anthony (1877-1965) _Feminism in Germany and Scandinavia_, 1915, ch. 2, entry 1247.3

. . . all wars are wars among thieves who are too cowardly to fight and who therefore induce the young manhood of the whole world to do the fighting for them.
            Emma Goldman (1869-1940) “Address to the Jury”, _Mother Earth_, 1917, entry 1152.16

Suddenly, one day, war drums on horseback came like thunder, tearing off the sky, And all glorious flowery days were gone forever.
            Wang Ch’ing-hui (fl. c. 13th century), Untitled, _The Orchid Boat, Women Poets of China_, Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung, eds. and trs. 1972, entry 176.1

Quotable Quotes taken from _The New Quotable Woman, The Definitive Treasury of Notable Words by Women from Eve to the Present_, compiled and edited by Elaine Partnow, Meridian, 1993

Hundreds of women marched steadily up to the mouth of a hundred cannon pouring out fire and smoke, shot and shell, mowing down the advancing hosts like grass; men, horses, and colors going down in confusion, disappearing in clouds of smoke; the only sound, the screaming of shells, the crackling of musketry, the thunder of artillery. . . through all this women were sustained by the enthusiasm born of love of country and liberty.
            _History of Woman Suffrage_ by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Gage, taken from An Uncommon Soldier_ (see below for full reference) page 2

 

 
Sarah Rosetta Wakeman (1843-1864)
alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment New York State Volunteers, 1862-1864      A farmer’s daughter, Rosetta Wakeman was educated enough to be literate. The oldest of nine children and a good farm hand, by leaving home to earn money to send back to her father to help support the family, she also reduced the number of mouths her father had to feed. In an age were it was less common to see a woman wear pants than it is today to see a man wear a dress, she dressed as a man and passed for a man because job opportunities and pay were much better for men than for women.

      After leaving home, she worked for two weeks in the nearest big city, Binghamton then signed on to a coal barge. After first trip on barge, on August 30, 1862 she signed up with the 153rd Regiment for the $152 bounty, over a years’ wages for the “male” Rosetta. Rosetta became one of four hundred women known to have been Civil War soldiers. Her regiment embarked for Washington, D. C. on Oct. 17, 1862; arrived on October 22, 1862, and was posted to Alexandria for nine months to repel expected attacks and to perform guard duty. On July 20, 1863, her unit was transferred to Washington to guard against expected draft riots. She did her job well and stayed out of trouble.

      Finally, in February 1864 to her joy, her unit was ordered to the field: they joined Major General Nathaniel P. Banks’ ill-fated Red River Campaign in Louisiana. On April 9, 1864 Private Wakeman finally went into battle, at Pleasant Hill, which she survived. Like many other soldiers, she developed chronic diarrhea. Indeed, disease was so widespread among soldiers that of the approximately 620,000 men who died in the Civil Was, 80% died from illness or disease, not from battlefield wounds. She reported to the regimental hospital on May 3, was transferred to a hospital in New Orleans on May 22, and died June 19, 1864. Although her illness was severe enough that she probably could not take care of her physical needs, none of her nurses, attendants, or physicians betrayed her secret. There are no indications in the military records of Private Lyon Wakeman that “he” was in reality a “she.” She is buried in a grave marked Lyon Wakeman in Chalmette National Cemetery, New Orleans. How many other women soldiers are buried in graves with headstones containing an assumed name, a man’s name, will never be known. Neither will we ever know how many women soldiers survived wars with their secrets undiscovered and took them to the grave.

_An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman alias Pvt. Lyon Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers, 1862-1864_, edited by Lauren Cook Burgess, The Minerva Center, Passadena, Maryland, 1994

http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/main.html

Fencing! I LOVE it.

It’s absolutely addicting to spar with someone way better than me and finally being able to score a point.

It’s a challenge both physically and mentally. It gets my blood rushing and pumping and requires such cool calculation at the same time. And I’m good at it!

I always hated competition as a kid and never felt confident when it came to anything athletic, but somehow with fencing it’s all a blast!

Perhaps because there is no running involved.

I’ll update with an article in a little bit about some details on the sport, so anyone who is interested can have an idea of what it’s like.

I would love to hear what your favorite way to express your inner warrior is.

Do you enjoy boxing, fencing, martial arts, or something else? Perhaps you have more than one favorite…

What is it you enjoy most about it?

I can’t wait to see what you write!

Eldra

(C)Beautifulwarriorwomen.com

Now this is written by someone with a pro- gun stance and not everyone will want to use one. That is fine.

I find it very interesting to see what kids have to say about it though….

Perhaps there could be more surveys and studies done about this. After all our kids want to be and feel safe too.

Eldra 

——– 

The Children Have Spoken
By

Janalee Tobias
 

On Monday, June 30, 2003, 1 p.m., the 5th grade class of Miss Erickson, at So. Jordan Elementary, So. Jordan, UT, held a mock trial. The issue at trial: Should guns be allowed in school? So. Jordan Elementary school is in Jordan School District where policy is currently being drafted regarding CCW permit holders taking guns to school.

Each legal team consisted of five brilliant 5th graders. Each side presented charts and facts to the jury which consisted of twelve 5th graders, half boys, half girls. An “expert witness” on each side testified: “me” for the “guns in school” side, and a women from the University of Utah represented “no guns in school.” The principal was subpoenaed for the “no guns in school” side, but he didn’t show up for trial. Rumor has it that he was afraid to go against me , and there may be a warrant out for his arrest.

After about 45 minutes of intense debate, the jury left the classroom and deliberated behind closed doors for five minutes. The verdict: 12-0 in FAVOR of guns in schools.

The comments of the jurors reflected their fear of a crazed criminal coming in and shooting up the school. They want teachers to be able to carry a gun for their protection as long as they know how to use it, know the safety rules, and keep it out of the reach of students. They also want the “bad guys” to think that if they come into their school to shoot it up, that a “good guy” is going to shoot them back and protect the children.

The verdict is in: Children think that the best way to “save the children” is to let honest, law-abiding citizens carry guns for protection.

——

Janalee Tobias is the Founder and President of Women Against Gun Control. 

There seem to be a lot of women out there who are drawn to the warrior woman icon and who want to protect themselves but who don’t want to actually learn to fight or use a weapon.

They all want to be wonder woman, and not use any weapons ever, but have magical powers that allow them to fight bad guys without hurting any one.

Well real life works a little bit differently.

Sometimes you actually have to shoot a psycho doped up on drugs who is attacking you 10 to 12 times before he will even notice that you shot him.

And real women don’t have magical super powers. So…..

Let’s face reality here ladies.

Take some time to learn how to protect ourselves and our children! Make it an important issue.

Get together. Find someone to watch the kids while you go to the shooting range, or the archery range, or go learn to use a knife or sword, and other hand to hand protection techniques.

Be there for each other. Support each other. And learn what it really takes to protect yourself and your family.
 

I am a Christian woman who takes her faith and obedience VERY serious.  But i am also an independant-minded woman who is a paraprofessional and a white belt martial artist.  I hear so many Christian leaders who say that being strong, independant, unsubmissive, proactive, take-charge, and self-determining are not feminine, are not feminine for a woman of God to be, takes away men’s role for caring for a woman, and confuses men concerning their roles.  Part of me reasons, “what is femine about being a victim and being molested, raped, and unable to take care of yourself and your loved ones?”  I’m wondering if you’d mind sharing your thoughts on the subject?  Thank you.  Gail V.

A Religious Perspective
By Eldra McCracken

Religious studies have always fascinated me because of the impact they have on so many lives, so this is a fabulous opportunity for me to answer a question which no doubt will serve many women.

This answer is non-denominational, but because of the prevalance of this attitude in many religions will be addressed with Bible refrences that are very revealing. These will all be from the King James Version.

Also remember that the old testament in the bible comes from the Torah so those verses equivalants there are relevant for the Jewish people as well.

As it is for those of the Muslim faith. For they believe that Jesus was a Holy Prophet as well, so his teachings apply for them also. Indeed Mohammed’s wife Aysha lead a battle charge astride a Camel and was certaintly no door-mat.

What follows is a clear guide as to what is required from the men. I decided to take this slant on the subject because I believe it will clear up a lot of issues for women in a fresh perspective. (You could also look at it as a helpful dating list in the qualities to look for in a man!

There ARE many guys who are confused about their roles now because of women’s liberation.

They are having to redefine how they define themselves. They are having to come up with different ways to relate to the world, to assess their success, and what position they want to have in the world.

There is nothing wrong with that. In fact it opens up a lot of new avenues for men who’ve felt repressed and limited, and for men to find new avenues of healing in their lives from the demands society puts on them as well.

The bible does not define manhood for men either, insofar as to say they must be a certain proffession or have certain qualities to be a man, except it’s admonitions to love God, be a good person, to be one with your wife, and to be a GOOD steward to all that is in your care. It is really very simple.

As we are not addressing man’s relationship with God we will move to the next issues…

So lets start with being a good steward. This is the most general area as it applies to how a man should care for what is in his realm to care for.

Luke 12: 42-48
“And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?
Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 

Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.

But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens, and to eat and drink and to be drunken;

The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder….”

So the question really becomes, How can I be a good steward (man or woman)?

It seems to me that to be a good steward is to make sure those in your care are safe(!!!!), well cared for, and happy. (men are that they might have joy), and having the neccessities of life, and the care and attention of those they love.

Here is the Webster’s Dictionary’s definition of steward: A person who manages another’s property or financial afffairs; one who ministers anything as the agent of another or others; a person appointed by an organization or group to supervise the affairs of that group at certain functions. See also stewardess.

In days of old they were a servant in service to the master of the house, the lord or lady. In a religious sense it would be a steward of the Most High, ie: God.

Stewards didn’t do it all themselves. They were responsible for everything, but didn’t control and do everything. They delagated to other servants. They had to. There was too much in one household to take care of to do it all themselves.

And a steward was and is one who was/is a dedicated servant. He was loyal, devoted, intelligent, kind, responsible, trustworthy, and able to handle great responsiblility wisely.

A man can still be a good steward for his family and let his wife take an active role as well.

If a man loves himself and is not insecure he will not feel threatened by his wife’s love and honor of herself by taking responsibility for her life –being a good steward of her own life!  He will want her to be safe, happy, and have the best just as he wants the best for himself. It makes his job easier as a steward.

He will treat her kindly and be safe for her, and also realize that he can’t be with her every day, especially if he is away at work all day, as she might also be. He will see that if he wants her to be safe from other people with sinister intent that it would be good for her to know how to protect herself, because when he isn’t there he can’t take care of it.

There is also the issue of keeping any children they have safe as well. She can be a valuable help meet/mate, by being able to take care of things when he’s not around.

This will ultimatly reduce his stress levels, knowing that everything is prepared and planned for in the utmost. That he has done his best by empowering his entire family!

Then if tragedy strikes he doesn’t have to beat himself up for not being there, doesn’t have to wonder if there was always something more that could have been done to take care of it. He won’t have to feel the rending guilt of knowing there was more he could have done. That “if only….”

Gen 2:12 “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.”

This refrence is not just talking about sex, the physical joining. Innate in the defenition is that they are one — in agreement. Not one lording over the other, but in agreement.

Most women who are victims of violence are actually suffering it from the hands of their own husbands. More women are killed every year by their spouse or boyfriend (live in or not) than by strangers.

In light of your question I feel that this is especially important to address.

Men who are scared, who are unwilling to take a fresh look at new options in partnership are not following God’s commandments.

Here are the words of King Lemuel’s mother to him telling him to be a good husband and what kind of woman to look for in a wife.

Though there are few words to him about what his behavior should be towards his wife they are very important. Perhaps he is a good enough person that she knows he will treat his wife right with little guidance from her.

Proverbs 31:1-31 (parenthesis my commentary)

“The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
(He treats her right, she treats him right. Hmmm sort of logical isn’t it?)

Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
(A wise man sitting among the elders, Loyal and trustworthy –known in the gates.)

Give her of the fruit of her hands: and let her own works praise her in the gates.”
(Let her create what she wants out of life –of course good works being prefered — and then let her enoy the fruits, the benefits of what she has created! This of course implicitly allows for not controlling her every movement, or everything she does. Her own works will praise her, and show her true nature.)

Another refrence on how a man ought to be with his wife.

Ecclesiastes 9:9
“Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest…”

Here is a warning to men who might abuse and misuse their woman!

Malachi 2:14-15
“Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherfore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.”

More guidance for how a relationship is best to be.

1Corinthians 7: 3-4
“Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and like wise also the wife unto the husband.
The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.”

Ephesians 5: 25 “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it…. So men ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh: but nourisheth and cerisheth it, even as the Lord the church. (The man should love, nourish and cherish his wife as he would his own body.)
Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself: and the wife see that she reverence her husband.”

Now wouldn’t it be easy to acknowledge a husband and follow his council when you know his has your utmost care as his concern? If a wife is to be “submissive,” it is clear that God means it in refrence to a man who will love and respect his wifes wishes, needs, and desires as well as his own.

Here are some more generalities as far as what behavior God requires. And any man who thinks this doesn’t apply to how to love his wife as well is seriously mistaken. The warning previously mentioned should have made that obviously clear.

John 13: 34-35
“A new commendment I give unto you, That ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

Romans 13: 8-10
“Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet: and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love they neighbour as theyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour (or wife): therfore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

As far as being a take charge woman, there are plenty of take charge women in the bible itself who followed the laws of that time, who took it into their own hands to push the issue and were blessed for it  Since this article is going so long, I would reccomend you research this yourself. ( Or perhaps I’ll wirte another article about it.

I think the real issue, though, is that many men are afraid of and angry at the Man- Haters! They feel upset that so many women are blaming men for all the problems and then they feel insecure, so they want to be in charge, in control.

So many men want to feel sure of themselves. They have been trained to do so, and when they don’t it really throws them for a loop.

All they really want is what anybody wants, that is: to be respected, honored, feel as though their contribution is valuable.

Some times they don’t know what that looks like or how to get it. That is true for some women also.

And when we as women are around the men who act angry or afraid of women in their power, it behooves us to remember that we ARE powerful and we have room to be patient and tolerant with men who don’t understand that — as long as there is no abuse involved. We can show them that we do respect men who are truely good men, even if our opinions differ from theirs.

We don’t have to try to convince anyone that it’s okay for us to be strong. And when we are non-threatening (which we can do because knowing how to protect ourselves gives us this freedom, and calm assurance), they will naturally relax and begin to see that we are not trying to control THEM. We are just determined to honor ourselves.

And if you get a lot of guys trying to push you out of your power, simply draw a healthy boundary and no longer give them access to you. Find a different congregation in your denomination to associate with, or a different man in your life who is willing to be loving and kind and respect you.

Also there are good righteous men out there who do get this concept, and are more than willing to support their wives as their wives also are willing to support them. They are willing to have a relationship that is mutually beneficial — however that couple decides that will look for them.

A perfect example is the young lady in the powerful woman highlight right now (go to http://www.beautifulwarriorwomen.com and sign in to see her).  She was raped and in her recovery is close to God and her husband.

They are actively sharing her story to assist others, and he has decided to go into law enforcement to assist others as well. I can guarantee you that he does not want her to ever suffer that same horrible trauma again and supports her in her RIGHT to protect herself from harm.

As men and women learn to respect each other ( which usually comes after the period of extreme anger at the other , there will be less fear, less anger, and less violence. But that will only come as a result of BOTH sides owning their power.  Not men dominating women or women dominating men.

So as you can see, men and women can have healthy relationships of giving and caring on both sides. And indeed the largest, most common religions of the world have it in their commandments.

When other men say it is the job of the woman to be subservient, you can remember, and also remind them if you feel it is appropriate, that it is also the man’s job to be subservient to the woman as well, to care for her as he would his own body. That the commandments command that both respect and honor each other. That they are to be there for each other.

I very much agree with you Gail, and hope that some of what I’ve shared will give some clarity to the subject for any women out there doubting.

Copyright By Eldra McCracken. All rights reserved. You may link to this article. Article not available for distribution, except with express permission by author.

P.S. Read about the Nun who killed an intruder in the “They stayed safe…” section of this blog. If a nun feels that she has the right to protect herself I think that says a lot to other women who are religious.