This article containsdynamic lists that may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help byediting the page to add missing items, with references toreliable sources.
The portrayal ofwomen warriors inliterature andpopular culture is a subject of study in history, literary studies, film studies, folklore history, and mythology. The archetypal figure of the woman warrior is an example of a normal thing that happens in some cultures, while also being acounter stereotype, opposing the normal construction of war, violence and aggression as masculine.[1]: 269 This convention-defying position makes the female warrior a prominent site of investigation for discourses surrounding female power andgender roles in society.
TheAmazons were an entire tribe of woman warriors inGreek legend. The earliest known recording of the Amazons can be found inHomer's epic poem theIliad, in which Homer described them as Amazonantianeirai, a term with multiple translations including "the equal of men."[2] "Amazon" has become aneponym for woman warriors and athletes in both modern and ancient society.
InBritish mythology,Queen Cordelia fought off several contenders for her throne by personally leading the army in its battles as well as defending her home from her own warring family members, until she eventually commits suicide due to grief. Another example inancient British history is the historical QueenBoudica, who led a rebellion against theRoman Empire.
In hisOn the Bravery of Women, the Greco-Roman historianPlutarch describes how the women ofArgos fought against KingCleomenes and theSpartans under the command ofTelesilla in the fifth century BCE.[3][4]
AmongScythians, warrior women were not unknown. Archaeologists have uncovered more than 40 graves of female warrior leaders. The Roman general,Pompey defeated Scythians fighting forMithridates VI of Pontus, and in histriumph displayed female warrior rulers among the leaders he defeated. Scythian lifestyle included equality among the sexes, and some women took the opportunities that a warrior lifestyle offered to both men and women.[5] Scythian culture touched on both Greece and India, both of whom have tales of warrior women in their histories and mythologies.
Accounts of martial women were included in theRamayana (ca. 500 BCE) andMahabharata (ca. 400 BCE) In Hindu mythology,Chitrāngadā, wife ofArjuna, was the commander of her father's armies.Satyabhama was a warrior wife of the god Krishna who led an army againstNarakasura; she was an archer and expert in wartime tactics.Shikhandini was a princess who learned "archery, martial arts, war-techniques" and fought to avenge herself for past wrongs in another life; she eventually became a man (through supernatural intervention).Kaikeyi was the wife of a king who drove his chariot in battle and saved his life.[6]
Other examples of warrior women in India may be seen in sculpture.
India, Bala Krishna Temple atHampi. Woman with bow, an attendant removing a thorn from her foot. Early 16th century C.E.
Srirangam, India. Sculpture of warrior woman from the Vijayanagar period, 16th century, Sesha Mandapa hall of theSri Ranganathaswamy Temple.
Sculpture of warrior woman from the Vijayanagar period, 16th century, Sesha Mandapa hall of theSri Ranganathaswamy Temple
India. A warrior woman sacrifices herself, cutting her own throat.
Several women are described in theHebrew Bible as participating in wars or battles, including the prophetessDeborah,Rahab, and the unnamed "woman of Thebez".
Hind bint ‘Utbah was an Arab woman in the late 6th and early 7th centuries who converted to Islam. She took part in theBattle of Yarmouk in 636, fighting the Romans and encouraging the male soldiers to join her.[7]
Khawlah bint al-Azwar was a prominent woman Muslim warrior in the 7th century, leading battles in what are today Syria, Jordan and Palestine.[8]
Ghazala theKharijite was also a commander in battle, making famous generals likeal-Hajjaj flee. Her courage was extolled in poems.
Joan of Arc was a warrior in the 15th century and considered a heroine in France for her role in theHundred Years' War. Joan of Arc alleged that she had a connection to the saints of her church and that they communicated with her to tell her to join the war effort of the French in 1429. Her effort in the battle ofOrléans in May 1429 contributed to the retreat of the English from the city.[9] She was later canonized as aRoman Catholic saint. In modern popular culture, Joan of Arc has been depicted many times, including inThe Passion of Joan of Arc (1928 film), a silent historical film from Danish directorCarl TH. Dreyer.[10] The film depicts the real trial of Joan of Arc leading up to her execution.
Mai Bhago was a Sikh warrior of 18th century. She encouraged and rallied the soldiers who abandonedGuru Gobind Singh during the siege of Anandpur Sahib to refight. She, alongside 40 soldiers confronted the Mughal Army and fought theBattle of Muktsar. She wore a masculine attire during her lifetime and by doing so, challenged patriarchy and started the debate around 'Role of Women' among Scholars and Philosophers. She was honored the title of being the bodyguard of Guru Gobind Singh during his exhile inNanded, Maharashtra. Many ballads and folksongs glorify her bravery and she is revered as a Feminist Icon.
The narrative of the woman warrior sometimes involves the motif of crossdressing or disguising herself as a man or a male soldier. These stories belong to the cycle ofLa Doncella Guerrera, or The Warrior Maiden.[17] One popular instance of this is the legendary heroineHua Mulan of Chinese history. Mulan's earliest records date back to the time of China'sNorthern andSouthern Dynasties era (4th to 6th century AD).[18] In the ballad, Mulan disguises herself as a man and takes her father's place in war to protect him. Since it was first written, the original story has been retold many times by different authors.[19] Hua Mulan was further popularized, especially in the United States, through Disney's 1998 feature filmMulan.[20]
18th century depiction of Mulan
In many cases, the disguised maiden enters the service of a king and discovers the queen's infidelity. The queen is punished and the king marries the warrior maiden.[21] One example isA afilhada de São Pedro ("St. Peter's Goddaughter"), a Portuguese folktale collected byConsiglieri Pedroso.[22] These stories are classified in theAarne–Thompson–Uther Index index as ATU 513, "The Extraordinary Companions" and subtypes, and ATU 514, "The Shift of Sex".[23]
The Princess in variants ofAarne–Thompson–Uther ATU 551, "The Water of Life", where the hero quests for an object of the fairy/warrior princess (mirror, flower, fountain, etc.) and she goes after the prince with her army.[26]
The female character of the tales classified as ATU 519, "The Strong Woman as Bride (Brunhilde)"
The female hero of ATU tale type 300, "The Dragon-Slayer", in variants from Latin America[27]
The woman warrior is part of a long tradition in many different cultures including Chinese and Japanese martial arts films, but their reach and appeal to Western audiences is possibly much more recent, coinciding with the greatly increased number of female heroes in American media since 1990.[28]: 136 [29]: 25 Films have brought women warriors to the silver screen, such as inKing Arthur (2004 film), in whichKeira Knightley plays heroineGuinevere, originally the love interest of King Arthur. In this iteration, Guinevere is portrayed as a warrior of equal strength as her male counterparts.[30]
Women warriors have also grown in recent years in part due to the popularity of comics and franchises inspired by them, most notably films byMarvel Studios and films within theDC Extended Universe. Characters such asWonder Woman,Captain Marvel, Wasp,Black Widow, and, more recently,Jane Foster, a female iteration of the hero Thor, originally were superheroines in popular DC and Marvel comics series, as well as others.[31]
Women warriors have been taken up as a symbol for feminist empowerment, emphasizing women's agency and capacity for power instead of the common pattern of female victim-hood.[1]: 269 Professor Sherrie Inness inTough Girls: Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture[32] and Frances Early and Kathleen Kennedy inAthena's Daughters: Television's New Women Warriors,[33] for example, focus on figures such asXena, from the television seriesXena: Warrior Princess orBuffy Summers fromBuffy the Vampire Slayer. In the introduction to their text, Early and Kennedy discuss what they describe as a link between the image of women warriors andgirl power.[34]
Although there is a distinction between positive aggression and violence, fictional representations of female violence likeKill Bill still have the power to function positively, equipping women for real-life situations that require outward aggression.[35]: 108, 237 Beyond the individual level, fictional depictions of violence by women can be a political tool to draw attention to real-world issues of violence, such as the ongoing violence against Indigenous women.[36] Others say that a violent heroine undermines the feminist ethics against male violence, even when she is posited as a defender of women, for example in films such asHard Candy.[1]: 269 The 2020 filmPromising Young Woman also explores the idea of a warrior woman railing against deadly sexual inequity, using either passive or active violence in order to restore some sense of justice to a world skewed towards sympathy for sexually violent men. Often the violence is only implicit, or threatened, and exists in juxtaposition to the film's pastel colour palette and stereotypically feminine aesthetic.
^Smith, Patrick Scott, M. A. (30 June 2020)."Scythian Women".World History Encyclopedia.Archived from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved7 October 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Gan Bao.In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record, translated into English by Kenneth J. DeWoskin and James Irving Crump. Stanford University Press, 1996. pp. 230-231.ISBN0-8047-2506-3
^Ch, Russell Maeth (1 September 1990)."El cuento de Li Ji".Estudios de Asia y África (in Spanish).3 (83):537–539.JSTOR40312235.Archived from the original on 24 October 2021. Retrieved25 February 2022.
^Journey of a Goddess: Chen Jinggu Subdues the Snake Demon. Translated, edited, and with an introduction by Fan Pen Li Chen. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. 2017. p. 31.ISBN978-14384-6-7078
^Idema, Wilt L.Personal Salvation and Filial Piety: Two Precious Scroll Narratives of Guanyin and Her Acolytes. University of Hawai'i Press. 2008. p. 205.ISBN978-0-8248-3215-5
^Ting, N.-T. (1969). "[Review of Folktales of China, by W. Eberhard]".The Journal of American Folklore.82 (326): 381–384 [383].doi:10.2307/539788.... China is perhaps the only nation that produced a female dragon-slayer, Li Chi, and a very ancient heroine at that!
^Pedroso, Consiglieri.Portuguese folk-tales. London: E. Stock. 1882. pp. 53-59.
^Thompson, Stith.The Folktale. University of California Press. 1977. pp. 53-55.ISBN978-0520035379
^Ralston, William Ralston Shedden.Russian fairy tales: a choice collection of Muscovite folk-lore. New York: Pollard & Moss. 1887. p. 108.
^Hooker, Jessica (January 1990). "The Hen Who Sang: Swordbearing Women in Eastern European Fairytales".Folklore.101 (2):178–184.doi:10.1080/0015587X.1990.9715792.
^Johns, Andreas.Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale. New York: Peter Lang. 2010 [2004]. pp. 144—145.ISBN978-0-8204-6769-6
Alvarez, Maria (14 August 1998). "Feminist icon in a catsuit".New Statesman. (female lead characterEmma Peel in defunct 1960s UK TV seriesThe Avengers)
Barr, Marleen S.Future Females, the Next Generation: New Voices and Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction Criticism. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.
Clayton, Sally Pomme (2001). "The woman Warrior: fact or tale".Estudos de Literatura Oral (7–8):63–77.hdl:10400.1/1440.
Davis-Kimball, Jeannine.Warrior Women: An Archaeologist's Search for History's Hidden Heroines. New York: Warner Books, 2001.
Deuber-Mankowsky, Astrid and Dominic J. Bonfiglio (Translator).Lara Croft: Cyber Heroine. Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press, 2005.
Dugaw, Dianne M. (1986). "Structural Analysis of the Female Warrior Ballads: The Landscape of a World Turned Upside down".Journal of Folklore Research.23 (1):23–42.JSTOR3814479.
Early, Frances and Kathleen Kennedy,Athena's Daughters: Television's New Women Warriors, Syracuse University Press, 2003.
Greenhill, Pauline (1995). "'Neither a Man nor a Maid': Sexualities and Gendered Meanings in Cross-Dressing Ballads".The Journal of American Folklore.108 (428):156–177.doi:10.2307/541377.JSTOR541377.
Heinecken, Dawn.Warrior Women of Television: A Feminist Cultural Analysis of the New Female Body in Popular Media, New York: P. Lang, 2003.
Infante, Joyce Rodrigues Ferraz (2017). "Revisitando o tema da donzela-guerreira em Grande sertão: veredas". In Rivas Hernández, Ascensión (ed.).João Guimarães Rosa: Un exiliado del lenguaje común. Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca. pp. 205–224.ISBN978-84-9012-766-7.JSTORj.ctt1z27gt1.14.OCLC1027200292.
Inness, Sherrie A. (ed.)Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Inness, Sherrie A.Tough Girls: Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
Magoulick, Mary (2006). "Frustrating Female Heroism: Mixed Messages in Xena, Nikita, and Buffy".The Journal of Popular Culture.39 (5):729–755.doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2006.00326.x.
Mainon, Dominique.The Modern Amazons: Warrior Women on Screen. Pompton Plains, N.J. : Limelight Editions, 2006.
Osgerby, Bill, Anna Gough-Yates, and Marianne Wells.Action TV: Tough-Guys, Smooth Operators and Foxy Chicks. London: Routledge, 2001.
Prandi, Julie D. (1985). "Woman Warrior as Hero: Schiller's "Jungfrau von Orleans" and Kleist's "Penthesilea"".Monatshefte.77 (4):403–414.JSTOR30157578.
Raber, Karen L. (2000). "Warrior Women in the Plays of Cavendish and Killigrew".SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900.40 (3):413–433.doi:10.2307/1556254.JSTOR1556254.
Spicuzza, Mary (27 March 2001)."Butt-Kicking Babes".Alternet.org.Archived from the original on 20 October 2021. Retrieved25 February 2022.
Stoppino, Eleonora (2012).Genealogies of Fiction: Women Warriors and the Medieval Imagination in the 'Orlando furioso'. Fordham University Press.ISBN978-0-8232-4037-1.JSTORj.ctt1c5cj9t.
Tasker, Yvonne.Action and Adventure Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Tasker, Yvonne.Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Culture. London: Routledge 1998
Tasker, Yvonne.Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre, and the Action Cinema. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.
_(37480768992).jpg)
_(37511787801).jpg)
