I know you’re joshing, but weirdly, you’re right. Wait, no, it’s about competence in Viking archeology…
Before a competent archeologist goes on a dig s/he reads pertinent history on the dig site, and certainly anyone with even passing familiarity with the historical Vikings knows that female warriors existed (basically since the Vikings thought that was really cool and bragged about it) and a competent archeologist can frequently tell gender from just a skull… you can’t even get an anthropology degree, much less an archeology degree, (at least, not from the University of Delaware) if you don’t know how to determine the sex of a skeleton…
If they were merely incompetent, they would be misidentifying male bones as female at the same rate.
Greater competence would enhance their ability to resist their cultural biases, but the driving issue in this is patriarchy.
I’d have probably paid more attention in anthropology if someone had mentioned skeleton sex!
Seriously, anyone who’s bothered even shallowly researching Vikings knows women warriors existed.
This is a major, shaming embarrassment for some specific particular people. Blaming their mistakes on society doesn’t work for me, although I certainly don’t want them tarred and feathered.
Speaking of fighting women:
Know personally? Quite a lot, Germans aren’t as hung up about nudity as Americans and we and quite a few others use same-sex saunas. Also, from the people I work with, I’ve met nearly all of those I’d call male I’ve met at the urinal. While I haven’t seen their plumbing I’m quite convinced that urinating while standing up is a good indicator about what plumbing they do have. And quite a few of them self-identify as heterosexual male and when I meet their partners, they look female to me.
This could be a global conspiracy of course, tailored to me to mess with my assumptions about sex.
Because women can gain respect only if they act macho…
How would you gain respect?
To be honest, I don’t know. I have enough trouble finding answer to this question in my own life. I guess it depends on the society one lives in.
I appreciate the honesty! Let me express that saying things like that last thing you said there strains the capacity of some to feel respected, and thus to return respect paid forward by you, to you.
I, for one, like it when people close their sarcasm tag, just as an extra bit of body language to show they’re being sarcastic. It’s too easy for potentially entertaining comments to fall down the sarchasm and wind up looking all spiky and unpleasant by the time the get to the other side.
I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic. I was lamenting the tendency of current society to value machismo over most other modes of behaviour.
Does this story tell you that is the case today, more so than ever?
