Comments by "DynamicWorlds" (@dynamicworlds1) on "Women in Armour - What Did Their Armours Look Like?" video.

  1. While an average male's advantages in size and reach are certainly significant, I'd like to reemphasize the importance of skill and training. I'd put my money on a female master of almost any serious martial art against almost any newbie in said art. You can find similar differences in size and strength between men practicing martial arts and while there is certainly an advantage to be had in those traits, the guy that's a 6'6" wall of muscle can be taken out by a well-trained person who's significantly smaller if the smaller fighter possesses significantly greater skill. Sure, women in war wasn't the norm for several reasons, but let's be careful not to overstate things.
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  2. Comical Hexical I'm not even talking about no training (even though a lot of battlefields contained a bunch of conscripts with very minimal training), but even solidly proficient fighters can be taken out by more experience dispite differences in body. Even when I was younger and actually in practice (with martial arts dealing with medieval weapons no less), there were women and old men who could kick my ass dispite my training for years, and plenty of other guys over 6" taller and 50lbs of muscle heavier than me who I could take down (especially if we were fighting with my preferred weapon). Sure, the form and style matter (there's a reason female samurai were trained in naginata, jujutsu, and daggers as opposed to something like the tetsubo) but most weapons have some degree of an equalizing effect as they shift combat more toward skill as opposed to just physical capability. 2 people in plate bashing each other with warhammers is very much about size and strength, but things like spear (even reasonably armored) and rapier are much less so and can have a much wider range of body types do well with them, even if there are physical characteristics which are advantageous, because a lot of their use is in positioning and the mental game.
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  3. Tom Franklin I'm well aware of the weight of rapiers and other swords from first hand experience. They weigh about as much as an arming sword, and many of the stances can be tiring to hold for extended periods of time. It doesn't change the fact that the range of body types that can do well with the weapon is fairly wide. I also acknowledged that women being trained for war wasn't the norm for several reasons, and the one you mention is a big one, but there are people out there saying that an average man should be able to beat a woman of basically any skill level. That is the argument I was refuting as I cautioned not to overstate things. I'm not trying to say that one wouldn't normally put the resources into training large men first, but it did occasionally happen, and the women weren't automatically useless in a fight. Nothing more, nothing less.
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  4. I'd add to that that there was occasional use of horn lamellar armor too from what I understand. Even paper armor has some evidence and tests have proved plausible designs effective. While metal is almost always preferred, almost every material you can think of has been used in armor to put something resistive between vulnerable flesh and enemy weapons when in a pinch. Stone is the only thing I can think of that isn't completely silly which hasn't (and even then, only if you don't count ceramic armors we use today).
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