How Your Female Fighter Looks

We are in the middle of a series on building a female fighting character. In our last round on FightWrite™ we looked at how women fight differently than men. Or, actually, how they DON’T. This round we are going to consider what your female fighting character looks like. Or, actually, how she likely DOESN’T.

If book covers are any evidence of how a female fighter is built, it is thus: tall, long legged, lean, muscular and aggressively busty. Outside of build, they also seem to be white. Like, never been in the sun white and, despite their years of brawling, have nary a scar or bruise on them. They fight with their hair down, whipping in the wind and wear armor that shows their mid-drift cleavage and legs. I can only assume their vital organs and arteries are situated differently than every other human ever.

Writers, this is not how most female fighters look. If you want your writing stylized in that manner, that is ok. I respect your wishes. That said, this post prolly ain’t for you.

Ok, here we go…

 

YOUR FEMALE FIGHTER IS NOT:

 

A PRO ATHLETE – UNLESS SHE IS A PRO ATHLETE

It’s great to imagine our warrior women as lean and totally ripped like a professional athlete. But, the fact is, pro athletes look like they do because they train for a living. Unless your ***femme fighter is on a specified diet, a weight lifting regimen and is doing daily cardio, she is going to look like a mere mortal. That is not to say she won’t have muscles or be in shape. It is to say that “in-shape,” isn’t a particular shape.

 

IMMUNE TO GENETICS

We all look like we do because of our DNA. That is first and foremost why your female fighter (hereafter known as FF) looks the way she does. Yes, of course her lifestyle will have an impact. But, if your FF is a samurai –yes, that’s a thing, onna-bugeisha – then she will be built like a Japanese woman. Her shoulders and thighs might be more developed from sword work, but she will not be built like a Samoan woman.

The average Samoan woman is not petite nor slight of bone. She has curves and hits like a hammer. Don’t write her looking like a nail! Here is a beach handball team from American Samoa.

These women have dense bones and muscles. If you just looked at their weight or BMI, you might not think they were the stats of a killer athlete. They are. I mean, you think these gals are out of shape??? You go ahead and tell them. I will hide and watch. Side note, if there is a special diet I can go on that will make me look like any of the women in this video, send it to me, like, yesterday.

Keep your FF swimming in her gene pool. If she has a melange of DNA, then you have more leeway. If her father is Western European and Native American and her mother East African and Middle Eastern, well, the DNA world is your oyster. But, if your work takes place in Britannia during the middle ages, you might want to narrow down the heritage of your character and have her look the part.

 

IMMUNE TO INJURY

If your FF does a lot of close quarters fighting, she is likely to have some marks from it. Years of hitting people in the face leaves scars and/or calluses on the knuckles and elbows. Getting hit again and again on the chin can leave a calcium deposit on it just as repeated kicking leaves calcium deposits on the shins. Broken noses can heal looking as if your nose is trying to smell your cheek. Taking just one solid punch to the ear can cause cauliflower ear. Broken ribs can heal with a lump on the point of break.

Years of doing battle in a helmet can leave one with marks on the face and with cauliflower ears. Repeated weapons use of any kind can leave calluses. If your FF has ever been in a blade fight, she, more likely than not, will have scars.

You get where I’m going with this? If your FF has spent a lot of time fighting, she will have signs of it on her person because nobody starts out a pro. Everyone takes their hits.

 wounds by firearms    wounds by blades    healing time

 

THE SAME WOMAN SHE WAS A CENTURY AGO

Women of today are taller and heavier than they were a hundred years ago and have greater life spans. Women in the US now can expect to live to 80. In 1920, life expectancy for a woman was 50-ish. In 1820, it was even younger.

Now, I love to see an older female fighter in action on screen. And, there may have been some middle aged women in the middle ages still on the battlefield. But, that was probably a HUGE rarity. Heck, for a woman to be alive at 50 was great. To be 50 and still swinging a battle axe? Wow.

Today, it’s not so odd. I compete in the 45-50 age division in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and there are more women in that division every year. And, they compete at lower belts which means they didn’t start training until later in life. Go us.

 

A MAN

When a girl enjoys what is stereotypically boyish, somehow her femininity gets depreciated by society. She’s not a girl any more. She’s a “tom boy.” Don’t you dare do that to your FF.  Outside of the  boxing ring and battle field, women are still women. When we are on our period, we train and we fight. While pregnant, we train for as long as is safe and in some circumstances and eras, we still fought on the battlefield. When we are too pregnant to train, we do solo drills, we hit the bag, we do katas with our sword. If we are on bed rest, we watch training videos and envision battle strategy. We take our babies to the gym and nurse between rounds. If we can’t leave the battle field to nurse, we deal with the pain.

Our breasts get smashed, our butts get kicked. We adorn our black and blue eyes with mascara and gloss our busted lips. We carve flowers into our shields and the grips of our pistols.

Or not.

We might not pour conveniently into the mold the world has created for us. But, we’re still women. What we absolutely are not is a man. And just as there is no one way to be a man, there’s no one way to be a woman.

Imagine who your character is away from the battlefield. That is who she is. When she picks up her sword, she becomes a killer, plain and simple. Also, she puts her hair up!  Look, I know how cool it looks to have your Viking shield maiden’s locks flying like a banner of her people. I’m not saying that historically women always put their hair up when they fought. But, the fact is, in combat and on the street, hair absolutely can be grabbed and used to control an opponent.

 

BUILT FOR EVERY FIGHTING STYLE

This I will save for the next round at FightWrite™.net.

Until then, here’s videos of some femme fighters. ENJOY!

*** Femme is a French word for woman. It has also become modern vernacular for a lesbian with very feminine qualities – which for some reason offends me on behalf of lesbians.  In this post, it just means woman. ***