#fencing

[marshmallow--boy]

People who say it’s unrealistic for heroes to unmask for the emotional finale of a movie have clearly never seen fencers rip off their masks in devastation every time they lose a point

[cardiffart]

A zillion hours of hammering, skiving, dyeing, and Angelus paint later, finally finished my rapier hanger.

[mactiir]

in HEMA (aka historical european fencing), much of the sport is done with fencing masks on, so identifying your clubmates during sparring or tourneys is just based on gear. you know, what color their jacket and pants are, what patches they have on it, how is their mask painted. If someone borrows someone else's jacket it's legitimately jarring, like having someone with an entirely different body type and way of moving stealing your friend's face.

Once i read about historical fishermen in the north sea and how they each had a specific hat pattern that their buddies would use to identity them while they were bundled up. It was so much part of their identity that they were often buried wearing those hats. The gear is like your name, a visual identifier of YOU when you do not have a face.

anyway, back when I was buying gear i got my pants in ELECTRIC blue. I figured i was gonna get a black or grey jacket. but HEMA gear is kind of expensive because it's all custom- or handmade, so instead of spending $400 on a new jacket I picked up one secondhand for like 20. Except the only jacket that fit me was bright, SCARLET red. And I already had my expensive, new, custom, BLUE pants. I look like a damn rocket pop or like, a mixed Icee. I was like, shit! I should switch my jacket before i become the rocket pop guy!!!

Long story short, not only am I now the rocket pop guy, the color scheme has bled into my entire wardrobe. Every-fucking-thing I own is red and blue. I look like a french revolutionary. I look like a founding father in a school play. I have become a northern fisherman in my stripey hat. Now, even if I DO get a new jacket, I feel like I GOTTA buy it in red, yk? Otherwise they won't recognize me. Maybe I won't recognize me. I'm the rocket pop guy!!!

[leavemeslowly]

The reaction of Polish fencer after winning the first Olympic medal in the history of Polish female fencing (epee), pure emotion:

[we-are-knight]

I teach honourable fencing and chivalrous combat.

Yet somehow, I raised a dagger fighting rogue, that can beat swordsmen with her dagger.

[agnesdelmotte]

fencing. grand palais. paris 2024.

[balkanparamo]

En Guard: The Duelist

[fcbswiatek]

i started crying with her like

[theinternetarchive]

'fencer,' georges demeny, gelatin silver print, 1906.

[rgujuri]

[momosane]

Some of the Fencing masks from the Paris 2024 Olympics.

(Salim Heroui. Feres Ferjani. Olga Kharlan. Tufaha Uwihoreye. Aleksandra Jarecka. Kang Young Mi. Eleanor Harvey. Marie-Florence Candassamy. Rubén Limardo. Mohamed El-Sayed.)

[alnair-jpg]

Next up for Olympics AU: the indomitable Annabeth Chase

[floral-alchemist]

In fencing there is a biological binary* that gives one group an inherent advantage over the other. At high levels the advantaged group has been shown to perform five times better compared to the disadvantaged group, as s direct result of their biology.

Specifically, left-handed fencers perform better on average than their right-handed counterparts.

This is because righties rarely have to fence lefties, while lefties are constantly fencing righties. There's a clear discrepancy of experience. And if a lefty fences a lefty, they'll both feel that they're up against an inverted opponent, so the disadvantage cancels out.

Left-handed people make up about ten percent of the population. Left-handed fencers make up about half of all high level competitors. The inequality is clear as day.

So, should fencing tournaments be divided by dominant hand? As a right-handed fencer, I say no. Sure, it bugs me that I rarely win against a left-handed opponent, but that's just how it goes. Any reasonable person does not begin an endeavor if they can't accept each outcome. And frankly, any outcome in sports should ideally be just doing your best and having fun.

Should fencing be divided by other physical and neurological traits? There are certainly others that make a difference. I've won matches thanks solely due to my height. I've lost plenty of matches due to my slow reflexes. I've lost a handful of matches due to not being very strong.

Some of the traits relevant to fencing have more of an impact than others. Some are correlated with different aspects of biological sex, though there isn't a strict causal relationship. Ultimately no physical trait is as relevant to the outcome of a match as hand dominance is, and while we can have our own opinions on the fairness of a cross-dominant matchup, the fact of the matter is it would be ridiculous to recategorize fencing by any of these traits--including sex--without first taking into consideration the discrepancy between right- and left-handed fencers.

*I call hand dominance a binary, but this is false. Just as sex and gender cannot be conceptualized realistically in binary terms, we should acknowledge that some people are ambidextrous or do not have exactly one right and one left hand.

[chic-a-gigot]

L'Art et la mode, no. 10, vol. 6, 7 février 1885, Paris. Cirque d’Été: les escrimeuses viennoises, dessin de Mars. Bibliothèque nationale de France

[agnesdelmotte]