Ideals
When I first became aware of the Inspirational Equality movement, and the petition to allow same gender couples into crown tournaments, I’ll admit that I thought “But then there might not be a Queen. I like there being a queen.” The fairy tales I grew up with always had a king and a queen. In most of those tales the king and queen were wise and kind and just (occasional evil queens notwithstanding) Naturally, I want these qualities in my ideal ruling pair. Naturally.
But “my ideal” are the operative words here. While we are defining my ideal, let’s be totally honest.
I’d really like it best if they were Western European. It’s nothing personal, just that Eastern cultures don’t personally call to me. A king and a queen who are of these “other” cultures just wouldn’t get the lead roles in my play. Don’t get me wrong - some of my best friends are Mongols or Middle Eastern or whatever. But I just, you know - want to see myself in them as they sit on their thrones, and, well, I’m more into Western Europe. But you know, it’s only for a few months, and I can see that other cultures ARE the romantic ideal for other people, so I’ll go with it and participate and maybe learn a thing or two. I’m good like that.
What else do I want? I want them to be late period. The later the better. Ok, that’s not true - the 1630s are decidedly out of scope for MY game. I want them to be full, high Elizabethans. Or I suppose Spanish would be ok, or maybe French, but definitely after 1575 and before 1603 I want them to never be seen without corsets, ruffs, codpieces and naturally, hats. Did I mention that I make hats? Well I do.
They should have enough money to be able to be at lots of events, impeccably kitted out the whole time. They should probably have no children, because it would stress me out to think of how neglected the kids would be for their parents to be at all the events I want them to attend, and during multi hour courts. They should both have jobs that let them have time off for the wars I want to go to. I don’t care about the minor wars -just Pennsic and the one near where I happen to live. They should be beautiful. And thin. Heavier figures are hard to mold properly into the appropriate 1575 silhouette, so they’d best be thin, or at most Medium sized. They should have no disabilities that get in the way for me visually, either. Essentially, they should represent the way I specifically like to play the game - to a super-romanticized extreme. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
Yes, it absolutely is. It is utterly and completely unreasonable. I sincerely hope that my wish list genuinely pissed everyone off at some point, because it really should have. One of the things I adore most about this game is that you do not need to be Barbie to be the queen. I’m proud of the fact that hard work or artistic mastery can earn someone high honors in this club, even if they are disabled, or unemployed, or ugly. The SCA represents a shiny sliver of fairness that we have carefully crafted in a world that is simply - not. I love that we are inclusive and supportive of cultural and personal differences.
But tough luck if you’re gay. Nope - forget it. I mean, I don’t mind if you are gay, but you can’t expect to get the lead roles in the play -at least not with the one you love. I’m not limiting you - you can fight in crown, but you have to play to my heterosexual fairy tale, because mine is obviously more important than yours. Nope - I’ll calmly settle for a hundred other things that are not my ideal: I’ll go to haflas, eat curried cabbage, make Viking clothing, sing Sephardic songs, call women “Sir”, be nice to pirates (Totally out of period). I’ll tolerate the crappy actions of crowns with vengeful agendas, and I may even write poetry admiring the physically unattractive people on the throne, but your romantic ideal just isn’t as important as mine. You understand, don’t you?
I don’t. It’s time for change.
Eleanor Fairchild, OL
http://www.change.org/petitions/allow-same-sex-couples-in-sca-crown-tourneys