In praise of male chauvinism
For all the bad things that are being said about male chauvinism, shielding European woman from perpetuating the barbarity of war seems to be more than sufficient compensation. It is often said that there is nothing particularly chivalrous about it. A warrior needs physical strength; men have more strength. True, the Amazons are rare. Still, women can serve other roles, and I do not mean nursing the wounded. To understand what this role could be, one has to look no further than our own North American Indians:
...A Comanche raiding party wouldn't leave anyone alive if it could help it. The deaths were usually slow and painful. If they brought some of the unmarried Comanche women along on the raid, as was often the case, they let the women do the torturing.
..."women took peculiar delight in torturing adult male prisoners, who are surrendered to their amusement for three days succeeding their arrival in the village"... The male captive was tied spreads-eagle to stakes nailed into ground. Some women announced to the others to "come to dance." The women untied the victim and forced him to take hold of a staff adorned with the scalps of the tribe. Then the victim was assailed with clubs, thongs, knives, lances, and firebrands. (G Betty, "Comanche Society, Before the reseravtion.")
...the normal practice was to bring male prisoners back for the pleasure of the women. When this was impractical, they were killed on the trail. The tormentors got the same psychic satisfaction from breaking a victim's spirit while they destroyed his nerves and body as they derived from mutilating the dead.
...the Nermernuh warriors staked out their victims, and began applying fire to each captive's hands and feet until the nerves had been destroyed in each extremity. Then, they amputated the ruined extremities and began the fire torture again against the sensitive, bleeding flesh. All of the victims were scalped alive, so that they would know the full extent of their degradation. Finally, tiring of the business, the Nermernuh tore out the Tonkawas' tongues to silence their cries, and heaped the writhing victims' scrota and bellies with blazing coals. The Nermernuh then went to sleep around the torture fire.
...Even worse fates could befall warriors brought back alive to Nermernuh encampments. Here, especially once the victim's screams established that his [magic] medicine was broken, the work was left to the women. Most observers reported that the women were far more patient and vicious tormentors than the males. The females destroyed the captive by the most drawn-out and hideous means they could devise. They cut off his fingers and peeled his eyes; they stretched his tongue and charred his soles, and they invariably devoted fiendish attention to his penis and testicles. The torture went on for hours, even days, so long as the body survived.
...Burnet held the Comanche women responsible for "the largest portion of the nation's barbarity." He went on to state flatly that they were "infinitely more cruel and ferocious than the men." (T. R. Fehrenbach's, "Comanche: The Destruction of a People.")
Maybe it is not such a bad thing that WE are male chauvinist pigs?
...A Comanche raiding party wouldn't leave anyone alive if it could help it. The deaths were usually slow and painful. If they brought some of the unmarried Comanche women along on the raid, as was often the case, they let the women do the torturing.
..."women took peculiar delight in torturing adult male prisoners, who are surrendered to their amusement for three days succeeding their arrival in the village"... The male captive was tied spreads-eagle to stakes nailed into ground. Some women announced to the others to "come to dance." The women untied the victim and forced him to take hold of a staff adorned with the scalps of the tribe. Then the victim was assailed with clubs, thongs, knives, lances, and firebrands. (G Betty, "Comanche Society, Before the reseravtion.")
...the normal practice was to bring male prisoners back for the pleasure of the women. When this was impractical, they were killed on the trail. The tormentors got the same psychic satisfaction from breaking a victim's spirit while they destroyed his nerves and body as they derived from mutilating the dead.
...the Nermernuh warriors staked out their victims, and began applying fire to each captive's hands and feet until the nerves had been destroyed in each extremity. Then, they amputated the ruined extremities and began the fire torture again against the sensitive, bleeding flesh. All of the victims were scalped alive, so that they would know the full extent of their degradation. Finally, tiring of the business, the Nermernuh tore out the Tonkawas' tongues to silence their cries, and heaped the writhing victims' scrota and bellies with blazing coals. The Nermernuh then went to sleep around the torture fire.
...Even worse fates could befall warriors brought back alive to Nermernuh encampments. Here, especially once the victim's screams established that his [magic] medicine was broken, the work was left to the women. Most observers reported that the women were far more patient and vicious tormentors than the males. The females destroyed the captive by the most drawn-out and hideous means they could devise. They cut off his fingers and peeled his eyes; they stretched his tongue and charred his soles, and they invariably devoted fiendish attention to his penis and testicles. The torture went on for hours, even days, so long as the body survived.
...Burnet held the Comanche women responsible for "the largest portion of the nation's barbarity." He went on to state flatly that they were "infinitely more cruel and ferocious than the men." (T. R. Fehrenbach's, "Comanche: The Destruction of a People.")
Maybe it is not such a bad thing that WE are male chauvinist pigs?