liadethornegge

I was asking myself the same question. Last night at Baronial Council we learned that we are no longer to use the "Boffer" term and instead are to use "Youth Combat".

It's still kids whacking each other with padded sticks. *shrugs*

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Oh, oh, and Chirurgeon's are out and "First Aiders" are in.

At least in An Tir. :P

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First aiders? Bah. I expect that's the fallout from Pennsic perhaps? Although, not many An Tirians go all the way to Pennsic, so I may be completely off the wall there.

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Yes... only the discussion is now raging about same-sex couples on the thrones. That'll be an aspect you'll notice at events in a fairly major way.

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I think it stems from there's no warranted (so we've been told) Chirurgeonate in teh kingdom. So, by default, they are all "First Aiders."

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oldergoddess.livejournal.com

no you are correct, they seem to want to do away with Chirurgeon all together. paix (pc is what happens when the sca becomes mainstream and people begin to care what their other friends might think, bah humbug)

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Whaaa? Odd statement, if I understand the concept of warrants. I mean, you just have to have the qualifications and an endorsement from whomever is in charge of the chirurgeonate in your region, right?

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Bah humbug indeed. *hugs* to you. Get well!

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One would think. It's my opinion they keep the whole warrant process an occult practice.

All I know, is that I am First Aid/CPR/Automatic Defibrillator certified by the American Red Cross, and I will render aid when and where it is needed. (I'm not a "First Aider" in the SCA or anything like that, either).

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Sensible attitude, I say.

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Strange. Regia, in England, uses "First Aiders" as well. I wonder if there is a connection, the uses come from a common source or whether it's just pure coincidence.

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I think the SCA started being pc as soon as pc became the thing to do. I remember when the Board declared that we do should not use the term "mundane" because it might offend mundanes. I don't know about other realms, but "mundane" is still used in the Midrealm, and you never hear anyone saying not to ue it,

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frualeydis.livejournal.com

We briefly had the same-sex discussion in Gotvik, durign the formation of waht came to be Nordrike. But we soon reached teh conclusion that what would be both the most enlightened and most sensible thing to do was to decide that the couple on the throne should be one man and one woman and that we shouldn't bother with with whom they were sleeping.

/Eva

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Well, we don't get into whom they are sleeping with either as it stands now. We've had several royal pairs who were not a couple mundanely. Brendan and Anna for example are not together mundanely; Brendan has a wife, and Anna has a boyfriend.

I really have no problems with gays, and I fully support the right, in mundane life, of same sex couples to get married, have children, adopt and whatnot - but this is the SCA, the romantic version of the middle ages where men are knights in shining armour and women are ladies.

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Mundane I have no problems with, but the strange usage of muggle that popped up a while back -- Whaat?

Possibly a completely arbitrary separation of concepts on my part, it's just that it was so clearly an odd context for muggle. And I'm as used to 'mundanes' as I was accustomed to 'garb'.

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frualeydis.livejournal.com

Exactly.

/Eva

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peronel.livejournal.com

Can I just double check what you're saying?

You're saying that it would be okay for a man (of whatever sexuality) and a woman (of whatever sexuality) to be the royal pair? But not for a same sex couple, whatever their sexuality?

So you could have a gay man as King (is that the word?) and a gay woman as Queen, and that would be allowed and fine? But not two straight men, for example?

If so, then I agree with you 100%

If what you're saying is that it's not okay for a gay man to be King - even with a woman as his in role consort - because that gay man can't aspire to the knight in shining armour courting his lady ideal, then I disagree.

Mind, events on livejournal over the past few days have convinced me I really don't understand the SCA, and am not sure that I want to!

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You got it in one there. I don't care if you're gay, bi, straight, crooked or bent - but I want to see one male and one female on the thrones.

This also gets a bit more complicated - we have some people whose persona is another gender - I have no problem with them sitting the throne as their persona's gender, because, in the SCA we supposedly are our personas.

So, if I were consistantly playing a male persona, call him Leo, and I fought, I'd want to be able to become King, fighting for a lady, but not for a lord, because then we'd have two males on the thrones again.

This is all IMHO, of course.

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myladyswardrobe.livejournal.com

I've observed that any group of like minded people which is inevitably run by a committee will be affected to a greater or lesser extent by the prevailing fashionable thought processes - in this case, PC!

Kentwell is probably unique in that the only voice/opinion that is important is really the owner's. Kentwell in a sense is a benign monarchy! If the participants don't like that arrangement then they don't have to join! Oddly enough, a lot of people DO like it (despite the odd grumbles! but you can't please everyone!).

This makes Kentwell as an experience very much NOT PC and its very refreshing for all that. However, for all its non-PC view, Kentwell is very, very accepting of all kinds of people whatever their creed, colour, gender/orientation or whatever!
The only rules really are that you play your own biological sex (if you are BORN female/male you ARE female/male); you portray Christian faith as it was in the year portrayed and you dress to the high standard required for the year and status portrayed.

We have had a recent discussion about a potential Black participant who wishes to join Kentwell. The answer to the request was yep - please apply but make sure you have a backstory as to WHY you are at Kentwell and no, being a slave really isn't an option! Of course, we can help you with the backstory (which is exactly what has been happening on the list. This is not unusual at all, as we have had black and indian participants playing before now!

I really hate this idea that changing a name makes what it describes "better" or "inoffensive". If the action doesn't offend then the name shouldn't (in most cases!). And in this sort of case (portraying history) it ought to be better to use the historical terminology anyway. PC adherents ought to read Shakespeare!!!!

And why on earth "muggle"????? Oh, stupid question! I suppose Harry Potter et al are now seen in the SCA?

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While4 sexuality has no place in the royal equation, gender does. At least, that's what has always been said. the men of the realm need a male impresion to inspire them, while a a woman the same. The rules as they exist is that they have to biologically be a male and female, which I think is bogus. How many women have male impressions because they fight or hate dresses? I would love to see them condone same sex royal pairs if one piortrays a male and one a female, but I realize that is a totally radical thought. But then again, I have known some men doing female impressions that have been totally dead on. I'd really hate to see it come down to a check of genitalia before you can enter crown tournament (and drug tests as well, but that's another can of worms!).

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"The only rules really are that you play your own biological sex (if you are BORN female/male you ARE female/male)"

What about a post-operative ts? (or even pre-operative but hormone enhanced). I know several, and the idea that they would have to portray their birth gender would be a little weird, maybe a little offensive to them and, in many cases, physically inappropriate!

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myladyswardrobe.livejournal.com

It was commented that in the SCA a person who is, for arguments sake, a male, may portray a female persona and vice versa. This is not permitted in Kentwell.

To be fair, Kentwell is NOT anything like the SCA which at least states what it is in its title (creative anachronism!). Kentwell is very different in that it actually tries to recreate 16th century life as accurately as possible, based on the available historical evidence. So, to rephrase my comment a little - Cross Dressing is NOT permitted in Kentwell.

What a person does in the evening when the visitors are gone is their choice of course and no one will bat an eyelid how they dress as long as they don't frighten the horses (here I mean - we have lots of little children around!). And many participants would probably join them especially if one of the evening events are on!

And as I said initially - Kentwell is NOT PC and won't pander to it in any way shape or form.

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suelet.livejournal.com

I think the issue of the Chiurgeonate has less to do with "PC" and more about the SCA being vulnerable to litigation. By having a "warranted" first aid system, there is an implication that the SCA is taking "responsibility" for the actions of those warranted by that system.
More and more the SCA is having to deal with those kinds of problems, so we all get to suffer the consequences. It's not the SCA's fault, they're just trying to protect their membership...and sometimes that process isn't easy, convenient or "nice".

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Well, I've seen no Harry Potters so far, thank heavens, but SCAdians are to a much larger extent readers of fantasy, so the potter-verse is perhaps a larger influence on us.

I haven't heard it used here, in Sweden, or in Drachenwald at large, but it's been heard around the rest of the knowne world according to rumours.

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Well, the argument there then becomes semantic.

Gender - social construct.
Sex - physical male/female.

At which point it becomes silly. Basically, I agree with you. Some go further along the scale, others stop shorter. The final arbiter of what will happen is Corpora and the BoD, which doesn't mean the debate is futile or should stop, or that it cannot influence the former.

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myladyswardrobe.livejournal.com

Most re-enactors are probably avid readers of fantasy.

When GoF or perhaps Phoenix came out, it was right in the middle of the Kentwell event. It was amazing where people were hiding those massive weighty tomes but as soon as visitors were out of sight, the books made their appearance and then vanished just as quickly when visitors came into view. It was quite funny!

Won't happen this year as Kentwell will have finished by the time the book comes out.

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hmmm I have no problem with the above statement, how they are handling it is the problem. That being said, they can make the Chiurgeonate a first aid group and still leave them their dignity and their place in the society, my feeling is they want to do away with both. Their are many a fighter (and partaker of after fighting fun) that owes a lot to the Chiurgeonate. Nuff said.

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peronel.livejournal.com

There is one ts that I know of at Kentwell. Born female, now male. Whether he has had surgery or not I don't know, but he has a male identity in real life, and maintains that male identity at Kentwell.

What isn't allowed is a woman dressing up as a guy because she wants to play with the pointy swords.

(One exception - very occassionally little girls will be allowed to be pages, but not when they get old enough for it to be 'obvious')

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Thanks.Probably because of so many folk I know, this is a matter of considerable interest to me!

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