A literal battle of the sexes?

October 16, 2005 3:36 PM

I am trying to find an account of an actual historical battle between male and female "armies".

I don't think I imagined learning about this, but numerous searches have netted nothing. I don't remember what cultures were involved, but it might have been germanic peoples, norse peoples, or the scots. The account I remember had a male army that went off to war, and while they were gone something happened on the home front. Either the army was killed and the female army rose up against the enemy or the men returned to very unhappy women who rose up against them. I'm pretty sure the female army was defeated and probably slaughtered or worse.

Any help, or is this something I made up?

posted by ontic to society & culture (17 comments total)

I remember reading something about this in Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe--Volume One, I think--it had to do with the men coming back from battle, and the women stabbing them with the pins used to hold their togas on. Or something.

I can't find the book right now.
posted by interrobang at 4:42 PM on October 16, 2005

Other than "Macross"...
posted by johngoren at 4:49 PM on October 16, 2005

Never mind my answer. I found the book, and it it's just an account of a single soldier returning from a campaign around the time of early Athens and being killed for bringing the news that everyone else had died.

Not an army of men versus an army of women. Sorry.
posted by interrobang at 4:51 PM on October 16, 2005

Interrobang may be referring to the section on Spartan women who warned their husbands/soldiers to come home with their shields held high or not at all.
posted by Rothko at 4:54 PM on October 16, 2005

Not Boudicca (Boadicea), is it?

Or perhaps someone here might help. Do you have an approximate time frame?
posted by IndigoJones at 5:51 PM on October 16, 2005

You may be thinking of the mythical Amazons, the actual co-ed warrior Scythians, or perhaps Aristophanes' play Lysistrata. But my hunch is that you're remembering the classic Queen of Outer Space (Hungarian title: Kvin uf Auterr Speis) starring the incomparable, miniskirted, stiletto'd warrior princess Zsa Zsa Gabor.
posted by rob511 at 6:09 PM on October 16, 2005

You may also be recalling Camilla in the Aeneid. Although, what I wouldn't give to have a little snoo-snoo time with Penthesilea.

(See, rob511, my Wiki links work! :P )
posted by thanotopsis at 6:51 PM on October 16, 2005

You probably do mean Boudicca. The army wasn't just women, but it was led by a woman, and it was in Scotland.
posted by librarina at 7:13 PM on October 16, 2005

This site might give you the leads you need. eg. Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh, was a leader of the Dahomey Amazons under King Gezo. In 1851 she led an army of 6,000 women against the Egba fortress of Abeokuta. Because the Amazons were armed with spears, bows and swords while the Egba had European cannons only about 1,200 survived the extended battle..
posted by tellurian at 7:56 PM on October 16, 2005

johngoren: Haha, Macross...
posted by limeonaire at 2:02 AM on October 17, 2005

You probably do mean Boudicca. The army wasn't just women, but it was led by a woman, and it was in Scotland.

The link you provide places Boudicca firmly in Southern England. As far as I know there's no evidence she would have been in Scotland and certainly not that she fought there.
posted by biffa at 4:34 AM on October 17, 2005

In WWII, the Russians had all-female regiments.
Some women also fought in Russian regiments in WWI.
Here is a page on female soldiers in the 20th century. And another.
posted by biffa at 4:40 AM on October 17, 2005

How is it possible that this thread has gone on so long without anyone mentioning James Thurber?
posted by cptnrandy at 6:10 AM on October 17, 2005

The French Foreign Legion in the 19th century fought against women warriors who were the wives of the king of Dahomey
posted by Pressed Rat at 8:53 AM on October 17, 2005

While we're mentioning women battle leaders, let's not leave out Kahina.

Great Thurber mention, too - I didn't bring up that one earlier because I don't like the outcome, ha ha.
posted by Liosliath at 12:49 PM on October 17, 2005

Well thanks much for the answers so far. None of them ring a bell, so I'm thinking that this must have been some strange dream. I'm sorry for not responding sooner, but I didn't think this got posted yesterday (AskMe crashed on submit) and then I didn't get back to the computer.

I just have such a strong memory of reading about it, but it was definitely all women vs. an established male army. Maybe even the same army that had defeated the women's husbands, though I seem to remember sour grapes being involved. It's just too detailed a memory to have dreampt it!
posted by ontic at 2:44 PM on October 17, 2005

biffa (17Ker) writes "The link you provide places Boudicca firmly in Southern England. As far as I know there's no evidence she would have been in Scotland and certainly not that she fought there."

D'oh. I totally knew that, too. It's one of those things that I was told or learned or made up as a kid and then I never got it straight in my head even when I knew the correct story. Like words you read before you hear and then can never remember the correct pronunciation.
posted by librarina at 5:34 PM on October 17, 2005