40. Real-Life Xenas: Warrior Women Across the World

Happy 2022 and welcome to another episode of History is Gay! This time, we’re picking up where we left off with Meghan Rose and S.C. Lucier in our discussion of Amazons and real-life warrior women in history! It’s not just the Greco-Roman world that marveled at fierce, strong female fighters, but all over the world! This episode, we’re visiting Benin, Africa to learn about the real-life dora milaje of Black Panther fame, the gender-bending Dahomey Amazons; badass female samurai defending their homesteads in Japan, and Viking shieldmaidens and mythical Valkyries– who may have been a third gender? Strap-in for a whirlwind worldwide tour of gender transgression and badass real-life Xenas we want to see all the movies about!

You can learn more about our guest hosts Meg and Luce, Xena: Warrior Musical, and more of their forthcoming projects at www.xenawarriormusical.com, @XenatheMusical on Twitter, and @XenaWarriorMusical on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube!  

Outline
0:00 – Introduction
4:27 – Announcements
7:51 – Follow-Up from Last Episode
12:48 – Main Topic: Warrior Women Across the World
13:33 – Word of the Week
18:54 – Amazon-Like Women in Africa: Dahomey Amazons/mino
43:22-44:13 – Content warning: Discussion of slave trade
46:22 – Amazon-Like Women in Japan: onna-bugeisha
1:06:50 – Amazon-Like Women in Scandinavia: the Vikings!
1:30:48 – Pop-Culture Tie-In
1:33:43 – How Gay were They?
1:39:07 – Closing and Where to Find us Online

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