Good letter to the Times about "trans Vikings"

[LittleWhingingWoman]

"The fact that the woman in Birka was buried with weaponry rather than a pink My Little Pony does not mean she was transgender. It means that she was a woman belonging to a social class from which warriors were selected. Perhaps she became a warrior to avenge her murdered husband and to protect her children’s future.^
Veronica Wikman, Edinburgh"^

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8613255a-90f4-11ec-8038-2fedb801d1cc?shareToken=ad9f3342d44dc9633a5aaf726ebbd5f7

This one from a Peter McKenna of Liverpool is on point too:

Women are well and truly erased if their participation in traditionally male roles now means they are transgender.

Well said that man.

I love the ‘pink my little pony’ reference - it made me

Heaven help all of us working in what were once male-dominated professions!

My little pony

@Pollyphila

This one from a Peter McKenna of Liverpool is on point too:

Women are well and truly erased if their participation in traditionally male roles now means they are transgender.

Well said that man.

Spot on

But oh my goodness ‘pink my little pony’ 😀

Viking mythology had valkyries and the Icelandic sagas had shield maidens, in that context why would anyone think a viking warrior woman would be trans? What?

Some Anglo-Saxon graves of children had weapons as grave goods. Does that mean the children were trans-age and fought alongside the adults?

No, it does not. The most likely explanation is that the weapons are a class identifier. The children were probably from a high status family or the class from which the more or less full-time warriors (see housecarls) came.

It's not impossible that some women fought in battle in Northern Europe societies. Some undoubtedly led - see Boudicca. Those societies, particularly when still pagan, were very different from contemporaneous Mediterranean and Middle Eastern societies. But they and everyone else knew they were women.

I am a little bit in love with Veronica Wikman, Edinburgh and Peter McKenna of Liverpool.

'pink My Little Pony'

Please someone draw a picture of a Viking woman riding a pink my little pony. Birdie Rose?

Oh my giddy... I'm a female painter and decorator. I don't wanna be transgender, I wanna be a woman. < stamps feet>

Wait till they discover men in 18th century wore make up, wigs and oftentimes shoes with heels of considerable height.

I drive a van and take the bins out. should i have a double mastectomy ?

But what colour was the flag buried with them? Wouldn't that sort it out?

This makes me see red. A bunch of twatty male historians struggle.with the revelation that their warrior king was in fact a woman.

Without even trying to understand as any basic GCSE level historian would do, the differences in how women were viewed and treated in society (pre Christianity), they chuck a label that makes it all a bit easier. This chick thought she was a guy! In fact society viewed her as a male because she has a sword. Guys, it's ok now!

Doesn't the misogyny just positively whiff??? Seriously, I'd punch these men in the face if I met them.

Glad to see those comments. I was outraged the other day when the medical and veterinary schools of my alma mater tweeted that James Barrie might be a man. They obviously have it in their heads that no woman was ever tough and enterprising.

I wonder what Alice Roberts would say about this. I used to like her before I found out she was TWAW...

I see they like do claim this about dead women, I don't see them claiming all the female MMA and Boxing fighters are trans, because I guess they would just say......no we're not, we're women who like to fight.

We need a history group claiming back all our wonderful historical women. Just read the question, was Amelia Earhart trans?!

There's never been enough in schools etc to celebrate these women, they just seem like easy targets now.

Or perhaps this silliness will show just how regressive this ideology is.

Joan of Arc too. Not enough eyerolls in the world

It's just boggles my brain

I've recently had the dubious honour of being involved in a book where the author claims that Anne Lister (Gentlemen Jack) was trans.
Apart from anything else, I find it more interesting to think of her as someone who knew she was a woman and was OK to a) be gay, b) wear trousers and c) not enjoy certain kinds of sexual touching.

@DameHelena

I've recently had the dubious honour of being involved in a book where the author claims that Anne Lister (Gentlemen Jack) was trans. Apart from anything else, I find it more interesting to think of her as someone who knew she was a woman and was OK to a) be gay, b) wear trousers and c) not enjoy certain kinds of sexual touching.

Having read Lister's diaries, I think it's pretty clear that your author's perspective is profoundly homophobic.

They're not my author; I'm only tangentially involved.
And I agree.

@DameHelena

They're not my author; I'm only tangentially involved. And I agree.

Sorry, didn't mean to imply you were in any way complicit!

No, I know, just want to be ABSOLUTELY clear!