marycatelli posted a few thoughts and links on the warrior woman in fantasy, including a blog entry Against Tiny Kung Fu Women and a response by Judith Berman in Black Gate.

Given what I'm writing these days, I found these articles interesting. Berman makes a good point that your believable woman warrior will probably look more like Laila Ali than Buffy (though Buffy had magic backing her up). She's apparently spent a fair amount of time debating "whether women really could go up against men in combat and win before the invention of that great equalizer, the gun. [Her] position is yes, provisionally."

The Tiny Kung Fu Woman post also focuses on the muscle mass necessary to win a fight, and states that "every competent fighter in the world has muscular limbs."

ETA: I misattributed a quote. It's Braak (Tiny Kung Fu Women) who said, "I am, in fact, 100% in favor of more women warriors. I’m just opposed to the implausibility of tiny, skinny women being put into the role of a woman warrior without consideration for the practical demands of such a role." My apologies to Berman and Braak both. I've edited the opening paragraphs to fix this mistake.

First, the disclaimer: I'm no expert. I earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do as a teenager, but I'm 20 years out of practice. I've taken a few other martial arts classes over the years, but not as seriously. And my first-hand experience as a warrior is pretty much limited to rolling d20s.

Muscle can be important. So is size. All things being equal, a big strong guy is probably going to have the advantage over the little, not-so-strong guy. (I say this with a lifetime of experience being the little guy.) On the other hand, the Aikido instructor I had back in undergrad liked to demonstrate techniques on the football players. The instructor was fairly small, probably in his 60s or so, with a bit of a belly. He'd pin guys twice his size and hold them flat with one hand on the wrist and pressure from the pinky of his other hand applied to the back of the elbow. As much as muscle and size can help, I'd still put experience and training over bulk any day.

When I write Talia's character, she has magic giving her speed and coordination, but she also knows where to hit and how to fight. There are places on the body where all the muscle in the world won't protect you. Throat, eyes, ears, groin, and joints, to name a few. The female fighter might have a weaker strike, but a hit in the right spot doesn't need that much force. Anyone who's roughhoused with a little kid and had them land a lucky blow knows how much damage a tiny opponent can do.

The style of fighting is important too. Wrestling will give more importance to strength and mass. Hand those same two combatants rapiers, and suddenly speed and control are more important, and size means greater reach but also a larger target area.

In the end, when you're writing a warrior woman character, not everyone is going to buy it. From the comments at Black Gate, "I can confidently state that even expert female fighters have absolutely no chance against half-trained male fighters." Fair enough. There are plenty of Conan novels for him to go read. But for the rest of the readers, I think one of the most important things to take from the discussion isn't that "Good fighters must be this strong and this big," but that the writer needs to figure out how the character fights, and think it through. In book two, Talia gets into a struggle with a male prince, trying to shove him off of the deck. When he resists, she doesn't try to overpower him. Nor would readers believe it if she did. Instead, she sidesteps, allowing him to overbalance while pushing him in the direction he was already going.

Like everything else, you have to think it through. The sword-wielding, armor-wearing mercenary will build up muscle, male or female. The assassin who relies on stealth, speed, and a knife in the back might not do well in a face-to-face brawl ... but of course she also knows better than to let herself be drawn into one. Part of winning the fight is controlling how it will be fought.

And very few practicing fighters are going to look like an anorexic Hollywood supermodel, regardless of their fighting style.

What do you think? What makes you believe a woman fighter can kill you as easily as look at you, and when do you lose your suspension of disbelief? For those of you who've read Stepsister, I'd also be curious to know whether you found Talia a believable fighter.