I just got back from Swordsquatch 2019. I arrived with almost no gear, with the goals of teaching my class, taking classes, and meeting West Coast HEMA people. I advise people to try attending events with these goals some time, it is really a great way reconnect with the joy of HEMA.

My class at Swordsquatch was perhaps the smoothest one yet. We discussed the social language of confrontation and violence, how violence spreads in groups, and how the legal and social norms for the use of weapons shape violence. We got through Quick Draw, Bar Fight, Bar Brawl, and the Town Guard scenarios, and I have never had a group of people who were so excited to hear about, and so quickly grasped the concepts of each scenario.

Throughout the event, the staff and instructors made it clear that diversity and inclusion were core values of the event. I was deeply impressed by the care and thought that the organizers put into the event, its messaging, and its atmosphere. I reluctantly admit that as a straight male that generally feels like I can be myself in most environments, I haven’t put much active thought into these values before, and have usually been limited to passive support, but the atmosphere of Swordsquatch was so special and unique that I’ve walked away with some important lessons.

A lot of my own research has gone into the why and how of violence. My research has borne the most fruit in the area of social violence, where the legal and social norms of conduct can alter the shape of techniques much more than physical parameters of a weapon, such as size, cutting ability, etc. For example, the legal weapon length in a jurisdiction, the fashion of the time, or the methods which a group of people display dominance shapes the starting parameters of a fight critically, much more so than whether a sword is an inch longer, has a nagel, or has a specific pommel.

An important component of some types of social violence is the “performative” aspect – that one engages in social violence to perform for an audience, and to make statements about oneself and others. In many of the types of violence I examine, social violence is used to assert and perform one’s masculinity. In the Bar Fight/Brawl scenario, there is a complex masculine social language of aggression, escalation, and threat that interacts with the tactical problems of force levels, distance, and posture.

Many of the participants at Swordsquatch do not fit the mold of the types of people I study – white cisgendered straight males. Some have argued that this makes them less able to have useful insights about the violence we study. I have two arguments. First off, white cisgendered straight males of today are very different from those of the past.

Second, I would argue that women, minorities and LGBTQ persons are actually ideally situated to critically examine these types of violence. They have to consider and deal with these types of violence on a daily basis, perhaps more than middle class white cisgendered straight males of today. Harassment, sexual assault, hate crimes, and other bullshit are generally perpetrated on a complex social landscape, which, I am sad to say, they end up becoming experts at navigating.

It is a deep tragedy they have to put up with this bullshit, but I argue that it also helps them intuit the complications of violence much more easily. Someone at the diversity and inclusion panel at Swordsquatch said that there isn’t a tradeoff between diversity/inclusion and good martial arts, and I believe that it is especially true with any historic martial art.

For example, women frequently negotiate the complex language of escalation and deescalation on a daily basis, as they fear assault by much more physically intimidating men. I’ve found these skills to be extremely valuable as we parsed the social language and precursors to violence in the Bar Fight and Bar Brawl.

African Americans have unfortunately become familiar with the rules of engagement when dealing with police, overreactions and abuses of power, and the body language and complex interactions that can result in their death. These experiences are extremely valuable in the Town Guard scenario, as we deal with a citizen militia’s rules of engagement when acting as a civic authority and detaining a person.

LGBTQ people face the threat of violence and harassment as they reinterpret and express new gender norms. I saw three people fencing smallsword in high heels at Swordsquatch. While it may sound like a joke, the high heels approximated the male footwear of the period they were interested in. These experiments are much less likely to occur in a group solely comprised of, ya know, vehemently straight men.

Those are just a few examples, and there are many more. But the bottom line is that while the specific contours of violence may change over time, it is incredibly valuable to have people with a diversity of personal experiences with violence, rather than relying on video games, movies, or pure fantasy. And although for my class I examined white cisgendered straight males, it is extremely valuable to talk with people who interact with gender and, unfortunately, norms of violence, with deliberate consideration and critical thought, rather than default instinct or fantastical abstraction.

But it’s not just enough to have diversity in a training environment, it’s important to foster an environment where people feel comfortable sharing their unique perspectives on violence, which can sometimes be a very personal and vulnerable thing to do. This is one of the areas I will have to think hard about, and learn from others about the best way to actively promote a training environment that promotes diversity and inclusion – and good HEMA.

I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to teach and learn at Swordsquatch, and I look forward to being there next year!

Postscript:

Based on Konig76 comment on Reddit, I’d like to point out that I’m not encouraging direct comparisons of ethnicities or genders about who is best positioned to study HEMA generally, but rather that specific types of violence resonate with specific groups, more than others. So for certain scenarios, I really want to hear what a specific person has to say, even if it is a very personal experience. And it’s important to create an environment that in aggregate has that diversity of perspectives, and that people are okay sharing those views so we can all learn from them.