Naman, look up Amazon ;-)

"What's the matter, God of War, you afraid of a girl?"
     Xena, Warrior Princess

losing a breast doesn't sound like such a good deal though.

For all you Lord of the Rings fans, let us not forget Eowyn. (right, Elanorgold? I KNOW you will check out on this thread by and bye.)

The problem is that the original meaning of warlord was a leader who ruled through military might. For instance, the various regional leaders who cropped in parts of China during the chaos between the end of the empire and the reunification of the country under Mao are often called "warlords". Even Chiang Kai-Shek, the Nationalist leader who later founded modern Taiwan, is sometimes lumped in under this appellation. Therefore, the reason that there is no "warlady" in English is that female leaders of this sort are a lot rarer than male ones.

Some thoughts on possible examples of warladies:

Elizabeth 1 has been spun this way at times, as has Catherine the Great, but neither of them gained power through military might but rather commanded it after inheriting power.

Joan of Arc could fit, I suppose.

Legendary Chinese warrior maiden Hua Mulan, who inspired the Disney film Mulan, is a fit.

The Amazons' queen would certainly fit the bill on the mythology side, as would warrior goddesses like the Greek Athena/Roman Minerva.

Xena and some other female characters in fiction would work as well.Danys in A Song of Ice and Fire? Haven't read far enough to be sure but some things I've read suggest that she ends up fitting the bill. Apparently Snow White in Snow White and the Huntsman (new film due out later this year) since I've seen stills of Kristen Stewart wearing armour in the film and comments in articles about her Snow being a warrior.

Not so much Eowyn, I think. She wasn't a leader in her male guise, IIRC from the book, just a soldier or maybe an officer. Warrior maiden for sure, but not sure she is the female equivalent of a warlord as "warlady" would imply.

Mendalla

Eowyn is a special one to me. She is a lady who wants to stand up for herself and fight for her people, doesn't want to be relegated to the chores of a woman, looking after the children, sick, and elderly. I understand her desire to be out there doing something. "Those without swords can still die by them". But man, if she were here in our world, I would not want her to go join the army and get raped and killed. I'd side with Eomer and Theodin. I'd direct her into sword classes and martial arts, but safely out of the way of those testosterone a-holes who join the army to proove their manhood to other jerks, and kill people, and who disrespect women. There are other ways to defend those you love. However I still support what she did in LOTR.

ANd I support Joan of Arc too, though I see it as that she has some serious psychological stuff goiing on inside that drove her to do what she did, as well as a natural fighter instinct.

As for Xena, she is also a big inspration to me, but she also lives in a different world, and a fictional world, where everything works out the way the writters want it to. Yeah I drew strength from her when I was in labour, and I admire her in many ways for her strengths and her weaknesses, and I would trust her to protect me, but.. I don't know what but, but the following...

I just listened to a presentation on the radio about women in combat, co-incidentlay enough, and she said 1 in 3 women in the military experience sexual harassment, assult or rape. ANd almost every woman the reporter/author interviewed had experienced gender based harrassment in Iraq: stripping with the eyes, derogatory comments, put downs, and/or physical assult. They all know how women are classified by men in the army, as either a whore, a bitch or a dyke.

To be fair, not all male soldiers are like this, but this is the experience women tend to have in the army, which is more than twice the amount of sexual harassment they receive in civilian life over an entire lifetime, as we would expect from men who want to join the army.

I watched this clip last night, where a female soldier is undergoing training where something that stings is sprayed into her eyes. Notice the use of swearing as a motivator, and how she fights the urge to break down and cry, and how the men are going easy on her as compared to how they would do with a man. I think they would like to protect her from the suffering, and so they should.

I think women have our own battles to fight and that these are different from those of men and putting men and women together and expecting them to perform the same isn't right.

However, Xena and Eowyn continue to be inspirations to me.

SHe gives it her all.

SHe is strong, confident and capeable.

These are women who have not lost touch with being a woman, and don't seek to shed their femininity, they have found female strength.

Ellen Ripley in the Alien series, at the least the first two? In particular, her role as warrior-mother in the second one (Aliens). I found that the storyline in the third one weakened her somewhat and ended up turning her into more of a sacrificial Christ figure and I took a pass on the last one.

Mendalla

Now here's what I was reading last night:

...the Greek goddess Artemis, known as "the mistress of animals" a huntress, and the patron of untamed nature, may also be a paleolithis figure.

Hunting was an exclusively male activity, and yet one of the most powerful hunters in the paleolithic era was female. The earliest of the small figurines depicting a pregnant woman, which have been found throughout Africa, Europe and the Middle East, date from this period. Artemis is simply one embodiment of the Greek goddess, a fearsome deity who was not only the mistress of animals,  but the source of life. Artemis herself is notorious in exacting sacrifice and bloodshed, if the rituals of the hunt are violated. Ths formiddable goddess also survived the paleolithic era. At the town of Catal Huyuk in Turkey, which dates from the 7th or 6th millenium, for example, archaeologists have unearthed large stone reliefs of the goddess in the act of giving birth. She is sometimes flanked by animals, bulls' horns or the skulls of boars - relics of a successful hunt, and also symbols of the male.

Why should a goddess have become so dominant in an aggressively male society? This may be due to an unconcious resentment of the female. The goddess of Catal Huyuk gives birth eternaly, but her partner the bull, must die. Huters risked their lives to support their women and children.  The guilt and anxiety induced by hunting, combined with frustration  resulting from ritual celibacy, could have been projected  onto the image of a powerful woman, who demands endless bloodshed.  The hunters could see that women were the source of new life; it was they - not the expendable males - who ensured the continuity of the tribe. The female thus became and awe-inspiring icon of life itself - a life that required the ceaseless sacrifice of men and animals.

~Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth

And that's what we come from. Hunting turned into war.

Here's a Greek Artemis:

and a modern one:

Here's my vote

(i first heard aboot her while reading Alan Moore's fine historical fiction work "In Hell"; he has LOTS of annotations -- he is very anal/detailed aboot doing research)

And some women don't have a choice at all ;3

I haven't seen or read the Alien series. I saw a clip too young and it totally freaked me out.

Xena gets sacrificed as a christ figure in her show, but it didn't lessen my appreciation of her. Apparantly she is sacrificed twice, the first time she is resurrected (I liked that one, it made her really human and taught her much) but I still haven't seen the final episode where she dies for good. I didn't want to see that. Sort of like when the Sheriff finally kills Robin Hood, totally tragic, I couldn't handle that.

Alien and Aliens are amazing movies but definitely not for the squeamish. The first is one of the best horror movies ever, the second is one of the rare examples of Hollywood doing military S-F well (and is one of James Cameron's best movies, well ahead of Titanic and possibly even Avatar). The problem with Alien3 (which was David Fincher's first feature film) isn't making her a sacrificial Christ figure so much as the way they handled it. After achieving a near perfect blend of mother and badass hero in Aliens, Ripley was essentially left rather helpless and resigned in Alien3 (not to mention they arbitrarily killed off the daughter figure, eliminating an important part of the character before the main plot even got started). Sigourney Weaver (who played Ripley in all four movies) actually does a good job with what she's given, but the storyline and script don't handle it well.

Prometheus, Ridley Scott's new s-f thriller coming out this summer, is supposed to be a thematic (and possibly literal) prequel to the original (which was his second feature film and the one that really launched him into the big leagues).

And Inanna, thanks for bringing up Boudicca. Completely forgot about her.

Mendalla

EDIT:

Bootnote: if we're including Ellen Ripley as a warlady, then her spiritual sister, Sarah Connor of the Terminator series, needs to be in here as well.

OK, now that's a whole hour long program Inanna, I've begun loading it but it might take all day.

Boudicca is another story. She first was married to a high ranking Celtic man (so I recall) who was cow towing to the Roman officials and all was going ok. He was given a position of status, respectable employ, and a nice house so long as he agreed to the rules. But when he died, his wife Boudicca was not treated well. She fought for her rights and status but it was denied her. There was sexual assult of herself and her daughters though I'm not sure at which point in the story. Anyway, she lost it, grew extreemly vengeful and went around murdering and terrorizing any Romans and Roman sympathizers (You can test my knowledge after watching the movie I bet) She razed Camulodunum (Colchester) in a major battle success which gave hope to the Celts. But her seiges ended in loss for her, and rather than be taken and horrifically assulted and killed by the Romans, she had her daughters drink poison, and she too took her own life. There's a fabulous Masterpiece Theater film about her, and I have recently been  reading a little about her.

Elizabeth I is another person of inspiration to me, and I would like to know more about her real life, read a biography maybe (preferably listen to an audiobook biography). I've watched several films about her. SHe was a woman thrust into a very difficult situation who survived and succeeded and brought prosperity and peace to her country, and upon who's reign our protestantism was secured. Just think, if Mary had lived, or Mary of Scots come to the throne, things could be very different for us now. She was a hero and she made personal sacrifices for it. "Married to England." How much of it was her though, I would like to better understand. Surely she was a very smart and strategic women. She used her womanhood and people's needs both for a leader and a spiritual figure to excellent end.

Most of what is said hear ,are storys and myth, in real life . A women would in fact, be  fighting  a man twice her strength ,and with as much or more knowledge, in how to kill her. The man fighting on her side would try an save her . and probable die. I was in the army when they where just starting to bring women in to battel.  We lived very close in the field. I don't know how they were, going to work that. Most in my regiment  did not like the idea.

Lisbeth Salander (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) kicks ass.

Isabella l  of Castile was a strong queen who rode out with her men on occasion. 

A rebellion broke out in Segovia and Isabella rode out to suppress it, as her husband was off fighting at the time. Going against the better judgment of her male advisors, Isabella rode by herself into the city to negotiate with the rebels. She was successful and the rebellion was quickly brought to an end. (Wiki)

History is full of warrior women but  their stories have been hidden from view often in myths and legends ...

*****************

The Trung Sisters

In Vietnam women have always been in the forefront in resisting foreign domination. Two of the most popular heroines are the Trung sisters who led the first national uprising against the Chinese, who had conquered them, in the year 40 A.D. The Vietnamese had been suffering under the harsh rule of a Chinese governor called To Dinh. Some feel that if the sisters had not resisted the Chinese when they did, there would be no Vietnamese nation today.

The sisters were daughters of a powerful lord. Trung Trac was the elder; Trung Nhi, her constant companion, the younger. They lived in a time when Vietnamese women enjoyed freedoms forbidden them in later centuries. For example, women could inherit property through their mother's line and become political leaders, judges, traders, and warriors.

[....]

The Trungs gathered an army of 80,000 people to help drive the Chinese from their lands. From among those who came forward to fight the Chinese, the Trung sisters chose thirty-six women, including their mother. They trained them to be generals. Many names of leaders of the uprising recorded in temples dedicated to Trung Trac are women. These women led a people's army of 80,000 which drove the Chinese out of Viet Nam in 40 A.D. The Trung sisters, of whom Nhi proved to be the better warrior, liberated six-five fortresses.

[...]

Over time the Trungs became the stuff of legends and poems and a source of pride for women who lived more restricted lives. Today, stories, poems,plays, postage stamps, posters and monuments still glorify the heroism of the Trung sisters.

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[click title above for more]

That's good about Isabella.

I agree with you Airclean. Thanks for your insight.

Thanks for that about the Trung sisters LB. Hadn't heard of them before. Good for them. Sometimes we women have to take the lead.

Thanks for the video Inanna. We enjoyed that. I thought while watching that those Celtic women did deserve to join in the uprising against the Romans and fight for their tribe, way of life, freedom and homeland. They were desperate. Sadly Boudicca led them to a planned battle against Rome, and this was a mistake. Surprise was their only upper hand on the Romans, and without that they all died, and as we know, there are no Celts in England today, they only survived in Wales, Scotland and Cornwall.

March 7, 2013. Today in Religion and Faith, I started an new thread called No Girls Allowed and I am thinking that I might as well bring this Warladies thread for the sake of comparason.