LEADING LADIES

When you’re looking for inspiration from history, it’s often difficult to separate the facts from the embellishments. I don’t know how much it matters – after all, what matters is what we believe, the message their stories send about the limits of individual ability to change the world, and if legends grow in the telling, doesn’t it just make the next generation of heroes aim higher?

But I was looking for facts to support the hypothesis that gender roles are not as “from time immemorial” as generally assumed. This assumption pretty global, so I thought I’d start in the East.

Ng Mui (Wu Mei)  was one of the legendary Five Elders who survived the desturction of the Shaolin temple by Quing forces in ancient China. She was an abbess, and (fairly obviously) a woman and the only woman among the 5 elders. (The Shaolin temple was Buddhist, and early Budhhism promoted far more gender equality than other religions of its time. Most subsequent gender imbalances were result of local political and cultural mores. As usual) 

Wu Mei is credited with founding or co-founding about five different martial arts styles, and it’s significant that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of surprise at her existence or her legend, which says something for the equality of Buddhist precepts, and even more about the nature of humanity and cultural thought patterns.

Yim Wing Chun’s legend says that she learned to fight in order to ward off unwanted male advances. She defeated the local lord in a fight using the ‘yin’ martial techniques of the kung fu style that bears her name – which she reputedly learned from Wu Mei. While the Yin styles of martial arts are often disparaged by the more commonly known Yang styles, they’re still very effective, and in the case of Wing Chun, pretty aggressive. (Comparison being about as valid as cucumbers versus tomatoes)

The point of bringing up these two legendary women is this: it doesn’t really matter now what parts of the legend are solid historical fact and what parts have grown in the telling, because the point is the lack of shock at their existence. They are remembered because they were remarkable and exceptional as fighters and characters, not purely because they did not follow the usual female path. History doesn’t care about gender as much as talent. Yes, the reason it remembers more men than women is because it’s harder (and thus less usual) for women to stand apart from, above the throng and do something world-changing, but it does recall those who do manage that. And remembers what they achieved rather than what chromosome they had.