Your Female Fighting Character (FightWrite™)
This month, trained fighter and author Carla Hoch discusses the misconceptions behind female fighting characters, why it’s less about gender and more about size, and more.
Your female character gets into a physical altercation. How will she respond? Will she punch, will she run, will she shrink? The answer isn’t as simple as the question, and it’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all. While volumes could be written on this subject, we are just going to do a rough fly over, so buckle up and keep your seats in the upright position. In this post with FightWrite™ on the WD blog, we will look at your female fighting character.
My Perspectives
I speak on this subject from two perspectives. First, I have researched female fighting extensively. My Writer’s Digest book, Fight Write, has a chapter that addresses the subject from a biological, psychological, and sociological perspective. The editors at WD vetted all of my research sources for legitimacy. I also recorded firsthand interviews from fighting women including a world-champion kickboxer, a professional body guard, and a Muay Thai fighter, all of whom read and approved of what appeared in the book.
Secondly, just as important as my research is my firsthand experience. I have extensive fight training in a variety of disciplines. I have competed, currently coach, and have trained consistently no less than three days a week for 15 years. Not once over those years have I not trained with both men and women of every size.
What We Mean by Female Fighting Character
Now that we have all that out of the way, I want to revisit the title. I purposely worded it as I did to include two types of fighting characters. One is a female character who is a trained fighter. The other is an untrained female who gets into a fight. The responses between the two can be deeply different.
A Female Who is a Trained Fighter
Male and female fighters are not trained differently. There are no “boy moves” and “girl moves.” The strategies of a male fighter and female fighter might be different, but that is not related to their gender. It is related to their size. There are techniques that favor different sizes and weights and men and women utilize them in the same ways. In other words, tall fighters, regardless of gender, might utilize their reach, heavy fighters their power, and smaller fighters their speed. The build of their opponent can guide their strategy as well. Heck, even being left-handed as opposed to right can impact how a fighter moves. But gender? No.
Fighting a Non-Fighter Female
The fighting style of females who are not trained is deeply influenced by their culture and community. A woman from a culture that looks down upon physical confrontation among women is less likely to get into a physical altercation. Does that mean your Amish lady won’t sucker punch another character? No, it doesn’t. It does mean that you will need to explain why she defied her community as well as its response to her forbidden behavior.
When it comes to the influence of a community, access to resources has the greatest impact. By resources I mean quality education, healthcare, jobs, safe housing, and wealth as a whole. Don’t confuse community with demographic. Demographic is a household income. Community is everyone around you.
Women from high resource communities are not as likely to get into physical altercations. It is considered “divisive to the tribe” and not feminine. Jump over to a community with low resources and the opposite is true. Women from these communities will absolutely get into a fight and it can be viewed as a credit to her. She will demonstrate that she is a “tribe unto herself” which, in such a community, is valued and seen as feminine.
The Social Media Impact
It is not easy to find statistics on the incidents of violence as it relates to social media. Yes, we see more bullying in schools. Social media allows more opportunity for it. Those statistics are clear. But has social media impacted violence among women?
While we can make assumptions, without the numbers, I cannot say anything for certain except this: More than ever, the world is a stage and we are but players in it. I can see how the possibility of her behavior being posted for the world to see would impact any female character from any culture or community. I can see how social media would pressure any character to adhere to a standard as well as deviate from it. That is good news for writers because it means we can use social media to guide our characters responses in a number of ways and it still make sense.
How Will an Untrained Woman Fight?
If your untrained female character does get into a physical scrap, the why behind the fight will dictate the stakes of the fight. The stakes will dictate her speed, intensity, and style. Will a calm, suburban, stay-at-home mom get into a knife fight at her child’s soccer game? It depends on the stakes of the fight. You knocked over her latte? Probably won’t see a shiv, but threaten the baby beside her and you might. Will she handle the knife efficiently like a trained knife fighter? No, nor will she throw an educated punch or correctly execute a wrestling takedown. That is not to say that the punch she throws or the lunge she makes won’t prove successful.
What will she do with her hands? From my experience, women pull on (and tear off) clothing, slap, scratch, and grab earrings and hair. Do they also punch and kick? Sure, but if their fingernails are long, making a fist is difficult. If they are wearing shoes that aren’t flat soled, kicking might be harder.
Hair seems to be a an especially prime target for women. Men also grab hair but not as often as men tend to have shorter hair. The hair grab, for either sex, is understandable. Hair allows for a solid grip that controls the head. For women in particular, having hair pulled on and/or pulled out can also have a demeaning quality. That adds a whole other layer to the fight.
Again, this is a broad flyover of a deeply complex subject. No writing, regardless of length, can fully detail how women fight because no two are exactly alike. That said, there are a few things that are completely factual and across the board. All females who train combat sports are trained in the same techniques of men. Females who are not taught to fight in a gym will be taught what is appropriate by the world around them.
Until the next round with FightWrite™ on the WD blog, get blood on your pages.
Carla Hoch is the award-winning blogger of FightWrite® and author of the Writer’s Digest book Fight Write: How to Write Believable Fight Scenes. She is a WDU instructor who regularly teaches on the craft of writing fight scenes, action, and violence as well as the mechanics of fighting for writers. Carla is a world champion jiujitsu player and has experience in almost a dozen fighting styles. She lives and trains outside Houston, Texas.
