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Another kind of Inspirational Equality
May. 25th, 2012 09:14 pmThe A&S competitions for Estrella War have been announced and they have been oh so careful to specify "pre-17th century Western Europe" in each category. Naturally, this has discouraged a young lady on the Tousando who has returned to the SCA after a hiatus of some years and recently adopted a Japanese persona. You can follow the posts so far at the link below.
http://tousando.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=research&thread=4090&page=1
(So, does this also exclude Byzantium, Eastern Europe and every Muslim not of Al Andaluz? Especially regarding the "machines" category, given where a lot of scientific knowledge was being transmitted from.)
Now, the organizers of said competitions can choose competition categories any way they like. However, the move of Estrella War off the Presidents' Day holiday weekend this year and scheduling their non-competition A&S Display on Sunday meant that anyone who had to bug out and travel on Sunday (you know, like anyone who came any kind of distance to attend the war) could not possibly participate. I don't know what their numbers were like, but I'm willing to guess they were way down. (Though those two years I spent several hours chained to a table being All Japanese In Their Arts Display weren't exactly my idea of a fun time, especially dealing graciously with an ill mannered schmuck wearing a Laurel medallion who was funny only to himself, not to mention being unable to refill my water during the display.) While it's a year off and no schedules have been posted yet, I guarantee they're going to do the same thing this year because they've always had the artisan's display on Sunday - and they're going to continue to hemorrhage participants because people have to travel on Sunday.
You all know by now how I feel about pre-emptive cornflake peeing, naysayers and you-can't-do-that-in-my-SCA.
Obviously, it's a year away, but Something Needs To Be Done. It needs to be positive, educational, inclusive and timed/placed in such a way that the people who do A&S activities at the war will see/participate in it. I need to do some thinking about this. In the meantime, I just fired off an innocent note to the hosting kingdom's A&S minister to inquire if the artisan's display is going to be on Sunday of war. If they're smart, they'll put it on a different day. If they don't, I have somemischief to manage. thinking to do.
In the meantime:
Lash liked it so much I made HIM one:
And then Yagyu wanted one.
http://tousando.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=research&thread=4090&page=1
(So, does this also exclude Byzantium, Eastern Europe and every Muslim not of Al Andaluz? Especially regarding the "machines" category, given where a lot of scientific knowledge was being transmitted from.)
Now, the organizers of said competitions can choose competition categories any way they like. However, the move of Estrella War off the Presidents' Day holiday weekend this year and scheduling their non-competition A&S Display on Sunday meant that anyone who had to bug out and travel on Sunday (you know, like anyone who came any kind of distance to attend the war) could not possibly participate. I don't know what their numbers were like, but I'm willing to guess they were way down. (Though those two years I spent several hours chained to a table being All Japanese In Their Arts Display weren't exactly my idea of a fun time, especially dealing graciously with an ill mannered schmuck wearing a Laurel medallion who was funny only to himself, not to mention being unable to refill my water during the display.) While it's a year off and no schedules have been posted yet, I guarantee they're going to do the same thing this year because they've always had the artisan's display on Sunday - and they're going to continue to hemorrhage participants because people have to travel on Sunday.
You all know by now how I feel about pre-emptive cornflake peeing, naysayers and you-can't-do-that-in-my-SCA.
Obviously, it's a year away, but Something Needs To Be Done. It needs to be positive, educational, inclusive and timed/placed in such a way that the people who do A&S activities at the war will see/participate in it. I need to do some thinking about this. In the meantime, I just fired off an innocent note to the hosting kingdom's A&S minister to inquire if the artisan's display is going to be on Sunday of war. If they're smart, they'll put it on a different day. If they don't, I have some
In the meantime:
Lash liked it so much I made HIM one:
And then Yagyu wanted one.
