Why Warrior Women Exists
Reframing & Rebranding
Warrior Women has officially launched into the world. I am humbled, excited, terrified, mystified—all the things. While I am so incredibly passionate about seeing women—both individually and corporately—step into a warrior mentally (more on that later), I am not so passionate about marketing, branding, tooting my own horn, asking for help worrying about what people want/if they like me getting strategies together growing this organization putting on events . . . Good grief.
See what I mean? Stresses me out. But to do one you need to do the other, or at least partly, so here I am.
Doing. This. Thing. Keeping this train on the tracks.
What I do love is writing. I have a love affair with words. It is my art of choice. So a big part of Warrior Women is going to—hopefully, prayer hands, fingers crossed, please Jesus—be writing. See, I love it, but it’s hard for me to do.
What I am sharing here today, has been simmering probably for years now. I am so so excited to share it, but it’s been challenging to get this out of my heart and into the world in a way that that not only make sense, but also captures my sentiment behind it.
It’s important for the organization of Warrior Women that I explain the name and the spirit behind it.
So here we go.
The story of my passion for women goes wayyyyy back. Hopefully I can share bits and pieces over time in case you don’t know, but for now I am going to start at this key moment and let it emanate from there.
It was January 2020, and I was sitting in carpool when a WBUR Here and Now airing came on my local NPR. This piece was life-changing for me, but I didn’t really know why yet. All I knew is that it captured something deep, deep inside me and breathed it to life.
It was a piece about the archeological finding of the remains of Scythian women. [You can listen to that airing here.] Here is the gist:
Earlier this month in Russia, archaeologists found the gravesites of four female warrior women — buried together along with their weapons. [Research scholar Adrienne] Mayor says it's the first time archaeologists have discovered remains of warrior women within a range of ages, from about 45 to 50 years old down to about 12 years old.
“These four women were companions in warfare, probably died in a skirmish and were buried together,” she says.
These Scythian warriors, and other nomadic women like them, prove that the Greek myths of the Amazon women—think Wonder Woman—were actually real.
Female intergenerational warriors buried together because they were fighting together.
How unbelievably beautiful is that.
This story is, for me, a visual representation of a different narrative—one that is faithful metaphorically to what I feel is right and just about Womanhood.
Because for all my life I have felt caught between dueling, incomplete narratives:
One narrative, a postmodern, cultural narrative, says that women can be anything and do anything. I agree with this sentiment as a part of a fuller narrative, one that says a woman can be anything and do anything that (1) proliferates from her own authentic identity and purpose, (2) does not exploit her body or health; and (3) serves the other. These last two are the ones that seem to conflict most with the cultural narrative at large. Because, while the current amplified message says that a woman can do anything and be anything, the ethical equilibrator—weighing awareness and consideration on self and others—is often ignored. There is also the ugly underbelly of overt and covert sexual exploitation, and lingering patriarchal systems.
Another narrative, a faith narrative (I can speak specifically hear from my own faith narrative, a Protestant Christian one), says that women are “less than,” are made to serve as “help meets,” and exist only to take care of their homes and submit to their husbands. This patriarchal narrative is oppressive and abusive to women.
(I use the articles “a” above instead of “the” because other narratives exists within the cultural and faith spheres. These are the two that seem to represent the pervasive and conflicting ends of the spectrum, and neither are right and just.)
I was explaining this to a few women in early 2020—processing my frustrations out loud—when I offhandedly appropriated the story of the Scythian women to what I believed represented true womanhood, and branded this other narrative that of the Warrior Woman.
Warrior Women burrowed deep into my soul, took root, and blossomed to where we are today.
Let me share this first important truth about Warrior Women. They have always been. The narrative has always existed. Throughout all of history, women have done extraordinary things, making their mark on their communities and world by being their authentic selves. They fought the gravity of narratives that would exploit them and make them small. They have broken through concrete ceilings and brick walls. They have paved the way for the rest of us.
I want to tell their stories to undergird the concept of "girl power" with substance. As a person of faith, I want to share theological language I believe is faithful to who I believe God to be, and what I believe the Creator wants for his not-less-than creation.
This is why Warrior Women exists:
Offering an alternative narrative for women that inspires individual empowerment and social change.
You are a Warrior Woman. You know a Warrior Woman.
Thank you for being a part of this community.
