Growing up, I didn’t exactly have a frame of reference for female warriors. I didn’t think less of women, exactly; I just assumed they were capable of less, or less capable at certain things, though I suppose that’s much the same thing when you get right down to it. Until one day, I watched a fishmonger’s wife first lay out four grown men in a bar-brawl, then quick-talk them into paying her damages, and—well. It was hard to maintain my old views after that, not least because it made me wonder why it took excelling at something masculine for me to be impressed by female competence.
