Tip: Women Are Not Weaker Than Men howtofightwrite: Divorce yourself from this idea right now,

author. While I'm sure it is the narrat ive you've been presented with your entire life, I'm here to tell you that it isn't tr ue. Women do find building up muscles in the upper body more difficult than men, but since power does not come from the arms, it's actually a superfluous distinct ion. Women build up muscles in the lower body and in the core muscles (abdominal ) very rapidly. Skill in combat is not a matter of biology, but in training and dedication. Reme mber, if your female character fights, she's neither unique nor special. In my exp erience as a martial artist and a martial arts instructor, there are on average per class 2 girls to every 10 boys, with the female number either remaining cons tant or doubling as the class goes up in age. While there are fewer female comba tants around than male, it's not hard to find 20 women to every 100 men. Extrapola te that out and think about it, women who fight are not as rare as you might hav e previously imagined. Here are a few things to consider: 1) Power comes from the hips. I will harp on this until the end of time until everyone shakes the myth of punc h strength being decided by arm muscle strength out of their heads. The strength of the strike comes from the pivot of the hips and guess what? Women have wider hips than men, thus a greater opportunity to generate more power and hit their opponents harder. Combine this advantage with a low-center of gravity and the ab ility to push that center even lower and you have a fighter capable, not just i n power, but able to topple much larger opponents. 2) Women have a lower center of gravity. This is the advantage of the short fighter, it's the same for short men and short women, a tall woman fighting a shorter woman will encounter the same resistance as a tall man fighting a short one. I list this as a female advantage because mo st women will always find themselves facing larger opponents. So, it's important f or an author to keep in mind. So, how does this work? A center of gravity is the height difference from the gr ound to your core, around the belly button. The shorter the fighter, the lower t heir center of gravity, the lower the center of gravity the closer they are to t he earth, the closer they are to the earth the better their ability to generate a stable base and the harder they are to knock over. A fighter who knows where t o put their feet and weight to make use of their center is a hard one to take to the ground. This is one way for women to overcome the height and weight disadva ntage. 3) Women are naturally more resistant to pain and fatigue than men, have a great er potential for stamina, and can fight harder for longer. It's important to note: it's not just that men cannot biologically carry a child to term and survive the birth, but if they did with their current make-up, they wou ld die. So, you may call it the miracle of childbirth, but a woman's body is gifte d with a much greater level of resilience than their male counterparts. While th ese abilities must be honed and improved through training, the natural talent is already present in every woman's body. 4) The only combatants who ever actively terrified me were women.

I've met a great many master martial artists from a great many different styles, a ll of whom I deeply respect, and can trust in their ability to utterly annihilat e me. But the female black belt sparring division, my first thought on encounter ing those women as a teenager was: I want to spar with the boys. Women live in a very different world than men do, they live in a world that is c omprised of dangers even in places that are supposed to be safe. A woman cannot walk down a street alone, never mind if it's at night, without wondering if an att ack will happen. Rape and other acts of violence are very real, every day threat s, and women live with the knowledge that the places they have been told to go t o for protection will disregard them, laugh at them, and judge them on their wor th for allowing these acts to happen to them. Every woman, even the ones like me w ho began at a young age, will eventually be faced with the realization that they may have to use what they know against another person one day. This is not fant asy assessment full of wishful thinking, but a cold reality. What if one day I h ave to hurt someone else? What if one day I have to kill them? The women who pra ctice and prepare through forms of combat do so with that in mind, with the know ledge that they are the underdogs and that one day, they may have to use that tr aining to fight for their lives. The ferocity with which they beat on each other in sparring matches is a reflect ion of that. Remember, these are women who have shaken off the socially ingraine d idea of `I can't hurt anyone and moved on to I will break you if you hurt me'. The y follow that up with: you will never walk right again. Unless your character comes from a very different society, this attitude will be part of who they are. Women who are trained and dedicated have the capacity to be terrifying, especially in a patriarchal society. Why? It's not the behavior tha t most men expect.