Can we talk about the Vikings for a second? Because this same fuckery applies there.
First, you’ve of course got the biological women who were buried as warriors.
One such woman was buried with two horses, heaps of weapons and, most notably, a sort of gameboard in her lap that was used to plan battle strategy. All of this indicates a Viking who commanded troops and led them into battle. Naturally, therefore, it was impossible it was a woman. Researchers were forced to test the bones four different times, each time concluding that, yes, this is a woman. There are still people who argue that there are two bodies in the graves or that, basically, they scienced wrong.
The body of another biological woman was discovered in a grave surrounded by weapons but it was automatically dismissed she was a warrior because, you know, woman. Then they looked at her skull more closesly and saw that she took a sword hack to the face and. it. might. not. have. been. what. killed. her. See a reconstruction of her face using facial recognition software.
Now let’s talk about the myth that Viking men had long hair. Every image and description we can find of Viking men from their time period shows them with short, practical haircuts. That’s not to say that no Viking man ever had long hair, but in general, hair seems to have been worn short in a number of styles - after all, sea wind is not kind to long hair, nor is horseback riding or battle; you can get blinded, tangled up or grabbed by your enemy.
So where did this myth come from? The same place as all the rest of this: bigoted historians. In the 19th century, scholars were really beginning to delve into the old Norse sagas and translate them and speculate on their meaning.
If you’re at all familiar with the Hebrew Old Testament, you’ll know the God contained therein is mostly large, angry and masculine but with moments of softness, empathy and compassion. He is even called El Shaddai which translates roughly to something like ‘one who feeds with breasts’. This is further expounded on in the Christian New Testament with God compared to a mother, a refuge, etc. He’s not the only high god given male and female attributes.
Odin is portrayed similarly (large, angry and masculine) but like the Hebrew/Christian God can be deeply caring. At times he was specifically depicted with the long hair of a woman to make this very obvious. Scholars could not believe that almighty ODIN could have a female side, so they decided that Viking men must have had long hair.
The second component was the existence of a cult called what translated to Long-Hair(Like A Woman’s). In mythology there were two brothers who went on various adventures together, including slaying a dragon. Whether they were based on any actual people or not is unknown. What is known is that after their deaths they more or less became the Norse equivalent of saints and a cult formed around them. For reasons that are unclear, these cult priests, who were biologically male, dressed in womens’ clothes and wore their hair long like women, earning them their name. They were fearsome warriors, often taking up arms to defend their shrine or to join in a particular cause and battle, fighting in their womens’ garments.
Again, historians could not accept the idea of transwomen Vikings or even Vikings who embraced their sacred feminine sides, which ever the case may be, and instead, long hair was just a Viking way.
This erronous myth of long-haired vikings is everywhere and the next time you see it, remember it’s the product of bigots and historians who can’t be bothered to do their job properly.
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