[Ansteorra] Authenticity

Monette Mueller emelinedeneville at yahoo.com
Fri Apr 12 16:59:35 PDT 2002


I think everyone will agree that 'Nazi' is a poor
choice of words.  As unpleasant as those SCAdians that
feel the need to enforce their level of authenticity
on others in an offensive way, nothing they have ever
done or ever will do can equate them to what the name
'Nazi' is historically linked to.

That said, I can give you this newbie's perspective on
what the afore mentioned 'Authenticity Nazis', 'Period
Police', 'Historical Zealots' or whatever name they
might be called, can do to someone new to the SCA.

I have thought about joining the SCA numerous times
over the years.  I saw a Demo once (I'll show my age
here...it was Rapier Fighters at the premier of
Disney's Three Musketeers) and I thought, hey, wow,
those folks are really cool, only to be told by my
friends...'You do NOT want to go there...you
have write a research paper every time you get a new
piece of garb, you can't have pockets in your costume,
women can only wear skirts, you have to wear a hat,
you have to sew or make everything single thing
yourself, you can't wear a bra ...etc.' So, I decided,
wow, that doesn't sound like much fun and continued on
my merry way.

Years later, I noticed the SCA presence at TRF and
thought again, wow, I wish these people weren't so
stiff; maybe I should go talk to them.  Most likely,
I had the misfortune of trying to start up a
conversation with someone of the 'Uber-Historical'
persuasion, and was for the most part rebuffed and
criticized for my choice of garb.  Stunned, I again
retreated.  I was happy to continue to play at
Renaissance Faires, but wished I could play more and
take that play to a higher level than commercial
Faires and after-Faire drum-circles could offer.

It wasn't until I met and got to know some of the
local SCAdians (without actually knowing they were
SCA) that I found out they were for the most part
fairly normal people (at least by my standards).  I
told them about my interest in the SCA and they
encouraged me to give it a try.  So armed
with that welcome & endorsement, I went home and did a
little research on the Web.  Frankly, I got
intimidated.  Some of the essays and tirades on the
web (multiple Kingdoms, not necessarily
Ansteorra)complaining about and/or damning people who
don't live up to 'SCA standards' made me take a step
back and reconsider.  How could I ever live up to
these
standards?  I love period garb and personae play, but
I'm neither a seamstress or a historian (the latter
I'm more than willing to become, the former, I'll
never be).  But I got another round of encouragement
from my friends and assurances that nobody would tell
me how wrong my garb was or look too far down their
noses at me.

So off I went to an event in my local Barony and I
adored it.  I started turning up at fighter practices
and enjoyed those as well.  A Newcomer's household was
formed and I started attending their events and
classes.  I've even ventured to a few guild meetings.
Thus far, the worst treatment I've experienced has
been a few overly-excited-to-see-a-new-person folks
that have tried to talk my ear off.   Of course, this
has only been two months worth of experiences (seems
like more, you SCA folks are certainly busy people).
And I have only attended one mixed territory event,
but so far, so good.  I've learned a lot, got to try
new-to-me things and nobody has attempted to shove
anything down my throat.

Maybe my Barony (there is already pride in my voice
when I say ~my~) is a little more accepting and
tolerant than others.  I cannot say, I have
not ventured forth to discover new territories - yet.
It is nice to know, however, whatever I find out there
in the great vast Knowne World, I always have
~my~ Barony to come home to.

Emeline de Neville

PS HE Pendaran is impressive, not intimidating...well,
not THAT intimidating. =D

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