[Sca-cooks] Authenticity Police: since we're castigating extremists anyway.. .

[Peters, Rise J.]

I've been in the SCA for 11 years, and for most of that time have been
wearing wench bodices and layers of point skirts and cotton chemises with
elastic.  It may be that I'm just too far gone to attract their attention
(maybe figuring I'm unsalvageable), but nobody has ever said anything
negative about my clothing since my very first event (Pennsic -- it was hot
-- I was walking around in an underdress and a tabard -- I really didn't
know that it was the equivalent of a slip and an overcoat, I thought I was
dressed!)

The most offensive behavior along these lines I've ever seen, though, was at
an event in Northern Virginia where someone took it on herself to give a
guest of mine a hard time about the unbleached rope belt he was wearing with
his perfectly authentic monk's robe.  She asserted that, standing there in a
monk's robe and sandals and a rope belt, he was pretending to be a member of
the chivalry.  She refused to let the topic go, and was so offensive that he
hasn't been back since.  But that's not "authenticity police", that's ...
I'm not quite sure what that is, besides bad manners to a guest.

Caitlin Cheannlaidir, OL (but not for costuming...<G>)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Philip & Susan Troy [mailto:troy at asan.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 9:55 AM
> To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] OT Authenticity Police: since we're castigating
> extremists anyway...
>
>
> Hullo, the list!
>
> As long as we're on about religious fanatics and generally those who
> would impose their beliefs on others, or their beliefs
> _about_ others on
> others, I thought it was worth mentioning that yesterday I
> was handed a
> photocopy from Saturday's [Westchester?] Journal-News in which a
> faithful reader of Miss Manners writes to complain about Authenticity
> Police. Tne writer describes them accurately in concept, but
> would have
> us believe they're quite common in all living-history/re-enactment
> groups. Miss Manners actually makes fairly intelligent suggestions, I
> think. It's a fairly long article or I would copy it here.
> Maybe one of
> our librarians can find it online someplace?
>
> It had always been my impression that for the most part, authenticity
> police are up there with Men In Black, Silent Black Army Helicopters,
> and people who have had run-ins with Niemann-Marcus's cookie division.
> In short, you can't find anybody who has actually had the experience,
> prepared to name the person who lifted their skirts to check the
> underwear fabric, but everybody knows someone who knows
> someone who has
> dealt with authenticity police.
>
> Not to necessarily start another huge thread on this, and I'm
> not really
> asking for a show of hands, but how real are these people
> perceived to be?
>
> Adamantius
> --
> Phil & Susan Troy
>
> troy at asan.com
>
> "It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
> things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
> let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98
>
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