Little Things From History: A History of Catfights
In today's slang, a "catfight" usually refers to two women in a fight, usually where it gets nasty and physical. However, from a biological stance, since women usually aren't up on testosterone, seeing two females beating the daylights out of each doesn't really make sense. Nonetheless, it still happens today, just as it did in history.
The earliest famous accounts of fighting women would be during the time of Rome. A few of the Roman emperors occasionally allowed women to volunteer to fight as gladiators. Back in that time, gladiators were the superstars of their day, and much like today's athlete heroes, people often debated the techniques that their favorite gladiator was known for. However, female gladiators added a new flare to it, though it didn't last long. Two women gladiators were often pitted against each other, or one was sent against two male gladiators. The catch was that each of the male gladiators had an arm tied behind his back while the female had her two hands free. Ancient graffiti found in Roman ruins imply that the women gladiators had just as many admirers as their male counterparts. It also shows that graffiti isn't a new phenomenon either. As for the reason that women gladiators didn't last long, it was because the officials were soon becoming appalled that a huge number of women were volunteering to try and fight in the arena.
Probably one of the reasons that the Romans had an uncomfortably large number of women eager to ditch it out was that they had a personal agenda. This is cited by the next three examples. This one came from the time when dueling with pistols was common. In Europe, the Duke of Richelieu had gotten into the habit of juggling multiple mistresses, and each thought they were the sole object of his affection. It was only a matter of time before something went wrong, and one day, it did. Two women, Marquise De Nesle and Comtesse De Polignac had each sent a letter to the Duke, both begging to see him again. The Duke ordered his secretary to send invitations to each one of them to see him that afternoon, one at two, the other at four. His secretary carried these orders out, but unfortunately, made a mistake and had both come at two. Obviously, the blunder led to disastrous consequences as both women vented their anger on the Duke. But as if that wasn't enough, Polignac challenged Marquise to a duel, which the Marquise accepted. The pistols were chosen as the weapon. (One wonders why they were shooting at each other and not the Duke.) In the duel that followed, Marquise was allowed to fire first, but missed her opponent. The ball from Polignac took a piece of Marquise's ear away. She later pardoned her opponent.
The next duel was between two Spaniards. The two women were in a vicious argument over a single man. They decided to settle it with a duel of their Navajas, a dagger normally carried by the Spanish at that time. The conditions were simple, there would be only one survivor who would be the lover of the suitor in question. However, before they were able to start striking blows, a police officer arrested both of them, as dueling was becoming illegal. Unfortunately for the judge that presided over the case, one of the women knew the law. She pointed out that the dueling law specifically forbade men from dueling but said nothing about women. The judge was dismayed about this, but there was nothing he could do except release them both under that condition that they would not carry out their murderous intents. The women agreed. Later, they were both found dead by the wounds inflicted on each other.
The last example happened in the wild west of America. Two women were fighting over the same suitor, again. The weapons were short barreled pistols. The account goes that they both fired at each other, then having apparently missed their targets, proceeded to beat each other with their fists. One woman sustained a broken nose. But they also succeeded in doing something else. A stay bullet from their pistols had wounded another person who was watching the fight, the very man they were fighting over.
These days, you often hear that the weapons of choice are the women's nails or fists. Good thing dueling isn't legal.