Throughout history, women have been underestimated, degraded, and overlooked. To me, there’s nothing more entertaining than reading about women who decided to take a stand. These women had their backs against the wall and armies at their faces. But “nobody puts baby in a corner,” and this will become obvious since these women literally gave meaning to the adage, ‘Hell hath no FURY like a woman scorned.”
1. The Tru’ng Sisters
Around 40 CE, there lived two sisters in a simple village in Vietnam. But since they were born into a military family, there was nothing simple about these sisters. Given their status in the rural village, the sisters were well-versed in many things, one of them being martial arts. The eldest, Tru’ng Track, was married to her love, Thi Sách.
After some time living under oppression, Thi Sach decided he’d had enough and took a stand against the Chinese empire and the increase in taxes. The Chinese responded by murdering him and everyone involved in the rebellion because why not. Well, BIG mistake, BIG one! No one messes with Tru’ng Track, and the Chinese would rue the day they killed her husband in such a cruel way.
While everyone was expecting Tru’ng Track to isolate herself and go into mourning, she was off killing tigers so that she could use their skins as writing paper to rally some troops. Tru’ng Track, alongside her sister Tru’ng Nhi and about 80,000 other soldiers, decided to give China a taste of its own medicine. A la Daenerys style, they kicked Chinese ass, driving them out of Vietnam. This just shows that when push comes to shove, no one should mess with Vietnam, much less Vietnamese women.
2. Tomyris
Tomyris wasn’t just a queen; she was a warrior queen (a.k.a. badass). She ruled over Massagetae located in the Middle East, which is modern Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Western Uzbekistan, and Southern Kazakhstan (basically, most of the Stan’s). In those times, rulers normally battled against one another to see who had the biggest army—or as I like to say, “the biggest cojones”— and take each other’s land. One of those rulers was Cyrus the Great. Apparently, he was in league to find himself a woman and thought Tomyris would do. Like many other men, it wasn’t her brains he was interested in but her land. Unsurprisingly, Tomyris turned him down, which he didn’t take too well. So of course, like many other rejected men, he decided to try and take her land anyway.
I must give credit where credit is due, and Cyrus really did start that war running. He had the superb idea of making a feast, with all kinds of luxurious foods and drinks, and left it pretty much unguarded. The Massageteans fell for this “Trojan horse” and decided to take part in this feast the night before the battle. The problem was that they’d never drank before, so they had the mother of all hangovers the next day. So, of course, they were easily defeated and a lot of soldiers were captured; one of those soldiers was Tomyris’ son (uh-oh), who committed suicide soon after he was captured. Cyrus should’ve known better than to mess with a woman’s child, so, much like Cersei, Tomyris got revenge. In their next battle, Cyrus didn’t find Tomyris or her army so ill-prepared; in fact, he found himself in quite a tight spot when his army was thoroughly defeated. Unfortunately for Cyrus, Tomyris was in need of a chalice and decided that Cyrus’s head would do. LESSON: DO NOT MESS WITH A WOMAN’S CHILDREN (I mean, unless you want to die, then by all means, go ahead).
3. Mai Bhago
Unlike the other women I’ve talked about, Mai Bhago was neither royalty nor became it, but she was equally as badass. What did she do? Well, she pulled a Sansa Stark by leading an army and defeating the Mughals at the last second. Unlike Sansa, she actually fought in the battle against the Mughals, and also unlike Sansa, this woman was a warrior. It all began when she was a child living in a rural village, enjoying her father-daughter moments. Like any good father, he taught Mai Bhago how to ride a horse and kill someone with her bare hands… Nah, I’m kidding, he taught her how to defend herself in case someone attacked her. Alongside her family and many others, she practiced Sikhism. Given that the men wore turbans and never cut their hair, the Mughals decided that Sikhs were Muslim; henceforth, they decided to wipe out that religion. This never happened because of—drumroll please—yep, you got it, Mai Bhago. As one of the warrior saints, she led an army of local women and men to battle the Mughals, and surprisingly, she won. Eventually, she became part of Khalsa, which is a body of initiated Sikhs, changing her name to Mai Bhag Kaur.
What do these stories teach us? Well, that you don’t mess with a woman’s man (shoutout to Kim) and that you don’t mess with a woman’s child, religion, or home. In fact, you don’t mess with a woman, period. I like to believe that, “Women are angels. When someone breaks our wings, we simply continue to fly, usually on a broomstick. We’re flexible like that.”