by Beth Cohen
*** Once childcare, food and shelter were no longer a worry, there was a general sigh that could be heard throughout the Realm. This sigh was also given sound by the women in the Realm. Although the sigh was the start of one form of relief, the falling of tears could also now be heard. The voices of these women, their tears and their sorrow, needed to continue on with sound — a sound that would continue to a place where they could be heard. It became the job of the Templits to hear these women. Again, it was Kay King Junior’s brilliance that gave impetus to the Templits. The very fundamental and given
understanding that these women needed to be heard was generally enough to somewhat calm the fears and tears of these women who needed to be heard —
those who, due to the changes that took place during the Great Split, found themselves very much alone and lonely. Yes, there were those whose suffering seemed to worsen as a result of the Split, but there was a belief, a general belief held even by those whose pain has grown in the Realm, that this new life in the Realm held a hope that the Wideness had taken away.
One of the interesting features of the Templits was the manner in which their meetings took place. Due to the nature of these personal issues to be discussed, only one woman was invited into the lair of the Templits at a time. The other women who were scheduled to speak that same day or evening would gather in the waiting hall, which had been set up to also be a place of comfort, with soft woven mats on the floor and pillows all around. Not so surprisingly, the waiting room itself soon became its own source of comfort. It became a great way for these lonely souls to meet one another, a place where they understood that those who were waiting also had burdens and no one to share them with besides the Templits. More than just a few couples, even full families, came together as a result of this preTemplits wait. It became a bit of a joke later on that these lonely souls who so needed to be heard — so demanded to be heard by the Templits — would often forget to go into the Templits when their time was called…so caught up in the new friendship just met and made…When the right people were together in one space, life did seem to have a way of working itself out. The atmosphere of mutual respect and caring was proven enough to heal and nurture many a wounded soul.
Indeed, Kay King Junior was a genius of interpersonal affairs. She was a wonderful woman and while this was appreciated by most of the women of the Realm, no one appreciated her gifts more than Dally. Their love continued to blossom and it was indeed pure joy to witness. Their love soon served as a guiding example to many of the women — an example of what was possible if one would only open her mind and heart and let the other in. Seeing and hearing one another, listening and watching — and watching out for one another — became an integral part of the culture, a tribute to every sacrifice they had made and overcoming the emotional and physical results of war. All of the hard work that they had all done; each and every woman in the Realm, and the children as well.
Part 7
Senshii Jane Double D
In the early days after the Great Split, Jane Double D spent most of her waking hours with First Cowanderin-Chief Gabrielle, Kay King Junior, Dally Blyth and the rest of the Daily Deed. Once it was clear that the women of the Realm were indeed going to become an independent society, her first thoughts were all about defending the women. While most of the women believed that the men in the Men’s League would never really attack, Jane’s experiences had taught her differently. She had seen what had happened to some of the women who had taken a stand in their houses and against their men. She knew that while the men had considered themselves the providers and the protectors of the women and children, once challenged, too many of these same men were capable of extreme violence if their authority was challenged. Jane had no problem understanding the many sides of any individual. Consequently, she was particularly leery of the men. She was certain that once they realized that ‘their’ women were serious and not returning, they would try anything and go to great extremes to regain their place at the top, without worrying or allowing anything or anybody to get in their way. These were the men she had spent most of her life with sparring on the mat. She knew firsthand what they were capable of and she was not going to allow any of the women to be vulnerable, ever again. The women’s safety was her life’s work. Indeed, the essence of Jane’s life had become the strengthening and solidifying of their defense.
During the period immediately following the Great Split, Jane worked tirelessly, day and night, to organize the Defense of the Realm. Some of her closest companions thought that she was
overreacting, compensating for her own losses, whatever they had been, during the Split.
In the beginning, her defense force consisted mainly of a group of women who had practiced martial arts throughout the years. It terrified Jane to think that the entire defense of the Realm was resting on these few and largely inexperienced women. Before the Split, Jane herself had not experienced any real combat…Judoshii with the men had been difficult and competitive, and at times could be ugly and painful — but it had never been a matter of life or death. Jane worried constantly that the men eventually would grow tired of waiting for the women to “come around” and would launch a full-on attack. What and how they would do this was not clear to her. She knew that, basically, the majority of men had let themselves get lazy, relying on the women to do most of the things that they considered beneath them. Their laziness was not only evident in their physique, but also in their mentality. Although she knew that the men would have a hard time organizing themselves to do any real physical harm, Jane’s priorities were clear — to build a women’s fighting force that would be strong enough to deter the men from attack. The men, with all their ego, would certainly not take on a battle with the women if they were not absolutely convinced that they could win. Their egos ran everything they did, even their planning. One of the strongest traits that Jane had possessed was not letting her own pride, her own ego, get in the way of her planning. She did not let her confidence and ego determine her tactics. She knew the men well enough. She believed that the men would know that if the women succeeded in the Realm, then all that their society had been based on would be false. The men had to be the stronger and the all-empowered. The men could not and would not allow themselves to be defeated by women in battle. The very success, indeed the continued existence, of the Realm was for the men, contrary to all they believed and held dear in the Wideness. The men never did take kindly to contradiction, let alone challenge, especially by women, especially when this conflict negated all of their most core beliefs of themselves and their way of life.
The Judoshiiks
One very prominent organization that gained more and more responsibility within the Realm of the Women’s Forward Movement was the Judoshiiks. These women, an elite group of fighters and defenders, spent all of their time, their workday and most evenings learning and developing various forms of defense...non-lethal and lethal combat was the order of the day. This group of women was born of necessity and of lessons learned during the Great Split, as well as from the angry messages received from the men during their visits to the Realm. Jane Double D served as a mentor to each of these women. All of them trusted Jane’s word and knew that her judgment and decisions rose from within and were developed from her years of experience and study.
The Judoshiiks methods of combat were more often than not developed and born from the methods of the teachings of Jane Double D herself. Jane studied Judoshii in the Wideness. For Jane, Judoshii was never just a hobby. In addition to the traditional Judoshii she studied, Jane had made ‘adaptations’ to some of the movements and positions to be more suited to the needs of women. This evolution, which led to her own style, originally developed as what she had then viewed as the need that the women had to feel their own strength. In the Wideness, the only place a woman was actually allowed to compete and defeat a male opponent was on the Judoshii mat. At the time, it seemed like a natural thing for Jane to do — teach the women on the mat some move
s that the men didn’t know, and couldn’t know, because Jane, who had developed these moves, chose not to share them with the men. For the Judoshiiks, this was an enormous benefit. They all knew this and respected what they considered to be Jane’s foresight and, therefore, believed that she knew where things would lead and what would come next. Jane was a seer of sorts. And so it came to be that each of these women would follow Jane and her instructions anywhere.
*** Indeed, Jane herself had succeeded in becoming a black belt; this was no small feat for a woman in the Wideness. The men who practiced and taught her their Judoshii did so at first with great hesitation and amusement. Later it became a place for Jane Double D to show her strength and prove her place among those men. Those men, somehow different from the others, were able to accept her excellence. These men included Dward, her one-time partner and love.
However, Jane abhorred the Judoshii as taught by the men. She felt that it should be used as a way to keep violence at bay — not as a means to more violence. It was this contempt, combined with her talent and gift that led to her methods that became the basis for the Judoshii of the Realm. Jane had worked intensively with Gabrielle and Kay King Junior to build the defense forces of the Realm. All defense was based on the Judoshii of Jane, the Way of Gentleness. Restraint, clear thinking and purpose were taught at the very basic level, along with the moves and strength building. The Judoshii-Juniors entered the Academy and spent their first year in classes learning the theory of living a vital life as well as meditation, being mindful and present. At the same time, they built their body strength and stamina with yoga and hours of Kung Fu-style practice on the mats. The combination of the life lessons along with the physical exercises made the girls stronger than even they themselves could imagine. They were proud of their accomplishments and although Jane tried to instill humility in their learning, their strength was in their belief that they could protect the Realm and would do so at all cost.
The young women who entered into the Academy did so at the age of 16. All of those who did not enter the Academy learned the basics of selfdefense and life preservation — basically the preservation of their own lives and those who counted on them to do so. Each of the children in the Realm learned the importance of peace and acceptance of each other and themselves. They also learned, however, that even those who claimed to love could turn and become harmful. This was something that most had witnessed either during the Great Split or lived with before. While nothing could erase the pain they had experienced, the knowledge that they could resist and defend themselves and each other gave them strength and was a source of pride to the Realm. Self-defense was the order of the day. The women of the Realm wanted to know that their children — their daughters and sons — would not fall victim to anyone. The women and their children learned that they would not fall victim. They learned their own strength. They learned, they practiced and they found their power.
*** Very few of the women in the Realm, especially during the early days, believed there would ever be any kind of real attack by the men. These men were, after all, the fathers, sons, brothers and former partners of the women of the Realm. While it was true that the Great Split had given a hit to the inflated self-esteem of the men, these were, after all, men with a family history with these women. The women had not forgotten the way they were treated in the Wideness, as possessions with no rights, and at the mercy of the men who did not always treat them kindly or with respect. The women had not forgotten the abuse and violence that ensued during the Great Split —but they had come to feel safe in their home, in the Realm. In the Realm, the women were not harassed, humiliated, bullied, raped or molested. In the Realm, the women learned not to be victim but to be alive, to have confidence and to know their worth. This was all good. But again, reality does tend to intrude without warning. Jane was grateful that the women had shaken off their sense of victim and that the horrors that were, for many, part of their daily lives was no longer a factor in the way they moved about in their daily lives. But Jane also knew that the men were not content and, like spoiled children whose toys had been taken, they would throw tantrums…and these tantrums could not be allowed to become part of life in the Realm. Violence was not going to be a part of their new life, not as long as Jane was around!
It was during the period of transition, while the other women were getting settled in their new lives, that Jane Double D began to focus on her work — what she had called ‘The Way of Gentleness.’ This was an almost intentional deception on Jane’s part. While she wanted the women, all of them, to learn basic self-defense, she realized that for most of the women, this was not an ideal option, or one that held any appeal. Jane’s thought was not that there would be an armed battle, but it was always possible that groups of men would invade with the intent of avenging their wounded egos, of getting back at the women who ‘wronged’ them.
The Way of Gentleness was a pattern of defense that appealed to the women, young and old. To the undiscerning eye, it looked like a dance…The movements were slow, yet strong and specific. They consisted of a series of 100 combinations of positions and movements. Together they formed a kind of combative defense, sans weaponry. Jane’s idea was based on her thought that if the men did attack, it would at first be unorganized and partisan. She hypothesized that any attack would not be an all-out attack of war on the women but on a single woman or small groups or even possibly on individual families, by individuals or small groups of untrained and unorganized men. It was therefore of the utmost importance that each of the women have a strong and more than basic knowledge of self-defense.
The Way of Gentleness, practiced in schools before sitting at desks and learning, soon became a tool that the educators used to help bring their students into focus. There had always been students who found it difficult to sit through the length of the school day. The educators in the Realm soon found that taking a break mid-morning to practice the Way of Gentleness helped their students return to their study seats able to focus and ready to learn.
Jane Double D organized groups to teach other groups. These became almost festive in nature — The Way of Gentleness practiced like a dance held nightly in the home, at schools and before the beginning of the workday at places of work. The women became proficient in this and thought of it as a form of art. Jane explained to the women that this art or dance was actually a series of moves meant to be used as a defense should they ever be attacked. She demonstrated, using some of her younger ‘followers’, how this was to be done.
The original Way of Gentleness was taught to all members of the Realm. This was not only a way for them to defend themselves, but it soon became a kind of Morning Prayer, done morning, noon and night.
The women that Jane recruited were experienced teachers and Judoshiiks practitioners. They in turn formed a group of teachers who taught the newly formed Judoshii-Juniors. The JudoshiiJuniors soon became the pride of the Realm and the pride and joy of their mothers. Those who excelled in their roles as Judoshii-Juniors would soon become the Judoshiiks.
Judoshii-Juniors, Judoshiiks and the Great Defense
Jane understood the nature of the women of the Realm. While she was one of the women, as well as part of the women of the Upper Stratus, helping to shape the Realm, Jane realized that the women were not prepared for any real possible violent threats. This worried her and caused many more sleepless nights than most people could cope with. Luckily for all, Jane Double D was not most people.
Jane took these sleepless nights and built herself a full regiment. Her small one-room apartment became the creating ground for the defense of the Realm. What had begun as the practice of the Way of Gentleness and the following of the Judoshii-Juniors soon developed into a multitiered defense force made up of the Judoshii-Juniors and the Judoshiiks. Jane Double D had it all mapped out on stretch papers hanging on her walls and doors. When she was finally finished mapping out her plan, Jane was able to sleep.
And so it was. A defense plan was formed witho
ut the use of violence. A defense team was set up by educating and thereby strengthening all the people of the Realm. And so it was.
Jane was able to gently arm the women and the Daily Deed, the Wombitees and the Templits strengthened the souls of the women. And the victim became, not only a survivor, but a warrior — a warrior who, armed with the Way of the Gentleness, knew how to resist.
Reality did not need to be an ugly intrusion. The Realm was prepared.
*** The next morning, Jane Double D dressed in her Judoshii clothes — their splendorous whites now faded from the numerous hand-washings done purely to remove the sweaty smell from her incessant practice. Still, she looked amazing. Her body was hard and chiseled to perfection. She was known to be a hard woman in body and mind. She was totally focused…so focused that it seemed obvious that her body simply followed the orders given by her mind — without effort or hesitation. It was this focused, strong and strikingly harsh beauty that had gotten her into so much trouble when she was
younger…and, truth be told, even more trouble when she was older. In the Wideness she was known for her stubbornness, her strict self-discipline and lack of patience with those who expected her to be weak and yielding. But that was the past. And it was this past that had fueled her determination and produced the plan that Jane now carried with her.
*** Jane Double D marched to the offices of the Daily Deed where her old friends Dally Blyth and Kay King Junior were already in a meeting with the Cowander-in-Chief Gabrielle. She knocked on the door of the meeting room and when a chorus of busy women shouted “Enter,” she didn’t hesitate when she opened the door. As she walked in, her old Judoshii uniform took the women by surprise. Kay King Junior stopped mid-sentence and turned, wondering what was about to take place. All of these women had grown to know each other well. There was a great deal of mutual respect and a healthy dose of sarcasm as well when it came to surprises, as there were many surprises that the women presented to each other. The circumstances of their new life together in this society that had left the men behind had left behind a yolk and chain that at times could make the women so light they could almost allow themselves to be giddy.
