[fabdod]

My question is:

Was there female combat, catfight before the age of media,internet, tv or was limited to men only , long before since colosseum fights where the comptetion was between men exclusively

[MikeHales67]

For example :  https://georgianera.wordpress.com/2016/06/21/18th-century-female-bruisers/

[maturecatfan]

There is plenty of evidence of female gladiators back in Roman times, it was eventually banned by one of the emperors I believe so I bet went underground then. I am sure cavewomen fought for the strongest man too

[F4UCORSAIR]

 England had female fighters in carnivals and pubs back in the 1800's. There is a book ,The Fair Fight, by Anna Freeman that explores this subject.

[fabdod]

There is plenty of evidence of female gladiators back in Roman times, it was eventually banned by one of the emperors I believe so I bet went underground then. I am sure cavewomen fought for the strongest man too

i agree with that, the only difference is cavewomen fought for men but today women fight for money,fame,Self-fulfillment

[sinclairfan]

Leah and Rachel catfaught (psychologically) for Jacob.....that's way before the Romans.

[PaulineG]

Ever heard of Queen Boudicca, warrior queen of Ancient Briton that waged war on the Romans. Who incidentally were horrified that women fought alongside their men in battle. Later the Vikings had shield maidens much like the character Lagertha in the series Vikings. By the mid 1700's women in London were participating in catfights for money, called catfights because the fights took place in the same pits that they used for dog fights in lovely areas like Seven Dials and St Giles the latter the setting for Dicken's Oliver Twist and the haunt of Fagin. Usually women of low standing and owning only the clothes they stood up in they would strip to the waist so as not to risk their only garments. winners might make a few shillings but it was a risky business and many would die from infections caused by the injuries they received in the pits that were contaminated with animal blood and faeces. Moving forward when the Olympics was resurrected in the early 20th century there were women boxers involved so Nicola Adams Katie Taylor and Claressa Shields not quite the trail blazers everybody thinks.

[GWalb999]

One of the oldest written myths was the story of  Inana who goes back to   Sumerian  times 4000B.C.E. In Inana in the Underworld . She descends to her sister Ereshkigal''s realm and tries to take over. She is killed by the eyes of the dead but in some versions she tried to physically pull Eriskigal from her throne, which qualifies as a catfight in my imagination, at least. Having killed her Eriskiga0e impales her on an iron hu. k on the wall. After three days Inana is then ransomed and revived. In another legend Bilulu kills Inana's consort Tammuz and Inana avenges him by killing Bilulu. I'm not sure how but in my fevered imagination of course it would have been by catfight..
It is also pretty well established that there were gladiatrixes who fough in the Arena.
It is thought tat when disputes could be settle by trials of combat.some women foght ther husbands' to the death, (Only way to get a Divorce) and presumably fought each other to settle disputes.
Shakespeare has catfights inat least two intances  in Taming of the Shrew and Midsummer's Night Dream.
There was a catfight in Ariosto's Orlando Furiosa, Spenser's The Faerie Queen based on Orlando describes a really good fight between the heroine Britomart and another evil female.
In an old law record of Albany, NY,  I was told that there is a reference to two women being fined for brawling in the street.
In a book about of nostalgia about NYC in the 19the century, it states that ther was a ceertain barroom that featured regularly staged fights between women.
That's all I can think of, off the top of my head.

[GWalb999]

The Albany refference in my previous post was from the 1660s
If we are going to before TV there were already numerous catfights including Destry with Marlene Dietrich
On the borderl ine is a Republic  serial called Purple Monster Strikes.in which heroine Linda Stirling has two catfights, getting knocked out in firs. It was that fight when I was about 7-8 years old about 1946 that first turned me on to catfights. I wasn't old enough to see The Nyoka serial cf's or those in the 1930's Buck Rogers and Flash Gorden serials but only found them long after I was an adult

[sinclairfan]

In both the Ariosto and Sir Edmund Spenser catfights, the women:
> are disguised as male knights at the start of the fight, but slowly realize the other is a woman, which escalates the fight; and
> eventually shed their weapons, voluntarily, to fight hand to hand.

[weirdwaverlywrestles]

I swear I read some where that there was an ancient greek vase found somewhere with two women wrestling naked like the men did but I cannot seem to find any particular reference to it.

[randomman]

My question is:

Was there female combat, catfight before the age of media,internet, tv or was limited to men only , long before since colosseum fights where the comptetion was between men exclusively

Female fights for entertainment actually do date back to the times of the Romans.  Gladiatrix evidence is a little scant on the ground, so it was rare, but it did happen.  We know this thanks to a few bodies, a few sculptures, satirists, and the Roman legal system.

More can be found on Wikipedia about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiatrix

There are other instances as well, but that's the oldest.  There used to be a website that covered it in detail, but I forget the address for it, and I believe it's now limited to the Wayback Machine.

[Mr. Cavalier]

Women fought in the Bible

[ooreach]

fighting is in our DNA. Even when young and we wrestled around for joy, fun and an expectable way of showing physical contact. I can see this being a practice from the time we came together into tribes. Boys showing who was strongest and girls doing the same. As the got older the contests became to show who was the alpha and to impress. To men or women around the same build and sexual attractiveness would settle on physical contests to determine who was the better. Enter true competition and rivalry and that is when the catfights started. Either over a prospective mate or when infidelity was found. Because of the spreading of rumors or for other resources. It's primal and ancient in our wiring. The facade of our civility goes out the window soon after the need arises. Aspects of our fetish are enjoyed by many even if they aren't given the green light to pursue it. I've talked about catfights with plenty of male friends, when the time was appropriate and some show interest but it's usually fallowed with some realized or perceived fear of their significant other not understanding or probably not being into it. I state " you'll never know till you try." In a very FEW occasions I've actually opened up to my wife being bi-sexual and having indulged in our fetishes. I suspect most of our "modern" habits reach back to the beginnings of society.     

[suhmann]

There is plenty of evidence of female gladiators back in Roman times, it was eventually banned by one of the emperors I believe so I bet went underground then. I am sure cavewomen fought for the strongest man too

Buddy, I agree, especially about the cave women. We are all genetically predisposed to one or the other. It's the same with fights and wrestling. And, of course, our female fighters trace their lineage back to the depths of centuries, where one hundred percent two women in skins or naked grappled in a wild fight and rolled around the cave. Because of a man, food, or simply because one aggressive woman faced the same fierce rival.