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Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Stage review: Wickedly funny 'Rules of Seconds,' about dueling and machismo, opens in Braddock
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The audacious play “Rules of Seconds” takes aim and fires at what today we call “toxic masculinity” — in this case, tragically misplaced machismo in the guise of honor — and the indomitable women who prop up their guys and pick up after the messes they leave.
1 comment:
Sydney Asselin
said...
First of all, I would like to say that I think getting into a duel over spilled tea on boots, no matter how prized, is dumb. Joss says that in the South Side in Chicago, if you step on someone's shoes, you might get shot. Nowadays, with the price and quality of shoes, combined with the cult like devotion to certain shoes, I can see that getting into a scuffle over a scuff would be plausible. With the quality of shoes in 19th century Boston, I cannot see anyone getting so worked up over boots. That being said, I do love the history of dueling. I got into fencing in my freshman year of high school, and with that into the history of duels. The blade I fence, foil, stems from the rapier duels in France, wherein fighters fought to kill. Consequently, the target area of modern foil fencing is the torso and crotch, with points only being scored with a stabbing motion, or only killing strikes in a rapier-like stabbing motion. Conversely, modern epee fencing stems from later French dueling, after killing people in duels was made illegal, so people fought instead to first blood. So, in modern epee fencing, fencers can win a point by stabbing any area of the body, from head to toe. It is interesting not only to look at how sword dueling influenced the modern sport of fencing, but also to look at how traditional sword dueling evolved into how duels with guns worked.
1 comment:
First of all, I would like to say that I think getting into a duel over spilled tea on boots, no matter how prized, is dumb. Joss says that in the South Side in Chicago, if you step on someone's shoes, you might get shot. Nowadays, with the price and quality of shoes, combined with the cult like devotion to certain shoes, I can see that getting into a scuffle over a scuff would be plausible. With the quality of shoes in 19th century Boston, I cannot see anyone getting so worked up over boots. That being said, I do love the history of dueling. I got into fencing in my freshman year of high school, and with that into the history of duels. The blade I fence, foil, stems from the rapier duels in France, wherein fighters fought to kill. Consequently, the target area of modern foil fencing is the torso and crotch, with points only being scored with a stabbing motion, or only killing strikes in a rapier-like stabbing motion. Conversely, modern epee fencing stems from later French dueling, after killing people in duels was made illegal, so people fought instead to first blood. So, in modern epee fencing, fencers can win a point by stabbing any area of the body, from head to toe. It is interesting not only to look at how sword dueling influenced the modern sport of fencing, but also to look at how traditional sword dueling evolved into how duels with guns worked.
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