Granny Weatherwax taught about first sight and second thoughts. To me, it boils down to seeing what's really there, for good or Ill, and taking a half second to think of what that means.

And that's a big part of why I linked to the USA today piece and not the one from Tor.

Personally, I believe there were a lot more female warriors in Viking-era Scandinavia than we've been led to believe. That said...

1. Six out of fourteen bodies buried with weapons in England does not equal half of the Norse invaders of Britain being female. It meant half of this small group of people rich enough to be buried with weapons (in an age and culture where one fighter in twenty owned a sword) was female. Find me a battlefield where half the bodies bearing battle trauma are female, then you've got a better basis for this half the raiders business.

2. Even if the ladies joined in, and yeah the raiders were more capitalist than terrorist, that doesn't necessarily diminish the level of rapine and pillage. Hell, they founded Dublin because they paid top dinar for redheads in Baghdad, and they needed a working supply chain.

3. Fuck Tor on general principles for propagating that ridiculous "boobplate will kill you" nonsense.

Shield maidens rule.
That is all.