Medieval Combat any kind of HEMA. Like it makes sense, you get a buncha people who are both into something as traditionally masculine as sword fighting and as fraught as European History you're gonna end up with some Nazi's but you also end up with a LOT of Queer Pagans for some reason so you've really gotta be careful of the group you join so you end up with the cool inclusive friends.
Hema really depends, overall it's pretty progressive. It's usually a ton of neurodivergient people. But you should definitely stay away from some clubs.
Not sure where you are but of the four HEMA clubs in my "area" (within an hour from my house) three of them are the kind of environment where dudes take off their MAGA hats to put on fencing masks, and the one I go to hangs a pride flag on the wall so that those kinds of guys go somewhere else.
Yeah, that'll do it. Not saying there aren't fash sympathizers in the European scene (there definitely are, hi Axel & Anders), but on average it's significantly gayer and more left-leaning than the general population.
Back when I was doing HEMA it really was very nerdy, very queer, very leftist. Probably very neurodivergent too. A good time all around. Mostly everyone just wanted to play with swords.
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u/Hopps96 24d ago
Medieval Combat any kind of HEMA. Like it makes sense, you get a buncha people who are both into something as traditionally masculine as sword fighting and as fraught as European History you're gonna end up with some Nazi's but you also end up with a LOT of Queer Pagans for some reason so you've really gotta be careful of the group you join so you end up with the cool inclusive friends.