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A dutiful daughter disguises herself as a knight and takes up the sword to protect her father's noble reputation and her kings realm. Whether we think of the Chinese or French iterations of maiden warrior tales, the figure-is fraught with tensions. On the one hand the maiden warrior demonstrates the capacities of women to live and fight honorably. Maiden warrior tales grant the heroine ample agency, demonstrating her physical and intellectual strengths; as such, they hint at the arbitrary nature of gender norms in the societies that give rise to such tales. On the other hand the maiden warrior is only allowed to transgress the norms assigned to women for the sake of maintaining patriarchal and monarchical power. In other words, she defends a patriarchal social and political order that upholds, paradoxically, gender norms that limit women's agency. When the heroine restores order by the end of the tale, she abandons her masculine attire to resume her position as a woman, either beside a prince or king through marriage or within the domestic space, taking up the spindle. In both cases she forever relinquishes her sword.

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