On my Utena next analysis:
at European universities, (especially germany and france) there are really certain Student Clubs which offer ritualistic dueling. Its mostly common among conservative or right leading groups. And Its heavily associated with royalists. The german nobility established such Clubs in the first place.
In these Clubs, its common to do duels as completion or as a reaction to insults. Similar to pistol dueling in the south in the US.
Especially in the german empire, it was quite common to have such Clubs and they established many colloquialisms in german language. The most famous one is pauken. Pauken usually refers to harsh learning. Like Chichi does with son gohan in Dragon Ball Z. Interestingly, some colloquialisms in regards to love and dating in german language come from Student fencing as well. Best example here is "eine Abfuhr kassieren". Today, eine Abfuhr kassieren is used to describe when a man gets rejected by a girl in a very mean Manner. Originally, eine Abfuhr kassieren means losing a duel so bad that you get put into a Hospital. (Some duels in the Show ended with someone losing a girl) In germany, if something works exceptionally well, its called "auf Anhieb klappen". Anhieb is the first strike in the duel and originally that means KOing the enemy with one Hit.
Many left wing authors criticized german Student dueling and accused it of enforcing hollow,, illusory authoritarianism. It was linked to the concept of the authoritarian personality (a type of personality described by Wilhelm Reich and Theodor Adorno. This personality type is sexually repressed and is obsessed with rank and status and likes to hurt and humiliate Persons of a lower Status while trying everything, even self humiliationbtonappeal to Persons with higher rank.)
