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Women In History

I grew up believing that women had contributed nothing to the world until the 1960′s. So once I became a feminist I started collecting information on women in history, and here’s my collection so far, in no particular order. 

Lepa Svetozara Radić (1925–1943) was a partisan executed at the age of 17 for shooting at German soldiers during WW2. As her captors tied the noose around her neck, they offered her a way out of the gallows by revealing her comrades and leaders identities. She responded that she was not a traitor to her people and they would reveal themselves when they avenged her death. She was the youngest winner of the Order of the People’s Hero of Yugoslavia, awarded in 1951

23 year old Phyllis Latour Doyle was British spy who parachuted into occupied Normandy in 1944 on a reconnaissance mission in preparation for D-day. She relayed 135 secret messages before France was finally liberated. 

Catherine Leroy, War Photographer starting with the Vietnam war. She was taken a prisoner of war. When released she continued to be a war photographer until her death in 2006.

Lieutenant Pavlichenko was a Ukrainian sniper in WWII, with a total of 309 kills, including 36 enemy snipers. After being wounded, she toured the US to promote friendship between the two countries, and was called ‘fat’ by one of her interviewers, which she found rather amusing. 

Johanna Hannie “Jannetje” Schaft was born in Haarlem. She studied in Amsterdam had many Jewish friends. During WWII she aided many people who were hiding from the Germans and began working in resistance movements. She helped to assassinate two nazis. She was later captured and executed. Her last words were “I shoot better than you.”. 

Nancy wake was a resistance spy in WWII, and was so hated by the Germans that at one point she was their most wanted person with a price of 5 million francs on her head. During one of her missions, while parachuting into occupied France, her parachute became tangled in a tree. A french agent commented that he wished that all trees would bear such beautiful fruit, to which she replied “Don’t give me any of that French shit!”, and later that evening she killed a German sentry with her bare hands. 

After her husband was killed in WWII, Violette Szabo began working for the resistance. In her work, she helped to sabotage a railroad and passed along secret information. She was captured and executed at a concentration camp at age 23. 

Grace Hopper was a computer scientist who invented the first ever compiler. Her invention makes every single computer program you use possible. 

Mona Louise Parsons was a member of an informal resistance group in the Netherlands during WWII. After her resistance network was infiltrated, she was captured and was the first Canadian woman to be imprisoned by the Nazis. She was originally sentenced to death by firing squad, but the sentence was lowered to hard lard labor in a prison camp. She escaped. 

Simone Segouin was a Parisian rebel who killed an unknown number of Germans and captured 25 with the aid of her submachine gun. She was present at the liberation of Paris and was later awarded the ‘croix de guerre’. 

Mary Edwards Walker is the only woman to have ever won an American Medal of Honor. She earned it for her work as a surgeon during the Civil War. It was revoked in 1917, but she wore it until hear death two years later. It was restored posthumously. 

Italian neuroscientist won a Nobel Prize for her discovery of nerve growth factor. She died aged 103. 

EDIT

jinxedinks added: Her name was Rita Levi-Montalcini. She was jewish, and so from 1938 until the end of the fascist regime in Italy she was forbidden from working at university. She set up a makeshift lab in her bedroom and continued with her research throughout the war.  

A snapshot of the women of color in the woman’s army corps on Staten Island

This is an ongoing project of mine, and I’ll update this as much as I can (It’s not all WWII stuff, I’ve got separate folders for separate achievements). 

File this under: The History I Wish I’d Been Taught As A Little Girl

try going without makeup for a couple weeks and see how much better you feel about your appearance 💖

try going without shaving for a while and see how much you love your natural body 💖

Female figurine from the Hohle Fels cave near Stuttgart, about 35,000 years old. Interpreted as a pornographic pin-up.

“The Earliest Pornography” says Science Now, describing the 35,000 year old ivory figurine that’s been dug up in a cave near Stuttgart. The tiny statuette is of a female with exaggerated breasts and vulva. According to Paul Mellars, one of the archaeologist twits who commented on the find for Nature, this makes the figurine “pornographic.” Nature is even titling its article, “Prehistoric Pin Up.” It’s the Venus of Willendorf double standard all over again. Ancient figures of naked pregnant women are interpreted by smirking male archaeologists as pornography, while equally sexualized images of men are assumed to depict gods or shamans. Or even hunters or warriors. Funny, huh?

Consider: phallic images from the Paleolithic are at least 28,000 years old. Neolithic cultures all over the world seemed to have a thing for sculptures with enormous erect phalluses. Ancient civilizations were awash in images of male genitalia, from the Indian lingam to the Egyptian benben to the Greek herm. The Romans even painted phalluses on their doors and wore phallic charms around their necks.

Ithyphallic figure from Lascaux, about 17,000 years old. Interpreted as a shaman.

But nobody ever interprets this ancient phallic imagery as pornography. Instead, it’s understood to indicate reverence for male sexual potency. No one, for example, has ever suggested that the Lascaux cave dude was a pin-up; he’s assumed to be a shaman. The ithyphallic figurines from the Neolithic — and there are many — are interpreted as gods. And everyone knows that the phalluses of ancient India and Egypt and Greece and Rome represented awesome divine powers of fertility and protection. Yet an ancient figurine of a nude woman — a life-giving woman, with her vulva ready to bring forth a new human being, and her milk-filled breasts ready to nourish that being — is interpreted as pornography. Just something for a man to whack off to. It’s not as if there’s no other context in which to interpret the figure. After all, the European Paleolithic is chock full of pregnant-looking female statuettes that are quite similar to this one. By the time we get to the Neolithic, the naked pregnant female is enthroned with lions at her feet, and it’s clear that people are worshipping some kind of female god.

Yet in the Science Now article, the archaeologist who found the figurine is talking about pornographic pin-ups: “I showed it to a male colleague, and his response was, ‘Nothing’s changed in 40,000 years.’” That sentence needs to be bronzed and hung up on a plaque somewhere, because you couldn’t ask for a better demonstration of the classic fallacy of reading the present into the past. The archaeologist assumes the artist who created the figurine was male; why? He assumes the motive was lust; why? Because that’s all he knows. To his mind, the image of a naked woman with big breasts and exposed vulva can only mean one thing: porn! Porn made by men, for men! And so he assumes, without questioning his assumptions, that the image must have meant the same thing 35,000 years ago. No other mental categories for “naked woman” are available to him. His mind is a closed box. This has been the central flaw of anthropology for as long there’s been anthropology. And even before: the English invaders of North America thought the Iroquois chiefs had concubines who accompanied them everywhere, because they had no other mental categories to account for well-dressed, important-looking women sitting in a council house. It’s the same fallacy that bedevils archaeologists who dig up male skeletons with fancy beads and conclude that the society was male dominant (because powerful people wear jewelry!), and at another site dig up female skeletons with fancy beads and conclude that this society, too, was male dominant (because women have to dress up as sex objects and trophy wives!). Male dominance is all they can imagine. And so no matter what they dig up, they interpret it to fit their mental model. It’s the fallacy that also drives evolutionary psychology, the central premise of which is that human beings in the African Pleistocene had exactly the same values, beliefs, prejudices, power struggles, goals, and needs as the middle-class white professors and students in a graduate psychology lab in modern-day Santa Barbara, California. And that these same factors are universal and unchanged and true for all time.

Hohle Fels phallus, about 28,000 years old. Interpreted as a symbolic object and …flint knapper. Yes.

That’s not science; it’s circular, self-serving propaganda. This little figurine from Hohle Fels, for example, is going to be used as “proof” that pornography is ancient and natural. I guarantee it. Having been interpreted by pornsick male archaeologists as pornography because that’s all they know, the statuette will now be trotted out by every every psycho and male supremacist on the planet as “proof” that pornography is eternal, that male dominance is how it’s supposed to be, and that feminists are crazy so shut the fuck up. Look for it in Steven Pinker’s next book. ***

P.S. My own completely speculative guess on the figurine is that it might be connected to childbirth rituals. Notice the engraved marks and slashes; that’s a motif that continues for thousands of years on these little female figurines. No one knows what they mean, but they meant something. They’re not just random cut marks. Someone put a great deal of work into this sculpture. Given that childbirth was incredibly risky for Paleolithic women, they must have prayed their hearts out for help and protection in that time. I can imagine an elder female shaman or artist carving this potent little figure, and propping it up somewhere as a focus for those prayers.

On the other hand, it is possible that it has nothing to do with childbearing or sexual behavior at all. The breasts and vulva may simply indicate who the figure is: the female god. Think of how Christ is always depicted with a beard, which is a male sexual characteristic, even though Christ isn’t about male sexuality. The beard is just a marker. Or, given the figurine’s exaggerated breasts, it may have something to do with sustenance: milk, food, nourishment.

The notion that some dude carved this thing to whack off to — when he was surrounded by women who probably weren’t wearing much in the way of clothes anyway — is laughable.

tender moments

A common theme I see amongst young feminists, who are starting to understand the depths of male violence against girls and women, is a feeling of such hopelessness that it concentrates into a feeling of bodily inferiority; a feeling of being weaker, being rapeable, being impregnatable. And sometimes even, in turn, hating oneself and ones female body.

I want every woman out there to know that the physical ability to commit violence upon another person is not a superior trait, despite what generations of men would like you to believe.

Men give violence and brute strength value. So let's talk about where we should be giving value to the female body.

First, the reason men are on average stronger than women is also their downfall. Testosterone is a hormone that gives the ability to build muscle and maintain little fat. To simplify how it works, it burns hard and fast to build. This means that it burns hard and fast through the body as well. Mens bodies breakdown quicker- hearts fail, muscles degenerate, etc. They die younger than women.

Essentially, female bodies are more flexible and have a better endurance. This is because our bodies and systems are built for longevity - not power. Mens bodies are built for power and quick burn.

Our uteruses (and other hormonal regulatory systems in our bodies!) love us dearly. Our bodies regulate hormones, limit testosterone, and ensure we don't burn out quick. We experience menopause and men don't. We've been taught this is a bad thing.. But our bodies slow down and stop the hormones that would burn us out, and mens bodies don't. Menopause elevates our lifespan and quality of life.

In fact, this reproductive/regulatory system is so important, we have fat deposits that protect these organs. This allows us to be healthier for longer, too!!

It also helps a ton that we have a boosted immune system, much better than our male peers. On top of that, we have higher pain tolerances! We are better equipped to fight off things that ail us, and persevere through things that would bring us harm.

So we know women live longer, and in better health - but why is that? Is it just testosterone? Is it just to get pregnant? No! Our bodies don't exist to sustain a baby (though they can, and the fact that all life on earth exists because of women is an astoundingly powerful truth) they exist to sustain us - because we were and are community leaders, healers, caretakers, providers - we are immensely valuable.

Why, evolutionarily, are we this way? Because older women bring more value to communities than older men. Look up the Grandmother Hypothesis in evolution studies; it says menopause evolved because it allows women to live longer, because women (specifically grandmothers!) are key to community survival and kin relationships. Older women are key to our species survival; not just for the lifes they may or may not create, but for the relationships, the community, the reasons we live.

Some other miscellaneous thoughts...Sexually, we are the sex that has an organ made entirely for pleasure. We are the sex capable of multiple orgasms, and stronger. That's worth some thought.

So how do men play into all of this? Men are a genetic mutation of us that exist to provide sperm, if we'd like. Men who had more testosterone became stronger than men with less (therefore better at hunting, building shelter), making them more desirable mates, meaning that the next generation of men was stronger as well. And there they placed the value in strength. Which translated to the value of violence.

So the next time you find yourself valuing the capacity for violence, instead look to value the capacity for creation.

Womanhood is made vulnerable by males who choose violence. And that's why our work as feminists is so important. But I promise you - your body was not designed to receive conflict, but to outlast it. You were designed to build something better.

Don’t Miss These 7 Spectacular Sights Of The Summer Sky

“The summer skies are there every years to offer us a respite from the hardship of our daily lives, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, they remain one of the few sights that almost all of us still have some opportunity to take in. On a clear night, overhead, an enormous but brilliant collections of stars known as the Summer Triangle dominates the skies this month. If you head outside and attempt to view any of the transient sights out there — the Moon, Comet NEOWISE, the planets, the meteor shower, etc. — take some time and enjoy these deep-sky objects, too.

The night sky is always out there for anyone curious to explore it. Even with the ever-increasing number of satellites and the (sometimes severe) light-pollution that we all must reckon with, these natural wonders are just as intrinsically spectacular as they’ve ever been. Turn your telescope or binoculars up at any or all of these seven objects, and you’ll be looking years, centuries, or even millennia back in time, from giant collections of stars to a preview of our own Sun’s death. The Universe, when you see it for yourself, never disappoints.”

Have you been going out to see the Moon at night? How about Comet NEOWISE? Maybe Jupiter and Saturn? Or perhaps you’re planning on viewing next week’s Perseid meteor shower? While you’re out there, take a glance towards the heavens and notice that giant “triangle” overhead. Inside it, there are seven spectacular sights that any telescope or pair of binoculars can reveal to you.

Even if you have no experience with telescopes at all, these seven objects are well within your reach. Here’s how to view them for yourself.

Southern Milky Way and Jupiter

I love being an unpleasant hairy little woman. I eat some bread and I laugh loudly. I pet my cat. I apologize to no one. Sometimes I make rude noises.

White Dwarf’s shrink when they gain more mass

Many white dwarf stars have companion stars. What was once a binary pair of stars, one star exhausts its fuel and after being a red giant, sheds its outer shell and collapses into a white dwarf. Often the companion star is far enough away to not be a problem, but from time to time, they are close enough for an exchange of material, particularly if the partner star bloats to become a red giant. The white dwarf begins to snack on the material from the partner star.

Now, you’d imagine the white dwarf would then grow in size, but rather, it shrinks ! 

It’s not the size that denotes the amount of material, it’s the mass, and as the mass increases, so does the gravitational effect, and the matter is then crushed further down. 

As the gravitational pull increases, it is possible that the now dead star can gain enough pressure at the centre to re-ignite fusion of carbon and oxygen, and it turns out that the mass required to do this, sits very close to the limit where neutron stars are formed. So suddenly a huge portion of the carbon and oxygen begins to fuse, and causes a huge explosion of energy. so much so, that most supernova explosions will output more energy in that one event, than our sun will in it’s entire 10 billion years of main sequence life. 

Oh, am I taking a lot of shirtless photos lately? I’m mostly just asserting the normality of the naked female body. It’s gotten real hip and trendy in our community right now to talk about “not being defined by gender.” I understand the sentiment; we’ve all been fed a lot of shit about what it means to be female, to be a woman, for so long that it just seems to be inherently true instead of fabricated by patriarchal society. I can understand wanting to stand strong, be seen, and say “these assumptions do not hold true for me.” The problem is, when that’s framed as the individual being “not defined by gender” or simply not being female, it throws other females under the bus. It says “I am not this way, but this is true about women, so therefore I am not woman and not defined by being a woman.” I’m gonna stand here instead and say that I manifest my own reality, but my reality and manifestation are not in any way limited by the fact that I am female. I refuse to conform to these bullshit expectations the same as I refuse to throw the female sex under the bus by claiming separation from my sisters. I see the strength in all of you, I see your determination and perseverance and willpower. I stand with you, in solidarity, always ✌🏻️