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#womens history
whenweallvote · 3 days
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Last week, the U.S. Senate confirmed Judge Melissa DuBose to the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island, making her the first person of color and the first openly LGBTQ judge to serve on this Court.
Judge DuBose is also the 100th Black woman ever confirmed to a lifetime federal judgeship in the United States. 
Making history during Women’s History Month? Period! 👩🏾‍⚖️🏛️🤩
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intersectionalpraxis · 17 hours
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Paris Paloma ❤️🇵🇸
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suzannahnatters · 1 year
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So here's one of the coolest things that has happened to me as a Tolkien nut and an amateur medievalist. It's also impacted my view of the way Tolkien writes women. Here's Carl Stephenson in MEDIEVAL FEUDALISM, explaining the roots of the ceremony of knighthood: "In the second century after Christ the Roman historian Tacitus wrote an essay which he called Germania, and which has remained justly famous. He declares that the Germans, though divided into numerous tribes, constitute a single people characterised by common traits and a common mode of life. The typical German is a warrior. [...] Except when armed, they perform no business, either private or public. But it is not their custom that any one should assume arms without the formal approval of the tribe. Before the assembly the youth receives a shield and spear from his father, some other relative, or one of the chief men, and this gift corresponds to the toga virilis among the Romans--making him a citizen rather than a member of a household" (pp 2-3). Got it?
Remember how Tolkien was a medievalist who based his Rohirrim on Anglo-Saxon England, which came from those Germanic tribes Tacitus was talking about? Stephenson argues that the customs described by Tacitus continued into the early middle ages eventually giving rise to the medieval feudal system. One of these customs was the gift of arms, which transformed into the ceremony of knighthood: "Tacitus, it will be remembered, describes the ancient German custom by which a youth was presented with a shield and a spear to mark his attainment of man's estate. What seems to the be same ceremony reappears under the Carolingians. In 791, we are told, Charlemagne caused Prince Louis to be girded with a sword in celebration of his adolescence; and forty-seven years later Louis in turn decorated his fifteen-year-old son Charles "with the arms of manhood, i.e., a sword." Here, obviously, we may see the origin of the later adoubement, which long remained a formal investiture with arms, or with some one of them as a symbol. Thus the Bayeux Tapestry represents the knighting of Earl Harold by William of Normandy under the legend: Hic Willelmus dedit Haroldo arma (Here William gave arms to Harold). [...] Scores of other examples are to be found in the French chronicles and chansons de geste, which, despite much variation of detail, agree on the essentials. And whatever the derivation of the words, the English expression "dubbing to knighthood" must have been closely related to the French adoubement" (pp 47-48.)
In its simplest form, according to Stephenson, the ceremony of knighthood included "at most the presentation of a sword, a few words of admonition, and the accolade." OK. So what does this have to do with Tolkien and his women? AHAHAHAHA I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED. First of all, let's agree that Tolkien, a medievalist, undoubtedly was aware of all the above. Second, turn with me in your copy of The Lord of the Rings to chapter 6 of The Two Towers, "The King of the Golden Hall", when Theoden and his councillors agree that Eowyn should lead the people while the men are away at war. (This, of course, was something that medieval noblewomen regularly did: one small example is an 1178 letter from a Hospitaller knight serving in the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem which records that before marching out to the battle of Montgisard, "We put the defence of the Tower of David and the whole city in the hands of our women".) But in The Lord of the Rings, there's a little ceremony.
"'Let her be as lord to the Eorlingas, while we are gone.' 'It shall be so,' said Theoden. 'Let the heralds announce to the folk that the Lady Eowyn will lead them!' Then the king sat upon a seat before his doors and Eowyn knelt before him and received from him a sword and a fair corselet."
I YELLED when I realised what I was reading right there. You see, the king doesn't just have the heralds announce that Eowyn is in charge. He gives her weapons.
Theoden makes Eowyn a knight of the Riddermark.
Not only that, but I think this is a huge deal for several reasons. That is, Tolkien knew what he was doing here.
From my reading in medieval history, I'm aware of women choosing to fight and bear arms, as well as becoming military leaders while the men are away at some war or as prisoners. What I haven't seen is women actually receiving knighthood. Anyone could fight as a knight if they could afford the (very pricy) horse and armour, and anyone could lead a nation as long as they were accepted by the leaders. But you just don't see women getting knighted like this.
Tolkien therefore chose to write a medieval-coded society, Rohan, where women arguably had greater equality with men than they did in actual medieval societies.
I think that should tell us something about who Tolkien was as a person and how he viewed women - perhaps he didn't write them with equal parity to men (there are undeniably more prominent male characters in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, at least, than female) but compared to the medieval societies that were his life's work, and arguably even compared to the society he lived in, he was remarkably egalitarian.
I think it should also tell us something about the craft of writing fantasy.
No, you don't have to include gut wrenching misogyny and violence against women in order to write "realistic" medieval-inspired fantasy.
Tolkien's fantasy worlds are DEEPLY informed by medieval history to an extent most laypeople will never fully appreciate. The attitudes, the language, the ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS use of medieval military tactics...heck, even just the way that people travel long distances on foot...all of it is brilliantly medieval.
The fact that Theoden bestows arms on Eowyn is just one tiny detail that is deeply rooted in medieval history. Even though he's giving those arms to a woman in a fantasy land full of elves and hobbits and wizards, it's still a wonderfully historically accurate detail.
Of course, I've ranted before about how misogyny and sexism wasn't actually as bad in medieval times as a lot of people today think. But from the way SOME fantasy authors talk, you'd think that historical accuracy will disappear in a puff of smoke if every woman in the dragon-infested fantasy land isn't being traumatised on the regular.
Tolkien did better. Be like Tolkien.
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haggishlyhagging · 4 months
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Researchers found the female body was better suited for endurance activity “which would have been critical in early hunting because they would have had to run the animals down into exhaustion before actually going in for the kill”.
Scientists said the hormones oestrogen and adiponectin – typically present in higher quantities in female bodies – play a key role in enabling women to modulate glucose and fat, which is critical for athletic performance.
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manie-sans-delire-x · 6 months
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Men: *ban girls/women from education even under threat of death*
Girls/women: *dont know anything*
Men: See? Proof that women are stupid
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yesterdaysprint · 1 year
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri, March 7, 1897
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cozy-lake · 23 days
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I’m thinking of ALL women this women’s history month.
Palestinian women
Transgender women
Women of color
Disabled women
Queer women
Indigenous women
Jewish women
Asexual and aromantic women
EVERY woman deserves to be uplifted and celebrated this month and every month.
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bishh-kanya · 15 days
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Wake up babe it's women's history month And we're celebrating
Indian Women in medicine
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DR . ANANDIBAI GOPALRAO JOSHI ( first female doctor in India )
DR . KADAMBINI GANGULY ( first female doctor in Asia)
DR. S I PADMAVATI ( first female Indian cardiologist)
DR . MARY POONEN LUkOSE ( first lady surgeon of India)
DR . INDIRA HINDUJA ( gynaecologist who delivered India's first test tube baby )
DR . SAROJ CHOORAMANI GOPAL ( first woman M.ch paediatric surgeon )
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feministwhobites · 4 months
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"Prostitution was illegal in most places, but the fines levied on prostitutes provided a steady income for towns (as they still do). Many approved of brothels to curb male rampages. Between 1436 and 1486, for example, gangs of young men, mostly the sons or servants of residents, preyed on Dijon women. They broke into the houses of spinsters, widows, or wives whose husbands were away to rape them, sometimes dragging the women through the streets to an empty house where they kept them for days, repeatedly raping them. City officials solved this problem by setting up municipal brothels. They filled them with the women who had been assaulted in the gang rape."
-p.43 of 'From Eve to Dawn, A History of Women in the World, Volume II: the Masculine Mystique' (French, Marilyn)
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penusinfurs · 4 months
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Smith College Girls for Smith Archives <3
1: Student in Neilson Library, undated
2: College Hall Sit-In, 1990
3: Two BSA members, c1970
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daisylark · 4 months
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I will never stop encouraging women to research their own family history. Off the top of your head, do you know your grandmother’s maiden name? Your great grandmother’s? Do your research, ask the women in your family. Learn their names, learn their stories. So much of women’s history gets erased.
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leannareneehieber · 12 days
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HELLO!
(Yes, this is me as Sarah Winchester for Halloween. Also, yes, this is pretty much my general wardrobe give or take a lace layer. Yes, I wrote a long chapter in this book about Sarah Winchester because I really love her and find her to be fundamentally misunderstood.)
I just wanted to drop by and say it's still Women's History Month and it's still a GREAT time to read about historical women and how their stories resonate with us today. BONUS: you can do this through ghost lore! Here's how!
A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN: TRUE STORIES OF AMERICA'S GHOSTS examines women's history by using ghost stories; unpacking how we talk about women, alive and dead. Available wherever books are sold, in paperback, audio and digital! Retailer links here!
Word-of-mouth is so important for books like ours, so if this book interests you, could you please share? Thanks so much and Happy Haunting!
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nickysfacts · 6 months
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The feminine urge to program computers and write algorithms!
👩🏻‍💻💜👩🏾‍💻
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haggishlyhagging · 4 months
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Medieval Europeans regarded embroidery as an art, much as we today consider painting. It was considered a female task, and even chambermaids were expected to be competent in it. Yet it was a coveted line of work, as one early Irish law tract stated that "the woman who embroiders earns more profit even than queens." Embroiderers could find employment with professional clothing makers or in tapestry workshops.
By the thirteenth century, given that embroidery was held in high esteem and could bring in money, the field contained plenty of men as well. In England, over time women come up less frequently on the lists of embroiderers than men and more often in conjunction with a husband, even when their work was exceptional. In May 1317 "Rose, the wife of John de Bureford, citizen and merchant of London," sold "an embroidered cope for the choir" to the French queen Isabella (ca. 1295-1358), who gave it as a gift "to the Lord High Pontiff." Rose was clearly a very skilled artist, since she was commissioned by the queen, but was not skilled enough to be named as an artist in her own right. We don't know how many other working embroiderers were subsumed into their husbands' workshops with even their first names lost to us. Once a field became truly profitable, men nudged women out of it. It was all well and good to let ladies have fun with a needle and thread. But if there was cash to be made, men suddenly showed up front and center and excluded women from the role.
-Eleanor Janega, The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society
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makingqueerhistory · 1 year
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Are there any queer artists who were women from history that you could share with me?
Absolutely! We love requests like this!
Here is a list of articles that might interest you:
Leonor Fini
Agnes Goodsir 
Tove Jansson 
Tamara de Lempicka
Frida Kahlo
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