… Zadie Smith’s On Beauty played with the ‘body’ theme in fiction, whilst a century before, the body in all its constituent parts – along with beauty – was both a subject for sniggering sentiment, with ‘naughty’ postcards being sold surreptitiously on street corners and in alleyways or at fun fairs and in seaside pavillions, as well as a serious topic ‘for the ladies’.
Category: Blog
The Women’s History Network blog
Travelling Together, Then Alone – Part II
We were bombed so many times and the rationing was a nightmare. The war was over, so we sold up and emigrated to Tasmania. We were able to stay at the shop until we left for Tilbury and the Orion, early in May. The hirecar people drove up with the car that was to take us to Victoria Station: it was the new Daimler, bought for weddings! Even the police on point duty waved us through.
Travelling Together, Then Alone – Part I
It was to be a quiet weddding, but the girls were up in arms. They wanted to be bridesmaids and we said: ‘Why not?’ We married at St Giles Cathedral, Camberwell. It was a white wedding after all, with three bridesmaids. My father gave me away.
Special Agent Christine Granville – ‘The spy who loved …’
… She was in southern Africa when Poland was invaded, and by the time her ship reached Europe her home-country was occupied. Unable to sign up to fight alongside her compatriots, Christine determined to get Britain to support her plan to ski across the hazardous Carpathian mountains taking money and propaganda to the Polish resistance, and information – on microfilm hidden inside her gloves – back out …
Feminist Historical Novels: An important contribution to writing women into history
Each writer has used historical fiction in a way that undermines the control of women’s reading. They have produced work that, while ostensibly is safe because it is ‘women’s fiction’, questions women’s place in history. Historical novels have had a mixed reception, not all of it respectful. Again, such a reputation has added to the advantages a feminist writer can enjoy in her writing history. Each writer has written her history inspired by women’s role, actions, feelings and aspirations.
Fundamentalism vs Education: Women’s Struggle – Part 2
… the denial of history is an easy way out of recognising the longevity of antagonism toward women’s right to education and entry into trades and professions alongside their male counterparts.
Fundamentalism vs Education: Women’s Struggle – Part 1
… at nine Malala Yousufzai began writing a BBC blog. Under a pseudonym she described life under the Taliban. Despite threats, her media appearances, along with her public speaking from platforms and footpaths, in the marketplace and in village centres, met with an award of a high-level civilian honour for her courage. Her refusal to be quiet, her determination to use her brain as a thinking organ and her capacity for speech as a reason to speak out, made her a Taliban target.
An ‘All-Women’s Garage’ in the Making
When I was about twelve-years-old my sister became involved in the Women’s Movement. At first I was repulsed by her missionary zeal, particuarly her strident efforts to ‘raise my consciousness’. We talked lots about sexuality and the roles women and men are forced to live, and I came to realise that my beliefs fitted comfortably with feminist ideology. Over the following years I met many of my sister’s friends and became more involved with feminists and political activists. Then, the civil liberties campaign for the right to march in Queensland was at its height and I began to attend demonstrations.
Aboriginal First, Woman Second – Part 2
We went to a settlement roughly 5 kilometres from inner-city Perth. Five vans had been donated by a mining company – with one toilet, one washing tub, one shower and one light to service all the families living in the vans. That visit above all was upsetting. The babies were sick. The adults showed such loss it is difficult to describe. They are terrorsed by police. The young women are raped; bashings are common. Just a little way through the scrub was a park area where the practising Klansmen bashed Aborigines to the point of death. I was devastated with what I saw. I met a woman about forty years old, who thought I could do something. If only I could. It was hard for her to understand I was there for my own interest, and was not connected to a higher power, or its messenger.