Feeling A Little Feminist

So we talked about things we could do but we never made a group decision, and I feel that being the first to post each week does not give me right to make the decision for all of us. I feel we should work on this a little.

ANYWAYS because I have no idea what we're doing I'm going to talk about something important to me.

I just saw the movie Brave and can assuredly say that it is most definitely my new favorite Disney movie even though it is still slightly inaccurate in its history. All the other Disney princesses have practically required a romance interest of some sort, but this movie really goes against the traditional Disney plot in showing a young confident lady who has a solid secure reason of not feeling emotionally ready for marriage also the lack of being consulted on the subject as why she does not want to marry.

But this movie reminded me of all the women in history who went against the grain too, not just Joan of Arc or Margaret Thatcher or stories of the Amazons and Shield Maidens. I'm not really counting morality, but really the courage to do things many people would have said had not been possible for a woman to achieve.

I also want to make a quick note before I start this, I was googling historical women, strong independent, badass, etc. Most of the links I got were to fictional women and women of folklore. The closest was most powerful but powerful does not necessarily mean strong and independent. It mostly implies political position.

First off is the lady I linked you guys to on Facebook. La Maupin Julie d'Aubigny. She was born in 1670 and died in 1707 at age 37. But while she was alive she lived a life very free of caution and society rules. She grew up learning the way of the sword and had an amazing talent for singing. She married young but did not live with her husband as she refused to move with him. Her marital status however allowed her some freedom, which she exploited beyond its boundaries.

She had many affairs, with a fencing master, with a man she had bested in a duel, with men and women alike regardless of their social status and she was very public about it. She had worn men's clothing to social events and danced with the other ladies and would seduce them in front of the male aristocrats. And once went so far as to break into a convent, steal the body of a nun, set the place on fire all in order to fake death and run off with the young woman she was currently having an affair with.

Those quirky unique Disney girls have nothing on her.

Then there's the outlaw Pearl Hart in the late 1800's, she was originally from Canada but her life of crime that made her famous took place in the American west. She cut her hair and dressed in men's clothing just like La Maupin, but instead of being famous for seducing everyone she met, she was famous for a coach robbery of a few hundred dollars, which at the time was significant. Though she was caught with her accomplice and sentenced to only five years, she brought fame to prison as the only female in residence and was thus treated incredibly well and was able to entertain guests and reporters. Hell her cell practically had a garden. But either way she managed to persuade her way out of jail in only two years.

After she got free she dropped off the face of the earth, many rumors place her all over even in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, her death isn't even certain, one date claims she died in 1955 and another in 1960.

There are so many other women I'd like to write about but I need to not give you guys a novel to read. I'd have loved to include Boudicca in this post or Susan B. Anthony and many suffragettes throughout the women's rights movements.

sources where you can read up more on these women

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-pearlhart.html
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pearl-hart-holds-up-an-arizona-stagecoach
http://www.eldacur.com/~brons/Maupin/LaMaupin.html
http://www.thecimmerian.com/%E2%80%9Cbeautiful-valiant-generous-and-supremely-unchaste%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%94-julie-daubigny-swordwoman/

ALSO WIKIPEDIA. There are not enough articles on these women. This is a problem with the internet that needs fixing.