Last year I did a few write-ups and drawings about some lady fighters from history who fought openly as their gender (there are plenty of disguised-as-a-man soldiers and plenty of trans soldiers, but those are outside the scope of this series). This is by no means an exhaustive list; there were plenty of great figures that my schedule didn’t permit me to tackle (at least not yet). But as Women’s History Month gets started tomorrow, I thought y’all might enjoy reading about some of history’s toughest broads.
“You don’t own me
I’m not just one of your many toys
You don’t own me
Don’t say I can’t go with other boys
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And don’t tell me what to do
Don’t tell me what to say
And please, when I go out with you
Don’t put me on display…” – “You Don’t Own Me” (Madara/White), recorded by Lesley Gore, 1963.
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Picture: Lesley Gore (May 2, 1946 – February 16, 2015), c. 1963.
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At the age of sixteen, Lesley Gore, who died two years ago today, burst onto the pop charts with “It’s My Party,” and quickly followed it up with other hits like “Judy’s Turn to Cry,” the protofeminist anthem “You Don’t Own Me,” and “Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows.”
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Although Gore largely dropped out of the pop scene in her later career, she continued to make music. In 1980, Gore and her brother received an Academy Award nomination for their work on the soundtrack of the 1980 film “Fame.”
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In a 2005 interview, Gore came out publicly when she announced that she had been in a relationship with jewelry designer Lois Sasson since 1982.
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Lesley Gore died of lung cancer on February 16, 2015; she was sixty-eight. She was survived by Sasson, her partner of thirty-three years. #lgbthistory #HavePrideInHistory #LesleyGore
LESLEY GORE WAS GAY OMFG I HAD NO FUCKING IDEA
As great as the lyrics to You Don’t Own Me are, they gain so much in the performance:
So tonight I joined my parents, and the neighbours, at the local pub quiz. We won, and won the bonus round, much to the annoyance of the other teams. Apparently my parents and their friends win every other week. Nerds. So to prank them the landlord had a special “Super Hard Pub Question” for us for double or nothing on our prize (vouchers for a gallon of beer) to let the rest of the pub feel better because we were “guaranteed to lose” since there was “no way we could know the answer.” I got picked to answer it because I’m the youngest and have less General Knowledge.
The question?
“What is the word for beer in Ancient Egyptian?”
Pub: *loud raucous laughter and cheering*
Landlord: *looks smug*
Me: Do you want that in English or in the original Hieroglyphs?
Landlord: The hieroglyphs of course!
Pub: *more laughter*
Me: *scribbles quickly in the 10 seconds I had to answer*
Landlord: Fuck. Me.
Pub: *utter silence broken only by someone at the back exclaiming WTF*
Landlord: How did you even know that?
Me: You picked the one person here who can read them?
Landlord: Oh shit it’s you isn’t it?
Dad yelling from the back: SURPRISEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
It’s safe to say we’re simultaneously fucking legends/not very popular at the local right now.
😀
General knowledge can often be Very Specific Knowledge.
Some of the Amazons, like Kroes, auditioned, while the filmmakers
plucked others from the athletic world — Brooke Ence, an American
Crossfit champion, and Madeleine Vall Beijner, a Swedish professional
fighter, among them. “I got an e-mail asking if I could do fighting on
film,” Beijner recalls. “I said, ‘Well, yes, I can fight, and I think I
can fight in a movie. So yes, I’ll do it!’ ”
Months before the cameras started rolling, the women gathered in London
for weeks of training. Not only did they go through basic strength
training to look properly Amazonian, but they also spent hours each day
practicing swordplay, horseback riding and stunt choreography. “The
trainers said they wanted us to look like the female version of 300,”
Beijner says. For several of the athletes, many of whom compete in
individual sports, it was a refreshing change of pace to feel like part
of an all-female team. “It really is cool to see this whole training
area, and there’s not one male figure in sight,” Ence adds. “It’s just
women wrestling other women, kickboxing, doing pull-ups and practicing
with spears — just a lot of stuff that in the real world is very
male-dominated.”
[…]
Once they all donned their Amazon armor and took to the beach for the
big Themysciran battle scenes, Ence says she was surprised by how easy
it was to tap into her inner warrior, especially when surrounded by a
whole horde of fellow soldiers. “The first day we were on-set with all
of our swords and shields, it felt like a different type of power,” she
says. “And we looked awesome.” She wasn’t the only one who got swept up
by all the swords and stunts: Kroes recalls a day when her young son
visited her, and she greeted him in full battle regalia. “If I could
just have that face framed as a picture on my wall,” she says. “I think I
melted because he has never looked at me like that ever. He was just in
full admiration of his mommy as a warrior.”
Me: I get my PhD so I can make reservations at fancy restaurants under “Dr. & Mrs.” then when they expect a man to show up, my gay ass will stroll in instead: hot intellectual wife on my arm. She’s wearing a cocktail dress & is also a doctor. Im smoking a Cuban cigar. their heteronormative wigs is snatched…
“Congratulations – you just made a conversation about salad and hamburgers about the struggle of childbirth.”
TBH Parentfriends, I’m probably tired of looking at pictures of your kid every other day, so I just hid you from my Newsfeed, because what’s important to you isn’t all that important to me. Sorry, not sorry, no one’s feelings got hurt.
But if you start mommyjacking my posts, I will 100% make you cry into your keyboard.
#how unsatisfied are these people with parenthood that they have to validate themselves like this
OK people, we have a really important thing
to say about this. OK. Ready?
If you get antibiotics to treat an STD YOU REALLY GOTTA TAKE ALL OF THEM AS DIRECTED. Even if you feel a bit better, or a sore heals
up, or whatever. Seriously. When you do not take all of your meds you may not
actually clear up your infection. And what happens then? THIS:
Health officials have been warning us about the threat of “super gonorrhea“—a strain of the sexually transmitted disease that is resistant to all known antibiotics—for over a year. But the superbug is here, much faster than previously anticipated. On Wednesday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a cluster of gonorrhea infections that shows both decreased susceptibility to ceftriaxone and very high-level resistance to azithromycin. It’s the first time this superbug has been found in the U.S.
Reblogging this because ~this is important~
I’ve never been so happy to not have sex.
Reblogging because I tell my patients this all the time and we talk about this at work all the time ☝🏼️☝🏼☝🏼
It’s already happening
Reblogging cause sexual health is important
More information on this after having read the CDC report:
The cluster of antibiotic resistant gonorrhea cases was a small group in Hawai’i, and they have all since been treated and have a clean bill of health.
the resistant variety is still treatable by conventional means, it just requires doctor and patient to both pay closer attention and adjust dosages and times more carefully
the purpose of the CDC document was not to cause panic or scare you out of having sex, it was actually aimed at calling attention to the fact that the reason this is happening is because there is an unprecedented number of people that use their antibiotics wrong and only kill the weakest of the bacteria that are infecting them, leaving the strongest and most resistant to treatment specimens alive to reproduce
not having symptoms anymore doesn’t mean the bacteria are completely gone, it just means there aren’t enough to make you symptomatic. KEEP TAKING YOUR ANTIBIOTICS AFTER THIS POINT UNTIL YOU ARE PRESCRIBED TO STOP TAKING THEM. assuming you’re cured early and stopping your medication is literally why this is happening. don’t assume you know better than your doctor.
new treatments have already gone to clinical trials that have proven effective against all known strains of gonorrhea, including the antibiotic resistant ones.
our job now is to protect ourselves and stop the spread of the disease, and not be idiots and take our medications according to the prescription, in order to contain the resistant bacteria as much as possible, because clinical trials can take years.
I’m not trying to tell you all not to worry, but panicking about “uncurable gonorrhea” like i’ve seen some of you doing is NOT what the CDC was trying to do with their report because it’s not even true, that’s the result of media outlets sensationalizing the story for headlines and buzz. the proper response is mindful health practices and thoughtfulness.
that is all.
For us gays out there: PrEP IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR CONDOMS. I REPEAT: NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR CONDOMS
This search for niche groups led Subaru to the 3rd rail of marketing: They discovered that lesbians loved their cars. Lesbians liked their dependability and size, and even the name “Subaru.” They were four times more likely than the average consumer to buy a Subaru. […] Subaru decided to launch an ad campaign focused on lesbian customers. It was such an unusual decision—and such a success—that it pushed gay and lesbian advertising from the fringes to the mainstream.
If you’ve ever wondered why people joke about lesbians driving Subarus, the reason is not just that lesbians like Subarus. It’s that Subaru cultivated its image as a car for lesbians—and did so at a time when few companies would embrace or even acknowledge their gay customers.
The delegates were appalled by the lack of gender equality in America. They found the U.S. to be lagging far behind international human rights standards in a number of areas, including its 23 percent gender pay gap, maternity leave, affordable child care and the treatment of female migrants in detention centers.
The most telling moment of the trip, the women told reporters on Friday, was when they visited an abortion clinic in Alabama and experienced the hostile political climate around women’s reproductive rights.
“We were harassed. There were two vigilante men waiting to insult us,” said Frances Raday, the delegate from the U.K. The men repeatedly shouted, “You’re murdering children!” at them as soon as they neared the clinic, even though Raday said they are clearly past childbearing age.
“It’s a kind of terrorism,” added Eleonora Zielinska, the delegate from Poland. “To us, it was shocking.”
In most European countries, she explained, abortions are performed at general doctors’ offices and hospitals that offer all kinds of other health services, so there aren’t protesters waiting to heckle the women who enter.
The women discovered during their visit that women in the United States have “missing rights” compared to the rest of the world. For instance, the U.S. is one of three countries in the world that does not guarantee women paid maternity leave. The U.N. suggests that countries guarantee at least 14 weeks of paid parental leave. Some countries go further – Iceland requires five months paid leave for each parent, and an additional two months to be shared between them.
“The lack of accommodation in the workplace to women’s pregnancy, birth and post-natal needs is shocking,” Raday said. “Unthinkable in any society, and certainly one of the richest societies in the world.”
Another main area of concern for the delegation is violence against women – particularly gun violence. Women are 11 times more likely to be killed by a gun in the United States than in other high-income countries, and most of those murdersare perpetrated by an intimate partner. While the Obama administration has talked a lot about combatting violence against women, its efforts have been frustrated by Congress’ inability to pass new federal gun restrictions.
While the delegates were shocked by many things they saw in the U.S., perhaps the biggest surprise of their trip, they said, was learning that women in the country don’t seem to know what they’re missing. “So many people really believe that U.S. women are way better off with respect to rights than any woman in the world,” Raday said. “They would say, ‘Prove it! What do you mean other people have paid maternity leave?’”
The US is so far behind in women’s rights, people don’t even believe that other countries allow Paid. Maternity. Leave. Good lord.
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