Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Original poster

Happy Women's History Month!

264 replies

ArabellaScott · 01/03/2024 11:17

I had no idea women got a whole month!!!

I can't wait to see the flags flying from every government building and all the celebrations of women in history everywhere. 😊

OP posts:
Thread gallery
74
Redpencil99 · 09/03/2024 22:01

Boiledbeetle · 01/03/2024 17:00

Right, if we are doing this ourselves, I'm going for a modern historical moment for women, which will go down in history, that follows on from a long line of women throughout history who have lifted their skirts in anger and frustration.

On 22nd December 2022, immediately after the passing of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill in Holyrood, Elaine Miller, a pelvic physiotherapist, and occasional wearer of a very fetching vulva costume, stood up in the public gallery and shouted:

“If this parliament will not respect the rights of women, then you have no decency. And if you will not be decent towards women who are being raped in jails right now that you’re in charge of, if you will not be decent, then I will be indecent. Get it right up yers. You TERRIBLE TERRIBLE people.”

And as she started to shout “then I will be indecent…” she raised her skirt and, thanks to an MSP with a phone on record, the world got a fantastic view of a fun fur merkin stuck to the front of her tights.

Elaine Miller - absolute Great of all time

Original poster
ArabellaScott · 09/03/2024 21:41

Here's a brilliant project - this woman is bringing historical female explorers to the forefront:

https://www.womanwithaltitude.com/

'I'm adventurer Lise Wortley, and with an all-female team in tow, I've been on a transformational journey, bringing to life the incredible stories of history's forgotten female adventurers, by literally walking in their footsteps, using only what was available to them at the time. Throughout history, women adventurers and explorers have been overshadowed by their male counterparts. This project seeks to highlight these ground-breaking women's stories and achievements, while challenging traditional narratives of adventurers being fearless and male. This project raises money for women's charities along the way and supports female adventure guides in the regions we visit. '

A whole page of women adventurers!

https://www.womanwithaltitude.com/womenadventurers

HOME | Woman with Altitude

Welcome to Woman with Altitude. A project celebrating and empowering women by following in the footsteps of history's forgotten female explorers and adventurers.

https://www.womanwithaltitude.com

OP posts:
Emotionalsupportviper · 08/03/2024 12:47

JanesLittleGirl · 08/03/2024 12:45

There are 365 (366 this year) of the fucking things!

Show quote history

😂

JanesLittleGirl · 08/03/2024 12:45

HoneyButterPopcorn · 08/03/2024 12:21

And on the BBC news page about IWD… at the bottom ‘is there and international Men’s Day?’ Of course. 🙄

There are 365 (366 this year) of the fucking things!

HoneyButterPopcorn · 08/03/2024 12:21

And on the BBC news page about IWD… at the bottom ‘is there and international Men’s Day?’ Of course. 🙄

HoneyButterPopcorn · 08/03/2024 09:05

So just went into bbc sounds. ‘ IWD content’ . Paris lees. For goodness sake …

hollyblueivy · 08/03/2024 08:01

HoneyButterPopcorn · 02/03/2024 15:23

So shopping to day we were in one shop that had little ‘women owned company’ notices on some shelves and a big window display showing photos and company logos of ‘women owned/run companies’

i paused to play ‘spot the ball’ as you do with any ‘women only’ list these days, and the man next to me (who’d also stopped to look) nodded at one photo and said ‘that’s a bloke’.

I think people are getting tired of ‘days, weeks, months, seasons of…’ and the fact that some people always pop up in ‘women only’ categories who shouldn’t be there.

What do they were saying something was a woman's book but it was actually by a man?

hollyblueivy · 08/03/2024 08:00

RandySavage · 02/03/2024 14:23

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57008360

my favourite bit of women’s history that I recently learned of. No doubt her shortish hair will lead to somebody trying to trans her in the near future.

Edited

Thanks for sharing that was an interesting read.

Go Sophie.

SinnerBoy · 08/03/2024 07:50

Have a good IWD, ladies.

Boiledbeetle · 08/03/2024 07:40

It's here!

It's INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

Let's hope it a day of companies championing women and not men with special feelings.

We Can Do It Women GIF by buzzfeedladylike
Original poster
ArabellaScott · 08/03/2024 07:32

Happy International Women's Day!

Heres an account of the reconstruction of a woman's face based on the remains of a 45,000 year old skull found in a cave in the Czech Republic. The oldest human remains found, homo sapiens but closely linked to Neanderthal.

https://ortogonline-com.translate.goog/doc/pt_br/OrtogOnLineMag/6/Zlaty.html

Happy Women's History Month!
OP posts:
JanesLittleGirl · 07/03/2024 12:09

Hipparchia the Cynic. How wonderful is that?

I might just change my username.

Emotionalsupportviper · 07/03/2024 11:30

I hope that Hipparchia's brave and dignified response to her opponent's action actually shamed him in front of everyone.

That's men*, though - if a woman opposes you and you can't refute her arguments, use brute strength to intimidate her.

*I know, I know NAM . . . 🙄

Original poster
ArabellaScott · 07/03/2024 11:15

Another Greek philosopher - Hipparchia the Cynic. I think she'd have enjoyed FWR.

https://classicalwisdom.com/people/hipparchia-of-maroneia-female-philosopher-and-provocateur/

The Philosophy Of Hipparchia

It is recorded that Hipparchia wrote many philosophical works, but they have all been lost. Indeed, almost all we know about this remarkable female philosopher comes from later Greek and Byzantine sources. It appears that Hipparchia helped to refine important aspects of Cynic thought.
She was known for her brilliant use of the rhetorical trope known in Greek as spoudogeloion. This was a syllogism that used humor to reveal some idea or argument and was often used to discredit conventional beliefs. Hipparchia used these to refute arguments about the natural inferiority of women.
The philosopher was also famous for her promotion of the Cynic concept of anaideia (shamelessness). The Cynics believed that shamelessness was necessary so that people could overcome conventions and live as natural as animals and birds. Hipparchia embodied the concept of anaideia, as she refused to act like a ‘respectable’ woman. A good example of her anaideia was when she won a debate and her opponent tried to strip her naked. She did nothing and was quite happy to be seen naked, which was contrary to all social norms. Hipparchia came to personify the Cynic doctrines and her commitment to poverty and a life of simplicity won her many admirers even among those who denounced the philosophies.

Cynics

Far from being pessimistic or nihilistic, as modern uses of the term "cynic" suggest, the ancient Cynics were astonishingly optimistic regarding human nature. They believed that if one simplified one's life--giving up all unnecessary possessions, desir...

https://books.google.com/books?id=_5z-zTlFcBsC&pg=PA244&lpg=PA244&dq=spoudogeloion&source=bl&ots=B0Knx1Nqgh&sig=ACfU3U2p8P5qGUW8mkdEsENJ5pqrH3M8Dw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj62tnckpjxAhVSXM0KHSOVA3MQ6AEwCnoECBQQAw#v=onepage&q=spoudogeloion&f=false

OP posts:
Original poster
ArabellaScott · 07/03/2024 07:59

Greek women

Stoic philosophy has some great proto feminist principles - unusual among Greek philosophies in considering women should (at least in some ways) be considered of equal worth to men.

This article discusses how those principles often were not put into practice:
https://dailystoic.com/mcgill-aikin-stoicism-feminism-interview/#:~:text=%5BEM%5D%3A%20The%20standard%20argument,equal%20citizens%20of%20the%20cosmopolis.

Stoicism, Feminism, and Autonomy: An Interview With Emily McGill and Scott Aikin

Emily McGill received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Vanderbilt University in 2015. Her research areas are social/political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and ethics. Scott Aikin is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. He earned...

https://dailystoic.com/mcgill-aikin-stoicism-feminism-interview#:~:text=%5BEM%5D%3A%20The%20standard%20argument,equal%20citizens%20of%20the%20cosmopolis.

OP posts:
BeyondHumanKenneth · 06/03/2024 19:48

Re women in tech shout out to Mary Lee, who helped create the world's first commercial general computer in Manchester and who undoubtedly inspired her son to create the technology we are using now to discuss these amazing yet forgotten women!

https://blogs.bl.uk/sound-and-vision/2018/01/mary-lee-berners-lee-the-joy-of-programming-and-equal-pay.html#:~:text=Mary%20Lee%20Berners%2DLee%2C%20originally,technology%20in%20her%20own%20right.

SinnerBoy · 06/03/2024 12:52

Emotionalsupportviper · Today 11:24

I'd love to do a course on how to read a painting - there is so much in early art that we miss looking at it with a modern eye.

Yes, it's fascinating, I've seen programmes where they analyse paintings and they tell you what it actually means, but they don't always explain why.

Emotionalsupportviper · 06/03/2024 11:24

SinnerBoy · 06/03/2024 09:36

The sieve henceforth became a recognisable symbol of chastity and purity - and Elizabeth the first was sometimes portrayed holding one.

I love learning about this sort of thing.

Same here - it's fascinating.

I'd love to do a course on how to read a painting - there is so much in early art that we miss looking at it with a modern eye.

SinnerBoy · 06/03/2024 09:36

The sieve henceforth became a recognisable symbol of chastity and purity - and Elizabeth the first was sometimes portrayed holding one.

I love learning about this sort of thing.

Original poster
ArabellaScott · 06/03/2024 09:12

Rome today!

Vestal Virgins swore an oath of chastity, and were set apart from the rest of society, given special privileges. Often they were said to have mystical powers. Sometimes they were accused of having sex or relationships, and the punishment for this was immurement - being walled up while alive and left to die. So they were both uniquely privileged and uniquely at risk.

Tuccia was accused of being unchaste - she proved her virtue by carrying a sieve full of water from the Tiber River to the Temple of Vesta.

The sieve henceforth became a recognisable symbol of chastity and purity - and Elizabeth the first was sometimes portrayed holding one.

(Somewhat unsurprisingly, some of the portrayals of virgins were quite salacious, as in this statue of Tuccia by Antonio Corradini, with the clinging fabric.)

Happy Women's History Month!
Happy Women's History Month!
Happy Women's History Month!
OP posts:
viques · 05/03/2024 23:32

Emotionalsupportviper · 04/03/2024 20:15

Good time for most women too - it's not as though a lot of them will be putting children to bed, feeding families, chucking school/work clothes into the wash, or supervising homework between 7.00 and 9.00 is it?

Show quote history

Not to mention that a Friday evening is impossible for observant Jewish women and probably not ideal for Muslim women either!

Emotionalsupportviper · 05/03/2024 20:55

YouJustDoYou · 05/03/2024 20:27

I got my children Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, ALL actual women, ALL fantastic historical mini biographies of some truly amazing women throughout history.

Mind you, this was purchased about 6 years ago I think, so the updated vers. will probably have at least one faux-woman in it now...

You are right.

I had a look and checked the reviews. The ones below were 2 star ones. A 1 star one was also critical of a trans identifying male being included.

Disappointed in the content. I simply thought this was a book about women who changed the world for the better in some way. However there is also a story about a little boy in it who wanted to become a girl. There’s a place for stories like that and frankly I don’t think it’s here.

Sadly, the author felt it necessary to include a boy who wants to be a girl which has no place in a book for 6 year olds. This is a controversial ideology and recent evidence and reviews by senior NHS consultants has shown the harms of such ideologies for kids, so please leave this out, so parents can make an informed decision when buying books.

Such a shame - but the other 99 hopefully make the book worth reading. I wonder which woman was left out so that a trans identifying male could be included.

YouJustDoYou · 05/03/2024 20:27

I got my children Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, ALL actual women, ALL fantastic historical mini biographies of some truly amazing women throughout history.

Mind you, this was purchased about 6 years ago I think, so the updated vers. will probably have at least one faux-woman in it now...

PurpleBugz · 05/03/2024 20:23

Amazing thread. Thanks so much for this