Bad Ass Women Of Australian History, Sheilas!
September 4, 2018 11:32 AM Subscribe
It’s been said that “well-behaved women seldom make history”, but the handful of white boys who wrote our History books conveniently left most of them out. To rectify this situation, Hannah and Eliza Reilly are unearthing the forgotten stories of the badass women of Australian History.
Nancy Wake - Hard driving, hard flirting, Nazi killing Bad Ass.
Fanny Durack - Hard swimming, never gave up, Bad Ass.
Mary Ann Bugg - Hard Shooting, Bush Ranger, Did it all while raising a kid, Bad Ass.
Merele Thornton - Just wanted a drink, Chained herself to the Bar, Took no Flak, Bad Ass.
Bonus quote from Nancy Wake "I killed many Germans (Nazi's), my only regret is that I didn't kill more."
Bonus quote from Nancy Wake "I killed many Germans (Nazi's), my only regret is that I didn't kill more."
Nancy Wake fan here!
I read this biography a year or two ago. It was very entertaining. It would make an excellent gift, I think, for someone in their early teens.
posted by HoraceH at 1:08 PM on September 4, 2018
I read this biography a year or two ago. It was very entertaining. It would make an excellent gift, I think, for someone in their early teens.
posted by HoraceH at 1:08 PM on September 4, 2018
Her autobiography (The White Mouse) is available as an ebook and I highly recommend it— she’s a super engaging writer and the book is a wild ride.
posted by nonasuch at 2:33 PM on September 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by nonasuch at 2:33 PM on September 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
It’s been said that “well-behaved women seldom make history”
It was said by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who deserves the credit.
Great links, stilgar!
posted by Songdog at 5:42 PM on September 4, 2018
It was said by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who deserves the credit.
Great links, stilgar!
posted by Songdog at 5:42 PM on September 4, 2018
>>It’s been said that “well-behaved women seldom make history”
>It was said by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who deserves the credit.
Yes, it's very worth pointing out that it wasn't just said by some random unknown person, but by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a very distinguished and ground-breaking woman historian who specialized in women's studies and who deserves to be a lot better known than she is.
Also, it's worth pointing out that Ulrich meant the phrase in rather the opposite meaning than it is usually taken.
She was NOT directing her comment towards women and giving them a bit of advice to start acting more ill-behaved in order have a better chance of making the history books. (As amusing and inspiring as the quote can be when taken that way.)
Rather, she was directing her comments more towards those who are WRITING history, and suggesting we should spend more of our time studying those regular, ordinary people--and particularly, women--who are actually the backbone of history but are far too often overlooked in favor of flashy, headline-grabbing dimwits.
The "great men" approach to history tends to pretend that history moves forward on the backs of the 0.001% and the other 99.999% are just ignored. It's worth spending some time looking at the remaining 99.999%--including those "well-behaved women" who are usually completely ignored--both because they are interesting and because in sum they have a far greater effect on the forward movement of history than the usual few kings, dictators, and generals who make the headlines in history books.
You can read more about the origin and original source of the quote here (an interesting story in itself).
Ulrich wrote a whole book about the quote, origin, and aftermath here--well worth reading.
posted by flug at 11:31 PM on September 4, 2018 [7 favorites]
>It was said by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who deserves the credit.
Yes, it's very worth pointing out that it wasn't just said by some random unknown person, but by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a very distinguished and ground-breaking woman historian who specialized in women's studies and who deserves to be a lot better known than she is.
Also, it's worth pointing out that Ulrich meant the phrase in rather the opposite meaning than it is usually taken.
She was NOT directing her comment towards women and giving them a bit of advice to start acting more ill-behaved in order have a better chance of making the history books. (As amusing and inspiring as the quote can be when taken that way.)
Rather, she was directing her comments more towards those who are WRITING history, and suggesting we should spend more of our time studying those regular, ordinary people--and particularly, women--who are actually the backbone of history but are far too often overlooked in favor of flashy, headline-grabbing dimwits.
The "great men" approach to history tends to pretend that history moves forward on the backs of the 0.001% and the other 99.999% are just ignored. It's worth spending some time looking at the remaining 99.999%--including those "well-behaved women" who are usually completely ignored--both because they are interesting and because in sum they have a far greater effect on the forward movement of history than the usual few kings, dictators, and generals who make the headlines in history books.
You can read more about the origin and original source of the quote here (an interesting story in itself).
Ulrich wrote a whole book about the quote, origin, and aftermath here--well worth reading.
posted by flug at 11:31 PM on September 4, 2018 [7 favorites]
I was very pleased that when my 10 year old came across Nancy Wake at school, we were able to go into the Australian War Memorial and see her medals. Although it took a bit of (fun) searching.
posted by jjderooy at 12:25 AM on September 5, 2018
posted by jjderooy at 12:25 AM on September 5, 2018
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posted by deadwax at 12:45 PM on September 4, 2018 [3 favorites]