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UCLA CSW Update Newsletter

Title Women Who Misbehave (And Change the World)

Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0z16d64h

Author Hant, Myna A.

Publication Date 2011-04-01

eScholarship.org Powered by the Digital Library update MYRNA A. HANT CSW 2011 Women Who Misbehave (And Change the World) EVERAL YEARS AGO I saw a bumper very well-known, some have been largely be told, however, without her compatriots Ssticker that read “Well-Behaved ignored by history, and some, although Susan B. Anthony, the Pankhurst family, Women Rarely Make History.” I was well-known in their time, are basically , and . intrigued by that and wondered who are forgotten now. Stanton’s spunk in tackling the Bible with the women who misbehave, what makes Initially, and because I do research her feminist interpretation of the sacred them misbehave, and how do they change on media coverage of older women, I texts in the Woman’s Bible (1898) led me the world? These were the questions that chose several women who are distinctive to think about very religious women who propelled me to establish a lecture series because they have continued prodigious incorporate today into their that I call “Women Who Misbehave,” activity well into the second half of life: religious practices. Orthodox Jews such with such themes as the Second Half of Coco Chanel, Dolores as Rachel Adler, Blu Greenberg Judith Life, the Suffrage Movement, Religious Huerta, Katharine Feminists and Women Adventurers. It is, Hepburn and Elizabeth obviously, a highly subjective endeavor Cady Stanton, my as there are so many women who have favorite activist and challenged cultural standards to promote intellect. Elizabeth change. Some of the women I choose are Cady Stanton’s story can’t

23 IDA B. WELLS BARNETT Plaskow; Catholics such as Elizabeth are not given enough coverage in current rescue more than 70 slaves: “I nebber Schussler Fiorenza and Elizabeth textbooks. These extraordinary women run my train off de track and I nebber Johnson; and Muslims such as Shirin combatted, and are combatting, racial as los’ a passenger.” Truth, who was an Ebadi and Irshad Manji are all modern well as issues. I covered, all too abolitionist and women’s rights advocate, believers grappling with patriarchal IYPLÅ`ZSH]LY`  YLJVUZ[Y\J[PVU spoke out about the horrors of slavery but religions. There are also women who are (1865-1877) and its aftermath, the civil also addressed the issue of equality for driven not by a cause or religion as much rights movement (1955-1968), the black women: as their sense of adventure. Gertrude Bell, power movement (1966-1975) and black the most famous female archaeologist feminism (1973-present). There is a great stir about colored men of her time, Freya Stark, Isak Dinesen, getting their rights, but a word about the and Beryl Markham belie the notion that Two of the most well-known women in colored women: and if colored men get women cannot physically handle untamed the slavery period were Sojourner Truth their rights and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters environments. (1797-1883) and (1820- over the women and it will be just as bad I just completed a lecture series on 1913). Tubman, who was an abolitionist HZILMVYL0\ZLK[V^VYRPU[OLÄLSKHUK African American women, many of whom and activist, made thirteen missions to bind grain, keeping up with the cradler; but

24 csw update: special issue celebrating the CSW research scholars men doing no more, got twice as much which eventually became Bethune- mammy, matriarch, welfare mother, and pay. When we get our rights, we shall not Cookman University. jezebel and dares to analyze black male/ have to come to you (not your) for money, female relationships. for then we have money enough in our own vividly represents the civil pockets; and maybe you will ask us for rights movement when she asserts, in My continues this exploration money. (Narrative of Sojourner Truth, Nell Story, “People always say that I didn’t give and decries the iconic image of black Irvin Painter). female as strong and powerful: up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no Two great leaders of the nineteenth The stereotypical image of the black woman and early twentieth century were born more than I usually was at the end of a as strong and powerful so dominates the consciousness of most Americans that even working day. I was not old, although some during reconstruction: Ida B. Wells and if a black woman is clearly conforming to Mary McLeod Bethune. Wells was a people have an image of me as being old sexist notions of femininity and passivity she may be characterized as tough, domineering then. I was 42. No, the only tired I was, journalist and an outspoken crusader and strong. (Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women against lynching and an advocate for was tired of giving in.” and Feminism) women’s rights and suffrage. Her deeds Angela Davis, who was associated were lauded in this tribute from poet with and the These women dramatically recreated the world. To understand their stories is to Katherine Davis Chapman Tillman: movement of the 1970s, is an academic gain inspiration and courage for one’s who sees not only the black struggle, but Go, thou brave woman leader own transformation. Spread our wrongs from shore to shore the disconnect between black men and Until clothed with his rights is the Negro black women in the movement: And lynchings are no more Myrna A. Hant has been a CSW Research Scholar And the wise -American mother since 2001. She received her Ph.D. in Higher Who her children of heroine tells I became acquainted very early with the Education from UCLA. She was a college ad- Shall speak in tones of gratitude widespread presence of an unfortunate syn- ministrator as well as an instructor in Women’s The name of Ida B. Wells drome among some black male activists— Studies at Chapman University. Her lecture namely to confuse their political activity with series is given through UCLA Extension. an assertion of their maleness….These black Wells’ contemporary, Mary McLeod men view black women as a threat to their Photo credits: Photo of Angela Davis, Berlin, 1973, Bethune, believed that education would attainment of manhood—especially those Commons:Bundesarchiv, via Wikimedia Commons; be the foundation for women to stand black women who take initiative and work to become leaders in their own right. [(Angela photo of Sojourner Truth from National Portrait Gal- ¸ZPKLI`ZPKL^P[O[OLÄULZ[TLU[OL Davis: An Autobiography) lery, Smithsonian Institution, via Wikimedia Com- state has been able to produce” (Building mons; and photo of Ida B. Wells Barnett from Project Gutenberg ebook Sparkling Gems of Race Knowl- a Better World, Audrey Thomas). She Intellectual activist and author Alice edge Worth Reading (1897) by James T. Haley, via founded a school for African Anericans, Walker addresses the stereotypes of Wikimedia Commons.

25 csw update: special issue celebrating the CSW research scholars