The movie Stonewall, directed by Roland Emmerich, premiers September 25, 2015. This movie has been the center of controversy regarding its cast and trailer. While the jury is still out on the finished product, the trailer and plot synopsis focuses on a white, cisgender man. Transgender people and people of color, if included at all, seem to be relegated to supporting roles. Notably, famous Stonewall participant Sylvia Rivera isn’t listed in the IMBD page at all. … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Sylvia Rivera →
Steampunk fans, nerds, comic book fans, and history fans rejoice, for all these things come gloriously together in The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. Author Sidney Padua combines a non-fiction comic, a fiction comic, and non-fiction prose for your delight and edification. Here’s the deal: The first section of the book tells the real-life story of Victorian Mad Scientists Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace (commonly referred to as history’s first computer designer and computer … Continue reading The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sidney Padua →
Oh my gosh, fellow history buffs, clear your schedule – How To Climb Mt. Blanc in a Skirt: A Handbook for the Lady Adventurer is so much fun. This book is all about women who were explorers and adventurers, including early explorers such as Lady Hester Stanhope (1776 – 1839) and more modern women such as Jerri Nielsen (1952-2009). The author, Mick Conefrey, never defines his terms, but he seems willing to include any women who … Continue reading How to Climb Mt. Blanc in a Skirt by Mick Conefrey →
I expect that we’ll see a number of WWI themed movies over the next three or four years as we pass through the centennial anniversaries. I’ve written before how I have this fascination with the insanity that was WWI, so yes, I’ll go see like, all of them. I was really excited for this one, being the biography of Vera Brittain and how much I love women’s history and telling women’s stories. I also, having cut … Continue reading Movie Review: Testament of Youth →
Orphan Black is the kind of show that makes me want to go door-to-door preaching the Gospel of Tatiana Maslany. It makes me feel frantic with anxiety, gleeful, weepy, excited, and triumphant. It makes me laugh so hard I fall off the couch and it makes my heart grow three sizes. It’s given rise to a nurturing online community (The Clone Club) which uses one of the character’s lines as its motto, “We make a … Continue reading Ravings of an Orphan Black Fan →
Author Diana Quincy was inspired to write Spy Fall in part by Madame Sophie Blanchard. Madame Blanchard was described as a nervous person who was afraid to ride in a carriage and who was terrified by loud noises, but she married a balloonist during the height of the balloon fad that swept Europe. Beset with financial troubles, her husband thought people might pay more to see a woman fly. Madame Blanchard found riding in a … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Sophie Blanchard →
Welcome to our new feature, Kickass Women in History! This month’s Kickass Woman is Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, better known as Annie Londonderry. She bicycled around the world in 1895. She was the first woman to do it, and it took her fifteen months. Annie was a Jewish woman born in what is now Lativa in 1870. She and her family immigrated to the US when Annie was quite young. She married Max Kopchovsky and they … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Annie Londonderry →
A Note from SB Sarah: In 2015, Carrie will be writing a series for the site called Kickass Women in History, where she’ll profile different forgotten badasses from various periods of time, all of whom kicked ass in various ways. This is the unofficial first post in that series. Enjoy! In Gunpowder Alchemy, our heroine meets a woman who leads a band of rebels. Her name is Lady Su. I assumed that this was a fictional character … Continue reading Su Sanniang: The Bandit Turned Rebel General →
