Let us fix that for you now.

• “History needs to stop being used as an excuse in the fantasy stories of TV, film, and video games that are, in general, male-dominated whether they’re history-based or not.” Word. Dan Wohl at The Mary Sue: Is ‘historical accuracy’ a good defence of patriarchal societies in fantasy fiction?
• “…this notion that History Is Authentically Sexist… what do you mean when you say ‘history?’ History is not a long series of centuries in which men did all the interesting/important things and women stayed home and twiddled their thumbs in between pushing out babies, making soup and dying in childbirth.” Tansy Rayner Roberts follows the Mary Sue’s post over on Tor: Historically authentic sexism in fantasy. Let’s unpack that.
• “The so-called middle ground that’s supposed to prevent disunity always ends up excluding women in an attempt to keep those who want to restrict their ministry happy. And funnily enough, this doesn’t exactly instill in women a sense of unity and grace. It makes some of them feel as if they can’t do what they feel called to do, what they are gifted to do.” A thoughtful set of reflections from Hannah Mudge: Bristol Christian Union and the ‘ban’ on women speakers.

And finally…

• “Announcing Valentin & The Widow, a free weekly audio book series! It’s a globe-trotting 1920s adventure about plucky English aristocrat Eleanora Rosewood, brawny Russian sailor Sacha Valentin, and their fight against a secret organisation that seeks to oppress the weak and destroy the different.” We are listening to this with interest – it’s written by Andrew Wheeler, who among many other things penned the No More Mutants columns on inclusion and geek culture over on Bleeding Cool, which we linked from this site a while ago. Plus, “courageous women! Sexy men!”. How often do you hear anything advertised with the words in that order? (The second instalment just came out.)

This plaque is in St Mary Abbots Parish Church in Kensington, and is a slice of history I thought worth sharing.

An epic tale. Set in stone.

Let me introduce you to someone I didn’t know existed until a couple of weeks ago. Jael Boscawen. She was born Jael Godolphin in 1647, a revolutionary year in which King Charles I was captured by Cromwell,  the Levellers published their manifesto and the New Model Army marched on London.

Challenging times. And a challenging lady, it seems.

Before we get down to details, the case for the defence.

Why is a bit of stone in a church and a woman long dead a relevant Found Feminism?

Well, it’s about history and culture. We know that there has been a problem with women in history – as in, there often don’t seem to be as good, or rich, or as many records for the ladies of the house as the menfolk. Despite it being almost certain that there were as many women in the past as men. There’s an underlying collective shoulder shrug of “well, that’s because women generally didn’t really ever do anything of any note.”  With the snide sidenote of “and generally never will”.

Which is sexism at its most toxic, and history at its most lazy.

When we do find written documentation about women like this one, it’s even more important and valuable to dive into it. Seeking out these women and their history is part of the feminist project. Writing the history of women, and telling it, is part of that project too. The more women we can find from the past, the more confident we will be at reminding ourselves that being a woman does not confine you to being a helpmeet. Then or now.

This is especially true when the women are not quite what we might expect. And such is the case of Jael Godolphin.

What struck me about this plaque in particular is that it seems to be the only record I can find of her. She’s a mystery. A quick Google of her name doesn’t reveal an awful lot. She doesn’t have a Wikipedia page. Her life, as far as we savvy internet creatures are concerned, was no life at all. She was born, she married, she had children, she died. The same bland story of so many women in the past, it seems.

Finding a history written in stone is significant because it indicates how important she must have been (this kind of dedication, with its prominent place by the church door, would not have been cheap). But more significant,  perhaps, is how she is described. The stereotypical view of a “good” woman from this time period would have her as a dutiful wife, daughter, mother, etc.

Not so with Jael Godolphin. The words written about her are about, well… her.

She was adorned with rare faculties of the mind, singular acuteness, sagacity and judgement, with a generous heart.

Let’s be clear. There’s no prattle about how meek, mild and akin to the Virgin Mary she was. No, this woman from the 17th century is immortalised in an expensive chunk of stone, by people who loved and respected her for her mind. Her brain. Her ability to make decisions. To make good decisions, certainly – she had a kind heart, but the brain came first. Exactly the sort of text you might expect to see on the grave of a (male) patron.

Now this is the bit where it gets even better.

Confessedly the ornament and at the same time the tacit reproach of a wicked Age.

Not only was she smart, she was also complicated. I would add her to a fantasy dinner table guest list in a heartbeat, if only to be able to unpick that sentence. What does it mean? In my head she is an Elizabeth I figure, who used the perceptions of her gender to her advantage, self-aware and very canny. But all I have are these words. Not even a picture. However, given all the problems with women and images, perhaps these words are better?

I’m going to end on a shoutout for events such as National Women’s History Month and resource gathering projects such as Wikipedia’s Women’s History. This post was done with love, but not a lot of technical know-how on the whole history front. I stopped doing the subject at 14 when it became clear I was not getting much out of endless, collective-guilt-inducing rehashes of the bombing of Dresden.

If there are any historians out there inspired by this and better at research than me, I’d love to know more about her.

• Found Feminism: an ongoing series of images, videos, photos, comics, posters or excerpts – anything really, which shows feminist ideas at work in the everyday world. What’s brightened your day, or made you stop and think? Share it here – send your finds to [email protected]!

They decline to reveal the smallest details, aiming to maintain total secrecy. They will say only that most of the band members met at the small protests held by Russia’s once-feeble opposition, from monthly illegal demonstrations calling for the right to assembly to banned gay pride marches. Their average age is 25. They are hardcore feminists. Most studied the humanities in university. They won’t detail their day jobs.
– Guardian, 2nd February 2012

Pussy Riot, like the Sex Pistols, have a name designed to make headlines, and a bit more political substance to back up the sensationalism. Formed in Moscow last September, this offshoot of Russia’s complex and fractured political scene has come to prominence in the UK media in the context of protests against political corruption which have been gaining in volume and intensity after parliamentary elections last December. In mid-January, one of the collective’s impromptu guerrilla gigs, taking place on Red Square opposite the Kremlin, ended with its members detained by police.

Laura Barton in the Guardian, picking up on the band’s citing of Bikini Kill as an inspiration, offers a slightly short-sighted view of 90s Riot Grrrl as an antecedent for the expression of ‘an alternative female voice’. While the group clearly do reference Riot Grrrl’s ‘tone of wild irreverence’, it also makes sense to consider Pussy Riot in the context of the former Soviet Union’s long and fascinating history of political protest coalescing around avant garde art and music, especially punk. Adam Curtis’ recent blog is an interesting attempt to make sense of this sort of determinedly oppositional culture which has been notable by its relative absence from the UK’s current wave of socio-political protest. Similarly, the clash of sartorial signifiers which Pussy Riot provide by combining miniskirts and stockings with ski-masks and balaclavas could be a legacy of Riot Grrl too, but as a practical measure it has as much in common with other Anonymous-style contemporary protest movements, not to mention the general history of masking and disguise in protest.

Russia does have a long tradition of women in protest, notably the 1917 revolution in which women played a prominent part, encouraged by the intersection of socialism with many of the goals of women’s liberation. Pussy Riot cite this ‘deep tradition… of gender and revolution – we’ve had amazing women revolutionaries.’ They add that ‘the revolution should be done by women… For now, they don’t beat or jail us as much’. This assertion ties in with historical debates on the ability of women to take part in protest or civil disobedience with a greater degree of impunity than men – an ideal which isn’t always borne out by the treatment of female protesters.

Contemporary Russian politics – like any – are not a straightforward matter, and the extent of Pussy Riot’s relevance and representativeness remains to be seen. But in a context where growing and disparate opposition groups are encountering heavy and often violent repression across the world, the ways in which women participate in protest, and the styles of self-expression they employ, are always worth noting.

• A few weeks ago, but for anyone who’s not seen it: The New York Times features an article on the gender disparity in wikipedia editors.
• Linked to by commenter Ian on our first Pirate Women of History post, this page is from a reenactment site, but basically quite a good pile of historical info, links and lists about women in martial leadership through history. Also relevant for anyone unpersuaded by the arguments in the recent Assassin’s Creed debate about Activities An Independently-Minded Female Character Can Be Doing In A Period Setting Apart From Sex Work (Which Is Fine, But Not The Only Available Activity For A Scriptwriter). And WHERE IS THE NEXT PIRATE POST, I hear you cry? PANIC NOT, DEAR READERS. It’s in the works.
• It’s Women in Horror Recognition Month, if you didn’t know. Stuck to name many women authors and directors working in the horror genre that aren’t male? It’s not for lack of women, that’s for sure, and you can discover many of them at Melissa Helwig’s Little Miss Zombie blog, Maura McHugh’s blog on Splinister.com, and Re/Action magazine editor Sarah Dobb’s blog.
• And while BadRep struggles through a storm of BT Line Rental Negotiations to hold on to its Internet Connection Hat, why not order your copy of Re/Action magazine, issue 2 (check out the rockin’ cover). We’ve stocked up on our reading materials for the internet drought; drought or no drought you should check it out anyway. Good stuff.
• Salon sums it up: What Not To Say About Lara Logan. (Discusses sexual assault.)
• Meanwhile, Eulogy magazine are covering LGBT History Month – from the point of view of a magazine themed around death, but good to see it on there.
• Em Carroll has drawn a short, beautiful comic for Valentine’s season.
• Do you play computer games? Then hopefully some of the refrains on  Fat, Ugly or Slutty won’t have happened to you! They say: Some players like to send creepy, disturbing, insulting, degrading and/or just plain rude messages to other online players, usually women. We think this is funny. Could be triggering for some, but it’s a nice demonstration of solidarity. And here’s an article about the creation of the site.