{"id":10783,"date":"2012-05-02T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T08:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=10783"},"modified":"2012-05-02T09:00:54","modified_gmt":"2012-05-02T08:00:54","slug":"guest-post-if-i-had-a-time-machine-five-historical-women-who-would-thrive-in-the-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2012\/05\/02\/guest-post-if-i-had-a-time-machine-five-historical-women-who-would-thrive-in-the-21st-century\/","title":{"rendered":"[Guest Post] If I Had A Time Machine: Five Historical Women Who Would Thrive in the 21st Century"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I had a time machine, I would go back through history, picking up awesome chicks and bringing them back to the present. I would finally be able to giggle with glee as Victorians tried to work out how the tiny people got inside the TV and ancient Greeks marvelled at printed books, not to mention what showing them the internet might do! There are certain women, certain amazing icons, who would fit right into the modern world. They would be able to work, love, live and breathe, far away from the limitations placed on them in their own time. Here are five of them. Don’t get me wrong, 2012 is no utopia – we still have our battles and our injustices – but compared to any other time in history, the 21st century is a pretty awesome place for ladies.<\/p>\n

Sappho<\/h3>\n

\"Sappho<\/a>Sappho gave birth to two of my favourite things: lyric poetry and lesbianism. Born in 630 BC on the island of Lesbos, Sappho had a pretty good life, considering her gender. She was rich, talented and of good social standing. Her poetry, which she performed with a lyre (she invented a new subtype of the instrument, and the plectrum, of all things) was well-respected. She had her face on coins and on vases. But she was pretty lonely. The girls in her circle (which was either a religious order, something like a preparatory class or simply a gathering of women, depending on which scholars you believe) would all leave her when they married, and when she fell in love with them, she knew that they would inevitably part. She probably never married herself (accounts differ, but most \"Still<\/a>scholars agree she did not, despite being linked to a male poet of the day) and almost definitely preferred women.<\/p>\n

If I could go back and get her in my time machine, I’d sign her up to a dating site, put in a DVD of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/strong> episode \u201cRestless\u201d (which features a lesbian writing Sappho’s poetry on her lover’s back) and explain to her that when she met the right lady, she would be able to date her, live with her, and\u00a0in some parts of the world, marry her.<\/p>\n

I’d show her this video, of Ellen and Portia’s wedding:<\/p>\n