badass women in literature (part 2)

Read part 1 here 

More inspiring ladies from literature...

WOW 2015

Hope everyone had a fabulous International Women's Day yesterday!

picture source

I sure did. I went to the WOW festival this weekend and had a brilliant time. 3 days of talks, debates and performances celebrating women and discussing the challenges we face, just had my little feminist heart singing with glee. 

Bernadette Barton, Stripped

I always thing I need to read more non-fiction. I listened to a fair number of pod-casts, and watch a lot of documentaries so feel I expose myself to a decent range of opinions, facts and debates, but I really need to step up my game when it comes to reading about topics that interest me. 

 With this mind, I've just finished Stripped an investigative look at the lives of exotic dancers. 

Rating: 2.5/5

Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride

Yay more feminist literature! I  was shocked to see that so far this year my reading list has been many male, to rectify this, this month (with the exception of two books) every novel I've read has been written by a woman.

I first read The Robber Bride years ago, so though I could remember the gist, the ending was a nice surprise. I don't think I can say it enough, I adore Margaret Atwood, without fail her novels are full of wit and insight.

The Plot: As three woman share a companionable lunch, an old enemy comes back from the dead. Zenia, beautiful, capricious and utterly merciless was thought to have been killed in a bombing, she is however very much alive. Having once already destroyed the lives of Tony, Charis and Roz, Zenia proves she's lost none of her venom and capacity to harm.

Rating: ««««« (5/5)

I detest the masculine point of view

"I detest the masculine point of view. I am bored by his heroism, virtue and honour. I think the best these men can do is not talk about themselves any more"

Virginia Woolf

Book Haul

Here is my recent book haul from Hylands House, they're second-hand but look like they've barely been read and I got them for a grand total of £3.10! 

1. Jeanette Winterson, Weight: I'm a big fan of Greek mythology, so I put this short novel in my basket as it is about a deal made between Atlas and Hercules.

2. Irvine Welsh, Filth: A novel about a corrupt police officer investigating a racially motivated murder (highly topically at the moment, with the recent Stephen Lawrence inquiry). For my review of another Welsh novel click here

3. Elizabeth Wurtzel, Bitch: I felt slightly embarrassed about handing this over to the sweet, old ladies behind the counter. It is a collection of essays about 90s feminism and how bad girls have more fun.  

Sylvia Pankhurst at the Tate Britain

The Tate Britain- it's undergoing a bit of a facelift at the moment. 

I am a proudly proclaimed feminist, but I wasn't aware that as well as being a major campaigner for women's rights, Sylvia Pankhurst was also an artist. Running until March 2014, the Tate Britain has a free exhibition on Sylvia Pankhurst's work.

Pankhurst's art mainly focused on the lives of working-class women, and was a usefully propaganda tool in arguing that women's working conditions and pay should be improved.

Sylvia Pankhurst- domestic servants 

 Pankhurst also designed badges, banners and flyers for the WSPU, often incorporating the 'angel of freedom'. Also on display is the various badges that would be awarded to suffragettes, for membership or for stays in the notorious Holloway prison.

suffragette tea set,  with the 'angel of freedom' in the WSPU colours of green and purple  

If you do pop in to have a look around the gallery and the exhibition, I also recommend you have a walk down by the river when your done, London really is the best place just to stroll around.

Vauxhall bridge and MI6 headquarters 

beauty is woman's sceptre

"Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round it's gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison"

-Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication for the Rights of Women  

distinguished women

"If we revert to history, we shall find that women who have distinguished themselves have neither been the most beautiful nor the most gentle of their sex"

- Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication for the Rights of Women