Feminist Monday, August 28

I'll be honest, I don't often read memoirs. I don't like them for reasons I won't go into here. (It would distract.) So, understand what it means when I say I love Tea in Tripoli by Bernadette Nason. My husband and I attended the live theater version a couple of years ago, and it was funny and enjoyable--Bernie is a friend, and she's hilarious--but at the time the staged version lacked a certain depth. Her stories were amusing, even amazing, but I couldn't help feeling that she was holding back. Her memoir reveals just how much. Tea in Tripoli is emotionally raw, brutally honest, moving, and downright harrowing at times. At the same time, it retains Bernie's characteristic self-effacing humor--one of the things I love so much about her. The humor is in just the right amount to get you through the tough stuff without trivializing the danger she faced. And it was danger. She was an English woman working for an Italian firm in Libya during a time when diplomatic ties between Libya and the UK were severed. The tale is a dramatic and fascinating one, and I highly recommend it. If you've ever wondered how women in abusive situations experience, gather strength, process, and heal, this is for you. It also explains the various behaviors (good and bad) that women employ to protect themselves--such as remaining in groups while in public spaces.[1] I highly recommend it. (Trigger warning for sexual harassment.) Don't trust me on this? Here's another review from a source less personally connected. :)

​Now, on to the links.

Literary/Entertainment: Forebears: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Godmother Of Rock 'N' Roll-www.npr.org/2017/08/24/544226085/forebears-sister-rosetta-tharpe-the-godmother-of-rock-n-roll

General: Why I Stopped Talking About Racial Reconciliation And Started Talking About White Supremacy. And filed under Women's History, let me introduce you to Nelly Bly, the reporter who exposed the barbaric treatment of women in a mental institution known as Blackwell's Island. She also sailed around the world in a successful attempt to break the fictional record of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg, ran her husband's company, Iron Clad, and was an activist for women's rights. Next up: dress codes and how to do them without gender discrimination. Have A Re-enactment of a Wealthy Woman Getting Dressed in 18th-Century England. Exhausting, or what? Also, THOSE are pockets. Women did hide weapons in them, by the way. This is why women's pockets are political. ​Portraits of 19th Century African American Women Activists. 

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[1] The danger may not appear to be as overt in the US, but it is very, very real.