By Tilly Nevin. Today we look out upon an America divided internally, an America in which racism does not appear the distant memory that it should. Mamie Phipps Clark saw a much more visceral manifestation of such racial divisions: segregation in schools, in the workplace, in public. Phipps Clark studied the impact that segregation had …
By Emily Oldham. Picture a room: spacious, with blank-white walls, it seems the height of impersonality. From this coldness loom dozens of furniture pieces, every crevice suffused by cement, figures of unapologetically brutal beauty. Some contain embedded hair, bone and even clothing. The absence of a body becomes starkly physical; concrete seeps into every inch of …
By Sophie Dowle. Lalla Essaydi is an influential Moroccan-American artist, whose uncompromising portrayals of women have sent waves across the art world. Bold, brave and unafraid to make frank and honest statements regarding gender and the Middle East, Essaydi challenges the tropes of Orientalism head-on in her work. When I spoke to her, her passion …
By Ellen Pasternack. Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, has always carried a lot of stigma. Viewed as lost causes at best, and dangerous disease spreaders at worst, sufferers have long been treated as social pariahs. With a name coming from the Greek λέπρα, meaning ‘a disease that makes the skin scaly’ due to the …
By Rhiannon Garth Jones and Tom Dean. For over three thousand years, poetry has been a way to achieve immortality, both for the poet and the subject, making permanent the passing lives of humans. This fragment from Sappho expresses, whether intentionally or not, that belief, and proves it to be justified. Although almost nothing of …
By Harriet Dalrymple. Jane Goodall is one of the most famous, celebrated and inspirational figures in Science today, however it is not only her academic work that has made her so successful. Few scientists have the charisma needed to entertain the public on TV quiz shows, and win round comedians such as Jon Stewart. Her …
How one of the stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age became the grandmother of modern wireless technology By Sarah Illingworth. Having come to the attention of Hollywood producers after starring in the first non-pornographic movie to portray sexual intercourse and the female orgasm, Hedy Lamarr went on to co-invent an early form of spread spectrum …
By Kate Kingsbury Grace Jones has gained international fame both within the music industry and on screen due to her androgynous image which challenges gender stereotypes and questioning of racial norms. It has been difficult for women in the music and cinematographic industries to escape the strait-jackets of normative gender roles, yet they- more than …
Sophie Dowle has compiled a (very loosely ranked) list of great films directed by great women. What are your favourites? Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi (and Vincent Paronnaud) [France/Iran/USA, 2007] A classic, and a must-watch for teenagers searching for their identity. This stunning animation makes you laugh and cry as you follow Marjane’s journey to adulthood via … Continue reading
By Sophie Dowle. I remember being fascinated by the suffragettes from a young age, devouring the ‘My Story’ book about a girl who joins the movement, and reading as many books as I could get my hands on (that weren’t beyond an eight-year-old’s reading ability). Something struck me about the narratives I was reading; the … Continue reading
By Sophie Dowle. Long before Bluestocking Journal was publishing articles on great women, Louise Marie-Madeleine Dupin (1706-99), a French saloniste, compiled and began writing a book on the history of women: Ouvrage sur les femmes. Unfortunately, this work was never fully completed, and the many boxes of notes, drafts and copies that Madame Dupin had … Continue reading
Ellen Pasternack talks to Emily Temple-Wood, Wikipedia editor and founder of the Women in Science wikiproject. Continue reading
By Alice Theobald Margaret Cavendish is chiefly remembered today for being the pioneer of the science-fiction genre with her innovative work The Blazing-World of 1666. However, she also wrote prolifically on political and philosophical matters, championing a pioneering materialism and progressive method of natural philosophy. Published in the same year as her fictional work, Cavendish’s … Continue reading
By Anna Simpson The reign of Elizabeth I was undeniably a politically tumultuous and dynamic one. Embroiled in romantic, diplomatic and bloody foreign battles, Elizabeth died leaving her successors to pick up the pieces of her debt-filled and heir-less legacy. It may therefore seem surprising that she continues to be celebrated in most modern day … Continue reading
By Alice Theobald In executing a fictional will, sixteenth-century poet Isabella Whitney not only presented a defence of women’s legal legitimacy but also externalised herself into the city, channelling her personal impulses into the physical structures and material goods of her London. However, rather than reducing herself to a commodity, she uses her distribution of … Continue reading
