Heroines or Villains?

Heroines or Villains is the third theme in my “Interesting Women” series of blogs.

I’m writing about women who broke the mold, and challenged the ‘status quo’ of their societies.

Were they heroines or villains?

I’ll let you decide.

Coming up on Google +  next week, I’ll be posting articles about interesting women from prehistory to the present.

source: news.com.au

Stonehenge - from the mists of time and still standing.

The experts are still piecing together the mystery of Stonehenge. Why was it built?  How did the ancients transport the “Sarsen” bluestones from a quarry in Wales located over 100 miles away. What is Stonehenge's purpose?

A cremation cemetery?

Despite artists portraying prehistoric man as in charge of the site, in the latest discovery, half of the prehistoric, cremated bones belong to women. Could women have been as noteworthy as men in prehistoric Britain?

A Pirate Story

A lot of people like a good pirate story and perhaps a costume for Halloween. Remember, Peter Pan, Captain Hook and the alligator. The stage musical, “Pirates of Penzance”. The “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie franchise. There’s too many pirate movies, music, stage and television shows, games and comics in popular entertainment to name here.

Less well-known are the 5 notorious female pirates from the 18th Century. Once there was a superstitious belief among pirates that having women aboard a ship was bad luck. Meeting Anne Bonny and Mary Read on the high seas would knock the wind out of anybody's sails. In 1720, Anne and Mary teamed up. The two marauders were the most feared female pirates to raid fishing boats and trading sloops.

China 1801, Cheng I Sao, with her husband raised a pirate army of 50,000 men. After her husband’s death in 1807, she continued her plundering ways until the British and Portuguese forced her retirement. She ran a gambling house until her death. Cheng I Sao was one of history’s most successful pirates.

 More Mutiny

In 1938, Australian actress, Mary Maguire was kicked out of Hollywood for her mutiny against the role of ingénue (innocent and wholesome women). She wanted a dramatic part in a movie.

Lady Worsley, contemporary of Jane Austen

Seymour, Lady Worsley, was at the center of one of the Georgian era’s biggest scandals. The Lady was a contemporary of Jane Austen and also her neighbor.

Lady Worsley was an heiress and a high-spirited woman who was the property of her husband. Her monetary worth was attributed to her virtue. If she was proved to be less than virtuous, her worth decreased. She lost her virtue and her husband went to court to sue for compensation. There’s more about Seymour’s character in the video below from the BBC drama production.

Well that’s some of the highlights from next week’s G+ posts. I hope you can join me again.

Wishing you fair weather,

and a fine weekend. 

♥ Ashlyn

Warrior Women

The character of the Warrior Woman is back in main-stream entertainment with the women from Games of Thrones, Katniss from The Hunger Games, Wonder Woman and Xena, Warrior Princess.

The Xena reboot is expected later in the year, but without actresses, Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor playing the roles of Xena and her best friend, Gabrielle. The replacement of the actresses is a sensitive topic with fans. Other shows, like the X-Files and the movie, Star Wars have brought back their original stars.

Xena has her origins in Greek mythology. In the beginning of the television show, Xena was a villain, who was intent on killing the god, Hercules. Over the length of the series, she endures a painful path to redemption, and makes the ultimate sacrifice for the 40,000 lives she took in battle.

The Amazons are the legendary warrior women from the history books. Did they really exist?

“Archaeology shows that these fierce women also smoked pot, got tattoos, killed—and loved—men.”  

source: National Geographic

Adrienne Mayor from the Princeton University Press has written a book, “The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World.”

From Adrienne, “The real Amazons were long believed to be purely imaginary. They were the mythical warrior women who were the archenemies of the ancient Greeks. Every Greek hero or champion, from Hercules to Theseus and Achilles, had to prove his mettle by fighting a powerful warrior queen.”

source: National Geographic 

Are the Amazons, reality or fantasy? Take a peek at the book trailer.

This week on Google +, I’ll be posting about Warrior Women. A little bit of Xena, Amazons, history and archaeology.  

Hope you can join me again. 

♥ Ashlyn 

*Xena image sourced from Entertainment Weekly

 ”The Amazon” book cover sourced from Amazon.com

Interesting Women

With Mother’s Day just passed, I thought I would write about what some interesting women are doing in the world. There are women who didn’t accept the ‘norm’ or the ‘status quo’. 

Disrupters! 

Women, who rallied their ideas to improve their circumstances.

Some of the women ignored social stereotypes and got on with their work. Perhaps the women were finding solutions to problems they faced. Others might have been striving for their well-being or even struggling to survive. Some of the women forged ahead as individuals while others worked in teams.

This coming week on Google +, I’ll be posting articles about an Italian Winery run by women. The ordinary woman who walked around the world. A fashion icon. A make-up impresario. The jewelry making by the women of Rwanda which provides clean water, education and food. A shoe entrepreneur who fits small feet, narrow feet, wide feet, big feet and odd feet. And finally, there’s an article about a woman who wants to retell history by including women’s contributions.

As Robin Williams once said, “words and ideas can change the world”.

Be inspired…

♥ LOVE

choose your path in life,

create a satisfying life,

live passionately,

experience life with greater awareness,

do something different,

make a change,

help others,

and achieve your own happiness. 


I hope you can join me on Google +.
Enjoy your weekend. 
♥ Ashlyn

Happy Mother's Day - May 8

Mother’s Day is coming this Sunday. It’s time to think about our Mums and what they mean in our lives.

I’ve searched the internet looking for touching tributes to mothers. The sickly sweet, all-sacrificing Mum who is a fountain of ever-renewing love is not a woman I can relate to. I’ve had my bad days of being a mother.

source: http://www.bundoo.com/community-blog/parenting-memes-sept-26/
 

And there’s the Mother’s Day version of Katie Perry’s “ROAR” song.

I got through a bout of post-natal depression. The rip-my-hair-out moments don’t stop. I’ve checked the self-doubts— why the hell did I ever have children? The hurt from the knife stabbed into the heart— was me being much too sensitive about my brood spreading their wings and testing their independence.

Hello Mom, are you still there? Here’s a Mummy singing Adele’s “HELLO” song.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Then I remember the kids as newborn babies. How I feel in love with each one of them in a way that was too profound to find the words to describe. No matter what life throws in our paths, the kid’s special place in my heart won’t change. Now I understand, the worry and anxiety I put my own mother through as I grew up and I grow old.

Education, health and happiness is what I want the most for my children. I tell them, follow your dreams. Use your manners. Be kind to others and look out for animals. The household fairy has forgotten to wave her magic wand to wash the dirty dishes. Can you help out? Please.

Back in maybe, 2007, mother and comedian, Anita Renfroe, condensed what a mother would say to her children in a 24hr period into 2 mins 55 seconds. Here is the video of Anita’s famous “MOM” song to the music of the “William Tell Overture”.

The kids have stopped listening to my nagging and do what they’ve always done—learn by example. The ways of a mother in the home, among family and friends, and in the world at large is where children observe and absorb information.

Mothers don’t have to be perfect people nor do they have to fit the stereotypes created by others. Mothers are individuals and diverse people the world over. LOVE is the answer to everything.

Wherever you are in the world,

Happy Mother’s Day.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Ashlyn