In Your Face Women: Constance Gore-Booth

Monday, April 16, 2012

Constance Gore-Booth

Born in London in 1868 to a landed Irish family, Constance Gore-Booth rejected the life of the socialite and ran off to Paris to study art as soon as she was old enough and independent enough to do so. One photo of her in her twenties shows her wearing knickerbockers (men's knee-length pants) and smoking a cigarette. In her early thirties, Gore-Booth married another artist who was a wealthy widowed count with whom she had already been having an affair for some time. But by 1908, always committed to the struggle for women's rights and having read publications that promoted an Irish revolution, Gore-Booth (now Markievicz) joined Sein Finn and a women's revolutionary organization founded by Maude Gonne and she never looked back!

She started a Boy Scout type organization that taught young men, among other things, how to shoot. She set up food kitchens and supported education for the poor. And in fact, she impoverished herself caring for those who had nothing. Still, she had time to get herself arrested for attempting to set the Union Jack on fire and became an officer in the Irish Citizens Army, where she distinguished herself as fearless under fire as she fought alongside the men.

Tried and convicted for treason to the crown, Markievicz was incensed when she was not executed with her male comrades because she was a woman. Released from prison during a general amnesty in 1917 and re-imprisoned in 1918 for fear of the power of her popularity and passion for Irish autonomy, the Rebel Countess of Ireland, as she was called, was elected to Parliament anyway, though she refused to take the seat because it would have legitimated British rule over Ireland. Imprisoned once more in 1923, Markievicz went on a hunger strike and, though she was subsequently released to continue her work, she died at 59, much weakened by her ordeals. Still, unrepentent for her life or her choices, she is quoted as saying, "While Ireland is not free I remain a rebel, unconverted and inconvertible." Sounds just like all the other in-your-women, doesn't she?

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Quotes by In Your Face Women

"The dogma of woman's complete historical subjection to men must be rated as one of the most fantastic myths ever created by the human mind." ~ Historian Mary Ritter Beard
"Humanity has two parts, men and women, and we ought to be walking hand in hand; instead there is antagonism, and it will last as long as the ‘stronger’ half controls, or thinks it controls, the ‘weaker’ half." ~ Louise Michel (1830-1905)
"All I ask of our brethren is, that they will take their feet from off our necks and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God destined us to occupy." ~ Sarah Grimke (1792-1873)
“My own sex, I hope, will excuse me if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone.” ~ Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
"There is a world-old controversy that crops up whenever women attempt to enter a new field. Is a woman fit for that work? It would seem that a woman's success in any particular field would prove her fitness for that work, without regard to theories to the contrary." ~ Ruth Law (1918)
"If you ask me what office women should fill, I reply, 'Any...Let them be sea captains, if you will. I do not doubt that there are women well fitted for such an office.'" ~ Margaret Fuller (circa 1845)
"There are very few jobs that actually require a penis or a vagina. All others should be open to everybody." ~ Lawyer & Civil Rights Activist Florynce Kennedy
"A girl should be two things: who and what she wants." ~ Coco Chanel
"The Glass Ceiling isn't actually made of glass...it's a very thick layer of men." ~ Political Advisor Author Ann Lewis
"I suppose I could have stayed home, baked cookies, and had teas, but what I decided to do was fulfill my profession." U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
"I'll feel equality has arrived when we can elect to office women who are as incompetent as some of the men who are already there." ~ Political Activist Maureen Reagan
"Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps and preside over the White House as the President's spouse. I wish him well." ~ Barbara Bush
"I have a brain and a uterus. I use them both." ~ Politician Pat Schroeder
"Speaking generally, the women had not only no voice in the management of the country, but she had no control over her property, earned or inherited; no control of her own children; no control even of her own person. If that is not a condition of slavery, it bears a close resemblance to it." ~ Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“The condition of our sex is so deplorable that it is our duty even to break the law in order to call attention to the reasons why we do so.” ~ Emmeline Pankhurst (1908)
“You can bind my body, tie my hands, govern my actions: you are the strongest, and society adds to your power; but with my will, sir, you can do nothing.” ~ Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin (“George Sand”) (1831)
“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.” ~ Author & Journalist Rebecca West (1913)
“It occurred to me when I was thirteen and wearing white gloves and Mary Janes and going to dancing school, that no one should have to dance backward all their lives.” ~ Corporate Board Member & Environmental Consultant Jill Ruckelshaus
"Imperfection is beauty. Madness is genius. And it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring. And when it comes down to it, I let them think what they want. If they care enough to bother with what I do, I’m already better than them…" ~ Actress & Cultural Icon Marilyn Monroe
"I'm tough. I'm ambitious. And I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay." ~ Singer "Madonna" Ciccone
“Why do people say, ‘Grow some balls’? Balls are weak and sensitive! If you really wanna get tough, grow a vagina! Those things take a pounding!” ~ Actress Betty White
"If you're going to make an error, make a doozy. And don't be afraid to hit the ball." ~ Star Tennis Player Billie Jean King
"I see no reason why a woman can't throw as effectively as a man. There are a lot of statements about anatomical differences, but there is not much documented evidence. Maybe we're really talking about poorly skilled people. People with poor athletic skills tend to throw poorly." ~ Linda Zwiren, Director of the Human Performance Laboratory, Hofstra University, 1976
"If it's true that men are better than women because they're stronger, why aren't our sumo wrestlers in the government?" ~ Japanese Political Activist (1800's) Kishida Toshiko
"If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman." ~ Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
"Why is it men are permitted to be obsessed about their work, but women are only permitted to be obsessed about men?" ~ Singer Barbara Streisand
"Some of us are becoming the men we wanted to marry." ~ Author & Publisher Gloria Steinem
"We are the women men warned us about." ~ Civil Rights & Anti-War Activist Robin Morgan
"Get it right: I'm not a humanitarian. I'm a hell-raiser." ~ Labor & Community Organizer "Mother" Jones
“Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.” ~ Writer Dorothy L. Sayres
"Don't talk to me about rules, dear. Wherever I stay, I make the goddam rules." ~ Opera diva Maria Callas

Monday, April 16, 2012

Constance Gore-Booth

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