Bannon is portrayed as believing that a “global existential war” with radical jihadis (and maybe China as well) is inevitable, and that authoritarian politics in the USA is the only way to prepare the nation for victory.
history
BFTP Friday Hoyden: Emma Goldman
Anita Sarkeesian and Feminist Frequency have launched a terrific new series called #OrdinaryWomen: Daring to Defy History. The first episode is just up, and it’s about legendary political activist Emma Goldman. This makes it seem like a good time to… Read More ›
Friday Hoyden: Hildegard von Bingen
Long ago I promised a set of the “three wise H’s”. After Hrotsvit and Heloise, we are overdue to hear about Hildegard, and Good Friday seems like the perfect time to promote one of the great medieval Christian philosophers. She… Read More ›
Friday Hoyden: Sister Rosetta Tharpe
“Queen of the gospel and the mother of rock and roll” The person who brought the electric guitar to the popular masses wasn’t Chuck Berry, and it sure wasn’t Bill Haley. It was a woman from Arkansas who saw her… Read More ›
Friday Hoyden: Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was a Russian Jewish immigrant to the USA, who spent her life being persecuted for her work campaigning for the rights of workers and marginalised groups of all kinds.
Dressmaking for the Obsessive
One for the dressmakers, costumiers and historians among us: an unexpected family treasure unearthed.
Somebody’s Having a Birthday
It’s Shakespeare! Today is Shakespeare’s 450th birthday. Probably. Nominally. Well, we know he was baptised on the 26th, and it was usual for that to happen about three days after the birth. Also he died on April 23rd, 52 years later, so it appeals to our sense of symmetry.
Friday Hoyden: Hortense Mancini
Hortense Mancini was married at fifteen to one of the richest men in Europe, who turned out to be an obsessive, violent, controlling abuser. She found a way to escape, and to live the rest of her life with an exuberance that would be difficult to match.
Friday Hoyden: Héloïse d’Argenteuil
The second in my set of Three Wise H’s. Poor, tragic Heloise was one of the great minds of the twelfth century. Eventually Abbess of the Oratory of the Paraclete, she was not a nun by vocation, but through the medieval systems of sexual repression and ultra-strict gender role enforcement, along with a good sized dollop of bad luck.
Friday Hoyden: Hellena in Aphra Behn’s “The Rover”
The Rover is one of the all-time great Restoration comedies. One of the greatest silly romps of any era of playwriting, in fact, because it has everything: disguises, sword fights, carnival, a girl dressed as a boy, thwarted lovers, drunken shenanigans, sex, danger and a jilted courtesan. And its heroine, Hellena, is the ultimate witty wench.
Hoyden About Town 