Comments on: A Damned Mob of Scribbling Women! http://www.historiann.com/2009/04/02/a-damned-mob-of-scribbling-women/ History and sexual politics, 1492 to the present Fri, 24 May 2013 22:56:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 By: Liberals, I say! Liberals, all of them! : Historiann : History and sexual politics, 1492 to the present http://www.historiann.com/2009/04/02/a-damned-mob-of-scribbling-women/comment-page-1/#comment-1018343 Liberals, I say! Liberals, all of them! : Historiann : History and sexual politics, 1492 to the present Fri, 18 May 2012 19:41:43 +0000 http://www.historiann.com/?p=4362#comment-1018343 [...] Why instead are we indoctrinating students with the scribblings of confessed assailants and fugitives like Frederick Douglass, leftist propagandists like Harriet Beecher Stowe, cultural relativists like Herman Melville, and crypto-feminists like Edith Wharton and Emily Dickinson?  Even the more staid New England Renaissance-types, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, are suspect:  Emerson believed in social welfare for the Alcott family, on whose windowsills he frequently left $20 bills so that the large family of the feckless Bronson Alcott didn’t starve.  Furthermore, Hawthorne was a Democrat who accepted a government sinecure to support his writing when he wasn’t living off of his wife’s inheritance.  (He was thank God certainly no feminist!)  [...] [...] Why instead are we indoctrinating students with the scribblings of confessed assailants and fugitives like Frederick Douglass, leftist propagandists like Harriet Beecher Stowe, cultural relativists like Herman Melville, and crypto-feminists like Edith Wharton and Emily Dickinson?  Even the more staid New England Renaissance-types, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, are suspect:  Emerson believed in social welfare for the Alcott family, on whose windowsills he frequently left $20 bills so that the large family of the feckless Bronson Alcott didn’t starve.  Furthermore, Hawthorne was a Democrat who accepted a government sinecure to support his writing when he wasn’t living off of his wife’s inheritance.  (He was thank God certainly no feminist!)  [...]

]]> By: Author crushes and fantasy BFFs « Work in Progress http://www.historiann.com/2009/04/02/a-damned-mob-of-scribbling-women/comment-page-1/#comment-852619 Author crushes and fantasy BFFs « Work in Progress Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:39:42 +0000 http://www.historiann.com/?p=4362#comment-852619 [...] female, I can’t claim to have any female crushes, but there are quite a number of “scribbling women“ I wish were my BFFs. (There are many more, but I’ve narrowed it [...] [...] female, I can’t claim to have any female crushes, but there are quite a number of “scribbling women“ I wish were my BFFs. (There are many more, but I’ve narrowed it [...]

]]> By: hysperia http://www.historiann.com/2009/04/02/a-damned-mob-of-scribbling-women/comment-page-1/#comment-282095 hysperia Wed, 08 Apr 2009 04:15:48 +0000 http://www.historiann.com/?p=4362#comment-282095 "Unhappy marriages"?! Marriages that end with wives heads rolling might be called a little more than "unhappy" without fear of hyperbole. I'm not a historian of anything, but I understood there was something political about Henry's offing of his wives. Not very feminine of him either. (Obviously, I'm catching up on old posts historiann!) “Unhappy marriages”?! Marriages that end with wives heads rolling might be called a little more than “unhappy” without fear of hyperbole. I’m not a historian of anything, but I understood there was something political about Henry’s offing of his wives. Not very feminine of him either.

(Obviously, I’m catching up on old posts historiann!)

]]> By: Historiann http://www.historiann.com/2009/04/02/a-damned-mob-of-scribbling-women/comment-page-1/#comment-278514 Historiann Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:30:00 +0000 http://www.historiann.com/?p=4362#comment-278514 Susan--good point about the privilege that Starkey enjoys that would not be extended to a female peer. I can just imagine the amazing press coverage that a middle-aged woman would get complaining about the male-dominated historiography in her field! I'm sure there would be zero lead articles in the Telegraph! And I'm also sure that whatever notice people took, it would include lots of comments from graduate students taking her to task about her "tone" and her "language" when criticizing Great (Male) Historians! Susan–good point about the privilege that Starkey enjoys that would not be extended to a female peer. I can just imagine the amazing press coverage that a middle-aged woman would get complaining about the male-dominated historiography in her field! I’m sure there would be zero lead articles in the Telegraph! And I’m also sure that whatever notice people took, it would include lots of comments from graduate students taking her to task about her “tone” and her “language” when criticizing Great (Male) Historians!

]]> By: Indyanna http://www.historiann.com/2009/04/02/a-damned-mob-of-scribbling-women/comment-page-1/#comment-278166 Indyanna Fri, 03 Apr 2009 03:59:15 +0000 http://www.historiann.com/?p=4362#comment-278166 This is what I tell my students all the time: Compared with 'Enery, theologically speaking, guys like Luther, Calvin, and even Zwingli, were just, guys, really, or maybe even popularizers. Its about time the poor guy starts getting written back into English history This is what I tell my students all the time: Compared with ‘Enery, theologically speaking, guys like Luther, Calvin, and even Zwingli, were just, guys, really, or maybe even popularizers. Its about time the poor guy starts getting written back into English history

]]> By: Susan http://www.historiann.com/2009/04/02/a-damned-mob-of-scribbling-women/comment-page-1/#comment-277948 Susan Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:31:56 +0000 http://www.historiann.com/?p=4362#comment-277948 OH, poor David Starkey. Fighting off all the women. . . Self-promotion is sometimes effective (for men not women -- can you imagine a rotund 63 year old woman getting any attention from any media?) Sigh. When he did his TV series on Elizabeth, my husband kept watching to see if he would tell a joke. He didn't, ever. OH, poor David Starkey. Fighting off all the women. . . Self-promotion is sometimes effective (for men not women — can you imagine a rotund 63 year old woman getting any attention from any media?) Sigh. When he did his TV series on Elizabeth, my husband kept watching to see if he would tell a joke. He didn’t, ever.

]]> By: Erica http://www.historiann.com/2009/04/02/a-damned-mob-of-scribbling-women/comment-page-1/#comment-277729 Erica Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:48:22 +0000 http://www.historiann.com/?p=4362#comment-277729 Maybe if Henry hadn't bothered to be so obsessed with his many wives, we wouldn't have to be so interested in their lives. Blaming it on Mommy is an interesting attempt to try to shift the blame for crazy philandering back to the women again. Yet another "revolutionary" examination I'm all too happy to pass on :P Maybe if Henry hadn’t bothered to be so obsessed with his many wives, we wouldn’t have to be so interested in their lives. Blaming it on Mommy is an interesting attempt to try to shift the blame for crazy philandering back to the women again.

Yet another “revolutionary” examination I’m all too happy to pass on :P

]]> By: Historiann http://www.historiann.com/2009/04/02/a-damned-mob-of-scribbling-women/comment-page-1/#comment-277647 Historiann Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:45:17 +0000 http://www.historiann.com/?p=4362#comment-277647 Janice--I'm sorry I missed your post! I'll include a link in my post above. I saw other articles in which he called Henry an "emotional incontinent" because of the influence of women in his early life. Some writers have suggested that Starkey feels an extraordinary kinship with Henry because he too was raised by his mother. But--as you can probably guess--I can't get that excited about it because I just can't take him seriously! (And you have to admit that it's pretty funny that he called an Archdeacon fat, smug, and pompous.) He's a genius at publicity and self-promotion, but he looks like a terribly, terribly boring historian. Janice–I’m sorry I missed your post! I’ll include a link in my post above. I saw other articles in which he called Henry an “emotional incontinent” because of the influence of women in his early life. Some writers have suggested that Starkey feels an extraordinary kinship with Henry because he too was raised by his mother.

But–as you can probably guess–I can’t get that excited about it because I just can’t take him seriously! (And you have to admit that it’s pretty funny that he called an Archdeacon fat, smug, and pompous.) He’s a genius at publicity and self-promotion, but he looks like a terribly, terribly boring historian.

]]> By: Janice http://www.historiann.com/2009/04/02/a-damned-mob-of-scribbling-women/comment-page-1/#comment-277617 Janice Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:22:55 +0000 http://www.historiann.com/?p=4362#comment-277617 David Starkey used to be a scholar. Now he's nothing but a shill as my recent blogging of his attempt to suggest that Henry was corrupted by his mother's feminizing influence to become an "emotional incontinent" -- I kid you not!: http://blog.jliedl.ca/?p=156 If you want a decent and thoughtful popularizer of English history, turn to John Guy who doesn't seem threatened by the thought of women as either his peers or subjects of his research. David Starkey used to be a scholar. Now he’s nothing but a shill as my recent blogging of his attempt to suggest that Henry was corrupted by his mother’s feminizing influence to become an “emotional incontinent” — I kid you not!: http://blog.jliedl.ca/?p=156

If you want a decent and thoughtful popularizer of English history, turn to John Guy who doesn’t seem threatened by the thought of women as either his peers or subjects of his research.

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