feministory

Writing history is a radical act. I’m going to say it again. Writing history is a radical act. The process by which historians choose to deify, demonize, or emulate individuals and events is a malleable and contentious undertaking. As I’m sure you savvy readers out there know—with this retelling comes power. Sure, narratives can be retold, historical ‘facts’ reformulated, and legacies reclaimed. But whose voices get heard? Which versions get told? Who gets remembered and why? (For far too long ‘our’ Nation’s history consisted overwhelmingly of the male, pale, and stale variety.)

Carol Kaye is one of the most prolific pop music musicians you've never heard of. She and her 4-6 strings have backed some of the most popular songs, movies, and television series of the past fifty decades, and can be heard "These Boots Were Made for Walking," guitar on Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" and Richie Valens "La Bamba"...among others!

Doria Shafiq: Egyptian feminist, activist, author, poet... and probably someone you've never heard of. UNTIL NOW! Shafiq worked tirelessly before and after the Egyptian Revolution to secure equality for women in the context of an Islamic society; her strong feminist consciousness converged with her country’s surge of nationalism to create radical change for Egyptian women in a short period of time.

Doris Walker worked throughout her life protecting and defending leftist causes and activists. She participated as an activist and legal counsel throughout almost every major America progressive social movement in the twentieth century, from denouncing Jim Crow laws and McCarthyism, to being a labor lawyer and labor organizer, to helping to successfully acquit Angela Davis, and even challenging the Bush Administration's invasion of Afghanistan in Iraq.

Vita Sackville-West was a woman with 'high class' problems — but her story is interesting nonetheless. Vita was, in addition to her default socialite status, a writer of prose and poetry, an avid gardener, Bloomsbury Group associate and lover to quite a few women — the most famous being, of course, Virginia Woolf. (More after the jump!)