Forgive me if this is somehow found inappropriate (I sincerely doubt it is).
I have been doing a great study on women as part of my transition. The point, as my counselor put it, is to help you connect with others of your gender, while making you aware of the issues that women have faced in society. I have been tasked to list as many strong women who have embraced femininity as I can find.
This all came about because I told her that some of the time I feel that all I have is my femininity, and I feel a bit odd about it, because I understand that strong women in society are not viewed as feminine, and many men are feminine and fine with it. Whatever, I was having a hard time making sense of the complete mess I made of gender in general during suppression.
So: I figured it may benefit other MTF's if I were to list a few of the great woman role models I found. This has helped me begin to wrap my head around what it means to be a woman:
Eleanor Roosevelt (My personal favorite)
Ali Hewson (A close second)
Jacqueline Kennedy (Jackie O!)
Margaret Thatcher (The Iron Lady, a strong woman)
Sojourner Truth (Ain't I a woman?)
Ellen Degeneres (I LOVE Ellen!)
If only I could figure how to set those up with links this thread may carry more weight...
Now; I will admit that it may seem a bit weird for a transsexual woman to be sifting through the charts of G-girls trying to find a role model, but this is something that I never thought to do as a youth. I simply, well, wallowed. This can all be very liberating and enjoyable, and if you other MTF's choose to try, you may end up identifying with some very interesting and extraordinary people - a confidence booster for sure. :D
Sojourner Truth (Underground railroad conductor)
Not to be too picky here (but I am an American historian), I think you are confusing Sojourner Truth with Harriet Tubman.
Quote from: tekla on February 11, 2011, 09:59:07 PM
Sojourner Truth (Underground railroad conductor)
Not to be too picky here (but I am an American historian), I think you are confusing Sojourner Truth with Harriet Tubman.
Whoops- got a little carried away with some other stuff while typing :)
I can still keep her though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_I_a_Woman%3F (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_I_a_Woman%3F) (fixed it)
Quote from: perlita85 on February 11, 2011, 10:15:41 PM
I am puzzled at your top choice. Please share with me if yo may, what exactly make you admire Eleanor the most?
I find her to be an excellent role model because of her human rights activism. Plus, she overcame considering herself ugly as a child (relation, relation!): "No matter how plain a woman may be if truth and loyalty are stamped upon her face all will be attracted to her."
I like your project and your list. You inspired my thinking of who I might pick, and several names roll off my fingers (there are so many strong women role models), so, in no particular order:
- Helen Hayes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Hayes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Hayes)
- Katharine Hepburn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Hepburn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Hepburn)
- Margaret Chase Smith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Chase_Smith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Chase_Smith)
- Margaret Sanger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Sanger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Sanger)
- Abigail Adams http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Adams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Adams)
- Jane Addams http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Addams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Addams)
- Ruth Gruber http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Gruber (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Gruber)
- Golda Meir http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golda_Meir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golda_Meir)
- Hannah Szenes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Szenes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Szenes)
- Debbie Friedman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Friedman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Friedman)
- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Johnson_Sirleaf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Johnson_Sirleaf)
- Sylvia Plath http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_plath (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_plath)
My favorite is Abigail Adams, though the first excursion I made when I moved to Massachusetts was to Winthrop, seeking the childhood home of Sylvia Plath. But to learn from and emulate any of the women on your list or mine is such an amazing and rewarding journey. What a gift it is to have such people as sisters!
Thank you for posting.
S
I will go check her out, I have only just begun! ;D
Does Helen Keller count?
I always thought that Annie Sullivan was more worthy of admiration than Helen. It was Annie who really believed. But Annie was a socialist, a big supporter of the Wobblies and an anti-war crusader and that's good stuff.
Margaret Thatcher? Err, NO! She was not a great woman. The country is still feeling the effects of her reign.
only on her fingers.
Quote from: tekla on February 12, 2011, 07:10:40 PM
I always thought that Annie Sullivan was more worthy of admiration than Helen. It was Annie who really believed. But Annie was a socialist, a big supporter of the Wobblies and an anti-war crusader and that's good stuff.
Good point when it comes to reaching Helen anyway. I don't know of her life beyond that interaction.
Helen did do good things as an adult and that is more what I was referring to. I may be mistaken tho.
In 1900 Helen reached her goal and attended Radcliff College. Later on Radcliff dedicated a garden in her name and gave her the Alumnae Achievement Award. At Radcliff she met and befriended John Albert Macy. John helped Helen write her first book and autobiography entitled The Story of My Life. By the time Helen was 24 she had graduated college with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She was the first deaf blind woman to receive this degree. Even though Anne was married in 1905 to John Macy, it did not change Anne and Helen's relationship. They were inseparable until Anne's death in 1936. Anne was worried about who would look after Helen so she hired and trained a girl named Polly Thompson as her replacement.
Helen Keller spent her adult life drawing awareness to the blind and deaf community. She traveled to 30 different countries to demonstrate that blind and deaf people could still function in society. She became one of the worlds leading women. The last public appearance she made was in 1961 at a Lion's meeting. She was presented with an award for her service to humanity over her life. Helen Keller passed away on June 1, 1968 she was 87 years old.
Helen Keller received many awards during the course of her life. Among them the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Brazil's Order of the Southern Cross, the Philippines' Golden Heart, Japan's Sacred Treasure, and in 1991, was named one of the most important people of the twentieth century by Life magazine. She will always be remembered as "the first lady of courage.
http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b4hkeller_p1cg.htm (http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b4hkeller_p1cg.htm)
It takes a lot to get through college being deaf and blind. I doubt many could do it.
Quote from: Stephanie on February 12, 2011, 07:54:26 PM
Margaret Thatcher? Err, NO! She was not a great woman. The country is still feeling the effects of her reign.
I chose her because she was not a prototype. She had an idea of the way things are supposed to work and she tried it. She was not evil. She probably equates somehow to Ronald Reagan, a polarizing president that half the people in the U.S. blamed for all of their problems, and the other half swear his economic policies were absolute genius. Please fill me in.
Helen Keller certainly counts. I just don't believe in socialism. :o
(I'm not diving any further into politics.)
I hope you may forgive something of a devils advocate post from someone for whom these questions are now all long in the past.
The thing is even now after several decades I don't know whether I do "connect" with my adopted gender, but its doesn't worry me at all. I didn't really feel I needed a prototype, or to connect I was happy being just a physically feminised version of myself. I don't know perhaps the fact that I grew up partly as a girl makes a difference. I suppose I was given the freedom to be enough of a girl to develop that side of me sufficiently.
Anyway if I had to pick the women I admire they would be:
My Mother. - I had a wonderful role model in my own mother. She wasn't particularly "feminine" in fact in some ways she bordered on androgyne territory but she had a lot of friend's, got involved in all sorts of gung ho secret service type stuff during world war 2, went on to a very successful career with the BBC, led a good life and seemed happy.
Prof. Charlotte Angas Scott Dsc. - My great great aunt. The first woman to graduate from Cambridge. The second woman in the world to hold a Doctorate in Mathematics, and the first woman professor of mathematics at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.
Contessa Torchessa De Nobriga - a minor noble women from Madeira, who fell in love with my great great great grandfather, a ships carpenter, and ran away with him to Australia, settling in Flinders in the northern territory.
Joyce E. – my great aunt. Lied about her age in order to reach the front in World War 1 where she drove heavy Ambulances for the entire duration of the conflict. Afterward returned home with a husband who got her pregnant twice and then promptly left her. Brought up two children on her own earning her living by driving trucks (this was in the 1920's!).
Queen Elizabeth 1st – strong practical and no nonsense. (Also rumoured in certain historical documents to have been a CAIS intersex woman – one possible reason for never marrying.)
Georgina Duchess of Devonshire – A woman who threw out social convention and established her own rules for living back in the time when women weren't supposed to hold opinions.
Marie Curie – Brilliant scientist possessing a steely determination to follow her vocation at a time when women were not encouraged to do things like this.
Joyce Grenfell – A friend of my mothers. A high born woman who was determined enough to go off and be a brilliant actress and a comedienne back when working in "entertainment" was still rather frowned upon in the upper middle classes to which she (and I) belonged.
Margaret Thatcher – she wasn't in the slightest bit feminine and her policies caused a lot of trouble BUT she knew what she believed and she had the strength of character to carry her policies through.
I think the common thread through all my women is that NONE of them would have cared two hoots for the "rules" of gender. They like me just went off and were themselves. They happened to be female in physical sex, as I am, but none of them worried about whether they were feminine in gender or not and neither do I.
she knew what she believed and she had the strength of character to carry her policies through
No end of bad people who that can be said about.
Quote from: tekla on February 13, 2011, 03:47:30 AM
she knew what she believed and she had the strength of character to carry her policies through
No end of bad people who that can be said about.
Absolutely, but one does not have to agree with or admire what someone does, to admire the determination and strength of character that they may show in doing it.
Like many I hate most of what she did. I just admire the fact that she managed to carry it through.
That like saying you admire serial killers because of the dedication and devotion they show in their work.
Quote from: tekla on February 13, 2011, 03:58:40 AM
That like saying you admire serial killers because of the dedication and devotion they show in their work.
;D An interesting moral dilemma.
We always used to laugh at my mother about that. The thing she admired was academic brilliance - we always used to joke that if a burglar had a degree she would be chatting to her upper class friends and would be saying
"oh yes - well he went off to become a burglar you know... terrible fuss, but it's ok, because he went to university so he learned how to burgle people properly!" I guess I am my mothers daughter then... :laugh: but now I think we should stop as we are in danger of derailing this thread.