Our society is so fallen that that we only had the one sporty girl, and she also had to be spicy. I would like a @katebeaton.bsky.social comic about three sporty girls who crossed the Antarctic and emerged surprisingly well-fed.
They just didn’t get anywhere close to crossing the continent, getting trapped there when their ship was eaten by the ice and having to survive for months before rescuing themselves
The rescue was the best part! They basically got in a dinghy and rowed a week to Elephant Island, then two weeks to South Georgia Island, in storms, without even being able to see the stars to locate themselves. The navigator was just like "yeah, this feels like the right way" on the open ocean
Then once they got there, they were on the wrong side of the island from the Norwegian whaling station, so these soaking wet, frostbitten, unfed and completely sleep-deprived mariners hiked 36 hours over the harshest terrain imaginable and came at the whaling station over land, confusing everyone
I don’t think it’s useful to speculate how historical figures would describe their gender identities using modern terms (social constructs change over time)
But I also want to joke about how this was the “Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition” and these women wanted to break some gender norms
Part of the problem is that cis historians will say "don't read modern constructs into the past" but then will assume everyone is cis, even though "cis" is also a modern construct. It's just naturalized.
I think there is some value there. Perhaps not in the most accurate historical sense, but in a world where so much queer history has been hidden and erased there is immense value in finding examples that show that we have always been here in one form or another.
English sporty types but can guess, hockey, lacrosse, horse riding, walking and climbing in skirts. This early Australian woman climber is worth a read. Air New Zealand a few years ago provided a great lump of NZ greywacke as part of restoring her neglected grave. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freda_Du_Faur
I love that I didn’t even notice either, even though Shackleton’s naming his ship after his family motto and that motto then representing what the adventurers went through is such a poetic part of the story
I noted while attempting to find more information on these young women that the first women to go on a polar expedition did so in 1931, 17 years later. (And the first woman to actually set foot on the mainland of Antarctica did not do so until 1936. These were all Norwegian women.)
Comments
Better performance at higher RPM.
I have already been googling them and have learned more in a historic way, including their letter to Shackleton: https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/archives/shackleton/articles/1537,2,30,5-6.html
And this context: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41921096.amp
But I also want to joke about how this was the “Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition” and these women wanted to break some gender norms
but if anyone else wants to write that, I will certainly read it!
I was intrigued by his “right hand man” once I read that they’re buried next to each other
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Wild
So relatable and it makes me so grateful my camera’s digital haha
Because as a queer person I read queerness into all sorts of history, can’t tell where my biases start and reality begins haha
If not geoblocked, this podcast is very good https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/hindsight/starlit-heights-and-winding-valleys-the-life-of/3079168
There's a Lego set of the Endeavour but it doesn't come with minifigs, so you could definitely ad three sporty girls to the set.
https://www.waterstones.com/book/all-the-white-spaces/ally-wilkes/9781789097832