Episode 3: Dames Grotesquerie

Mary Shelley and Flannery O'Connor: Innovators of grotesque, macabre and religious literature; science-fiction.

**O'Connor with her cherished peacocks in Millidgeville, Georgia.**

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Further Reading:
Flannery O'Connor:
"O'Connor Collected Works." Library Classics of the United States, Inc., New York. (1988)
"O'Connor Letters." published by Regina O'Connor by arrangement with Farrar, Straus and Giroux.          (1979)
"Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor." by Brad Gooch. (2009)
"Flannery O'Connor: A Life." by Jean W. Cash (2002)
For O'Connor's cartoons: http://www.gcsu.edu/flannerycartoons/
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-498


Mary Shelley
"Mary Shelley" by Miranda Seymour
"Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley with critical essays
"The Last Man" by Mary Shelley
"Lives of the Most Eminent French Writers" by Mary Shelley
Cabinet Cyclopedia Volumes: 
Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain and Portugal, I, II,III 
(For Italy, Shelley Wrote : Petrarch, Boccaccio, Lorenzo de'Medici, Marsiglio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Angelo Poliziano, Bernardo Pulci, Luca Pulci, Luigi Pulci, Cieco Da Ferrara, Burchiello, Bojardo, Berni, Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Vittoria Colonna, Guarini, Chiabrera, Tassoni, Marini, Filicaja, Metastasio, Goldoni, Alfieri, Monti, and Ugo Foscolo. For Spain and Portugal, she wrote all but Ercilla.)
Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, I, II  
(Shelley wrote:Montaigne, Corneille, Rochefoucauld, Molière, Pascal, Madame de Sévigné, Boileau, Racine, Fénelon, Voltaire, Rousseau, Condorcet, Mirabeau, Madame Roland, and Madame de Staël)


Music: Bottom Below by Holly Golightly



***Pics of the ladies are done up fancy by LP***

Episode 2: Dames of Incest and Political Prowess

Agrippina the Younger and Queen Semiramis of Assyria/Babylon: Political savoir faire; incest

**Semiramis is said to be the inspiration for the
Starbucks symbol and the statue of liberty.**

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Further Reading:

Queen Semiramis: 
"The Two Babylons" by Alexander Hislop (1853). 
"Famous Women" by Giovanni Boccaccio (1361). 
Pergamon Museum Babylon: Myth and Truth 
The Legend of Semiramis
Semiramis - Queen of Babylon
*For more about the myth of Semiramis (Shamiran) here's an enlightening video 


Agrippina the Younger:
Agrippina: Sex, Power and Politics in the Early Roman Empire by Anthony A Barrett
Representing Agrippina: Constructions of Female Power in the Early Roman Empire by Judith Ginsburg
Annals by Tacitus
The Women of the Caesars by Guglielmo Ferrero 
Twelve Caesars by Suetonius
Roman History by Cassius Dio

Music: Gloria Jones - Tainted Love

Dame is a Four Letter Word would like to take this moment to acknowledge that incest is not psychologically or biologically healthy, no matter what ancient Babylon, ancient Rome or Return of the Jedi would have you believe.

***Pics of the ladies are done up fancy by LP***

Badass Physicist: Lisa Randall

So, Lisa Randall is this physicist doing pretty interesting work at Harvard. Her articles are pretty fascinating. I suggest having a gander.


Here's a post of hers I found called "The Beauty of Branes."

"Sisterhood of Spies"

Just an awesome article I stumbled across. Nothing like two sweet-looking old ladies telling stories that involve grenades as a practical joke.


The Adventures of Doris and Betty


And oh yes, there will be a spy episode soon. 

Episode 1: Dames with a Heater and a Dream

Fanya Kaplan & Lolita Lebron: Armed insurrectionists.

*Credit where credit's due* 

Now, you've heard of the Black Hand gang and John Wilkes Booth, but when it comes to ladies....

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For Further Reading:

Fanya Kaplan:
www.j-grit.com/radicals-fanya-kaplan.php
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSkaplan.htm

Lolita Lebron:
The Ladies Gallery by Irene Vilar
La Prisoneria by Federico Ribes Tovar
News Coverage of incident, and trial
Remembering Lolita Lebron - NPR
"Lolita Lebron Would Rather Die in Prison" by Anne Nelson, The Nation 8/11/1979
"The National Security Council during the Carter Administration and the liberation of the Puerto Rican Nationalists in 1979." by Francisco Ortiz Santini, Centro Journal, Fall 2007.

Music: Patti Smith - Smells Like Teen Spirit

For clarification on what we're about with this idea, check out the intro:
http://dameisa4letterword.blogspot.com/2011/07/intro-tiiiiime.html

**I'd like to add that the idea of 'subjunctive history' that I mention in the podcast is unoriginal. Its an idea which has been made in various forms by historians but is one which I was fortunate to be introduced to by the character of Dacon in Alan Bennett's play "The History Boys."**

***Pics of the ladies are done up fancy by LP***

Episode 0: Introduction Tiiiiime!

So this here is our quick statement of purpose as to what it is we're hoping to do with this blog/podcast.

Basically we're saddened that we spent a huge chunk of our lives ignorant of all the cool women historical figures we could have had as role models. Queens and scientists and philosophers, insurrectionists, imaginers, and spies, all going unreported because we were too busy hearing about Betsy Ross or Laura Ingalls Wilder. Oh dears, there's so much more to it than that.



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So here it is. We're gonna tell you about those ladies. And forget whatever your mama told you about the things a woman should or shouldn't do, because, and it's been true for a while, dame is a four letter word.