Aster Ebony - History vs women: the defiant lives that they dont want you to know

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TO ALL THE WOMEN WHOSE STORIES WERE NEVER TOLD, WHOSE SONGS WERE NEVER SUNG, AND WHOSE WORKS WERE NEVER CELEBRATED. MAY THE KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR LIVES STIR UP AMBITIOUS DREAMS IN NEW GENERATIONS OF WOMEN WHO WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.

Who cares about a bunch of dead women?

Well, we do, and we think you might, too.

Were finding it quite tiring that rather than being celebrated as heroes, leaders, and innovators, women are often depictedand treatedas secondary characters in history. They may be love interests, damsels in distress, sassy best friends, mothers, mistresses, or martyrsbut they rarely exist as anything except footnotes to the stories of the men whose lives and achievements were told actually matter.

But a closer look at history tells a different story. Did you know the inventor of the novel was a Japanese woman? Or that a Chinese woman ruled a fleet of four hundred pirate ships? Or that a fearless nineteen-year-old in 1930 was the first black woman to make a solo motorcycle ride across America, even though the laws of the time meant she had to sleep outside in gas station parking lots?

WHEN THEY WERE TOLD THAT WOMEN SHOULD ASPIRE TO BE SUBMISSIVE AND GOOD, THEY DECIDED INSTEAD TO BE DEFIANT AND GREAT.

History vs Women: The Defiant Lives That They Dont Want You to Know aims to explore the lives and accomplishments of fascinating women across the world who defied cultural expectations and social pressures that sought to limit their ambition and erase them from the history books. When they were told that women should aspire to be submissive and good, they decided instead to be defiant and great. Their uncompromising lives and thrilling exploits are a reminder that the stories we tell about womenin TV shows, comic books, and video games, as well as in real lifeoften reflect the stereotypes and limitations that have been created for them, rather than the world-changing feats they have already achieved, often against incredible odds.

In History vs Women, weve gone searching for women across the globe and across generations to draw back the curtain on those phenomenal figures whose stories you may not know, but whose uncompromising lives still reach out to us. Digging deep into the past, we came across scores of forgotten women whose incredible triumphs and historical importance had been lost. It is invigorating and electrifying to reclaim their stories and share them with you. Nevertheless, its hard not to think about the others: women with inspiring stories of creativity, ambition, perseverance, and brilliance that have been lost forever. The contributions of many women simply werent valued enough to record. But the greatest tragedy is the sheer number of exceptional minds who never had the opportunity to explore their talents at all because as women, particularly women of color, they were never given an opportunity.

History vs Women aims to introduce you to a range of dynamic women across many different races, countries, time periods, and classes. Some of their names might be familiar to you, and we hope you discover new and fascinating parts to their stories. But we suspect that many of the women youll meet in these pages youll be hearing about for the first time. We think youll be as blown away as we are by the colorful tapestries of their lives and the fearsome impact they made on their societies.

The book is divided into five sections:

RECKLESS REBELS

REVELATORY SCHOLARS

RUTHLESS VILLAINS

RESTLESS ARTISTS

RELENTLESS AMAZONS

Weve deliberately chosen figures across a wide variety of fields, to prove that theres no arena in which women cant make their mark. The Ruthless Villains section is especially important to us. Its crucial that we dont simply celebrate the heroic contributions of women in history, but instead recognize that women are fully human and are therefore capable of the heights of heroism or the depths of wickedness. No book about womens history is complete without acknowledging the fullness of womens experiences, and in this book, we certainly dont sugarcoat any gruesome or unsavory history.

Through these captivating storiesand the magnificent artwork that accompanies themwe hope to demonstrate that history is a dynamic, dramatic, living thing. To put it simply: If you are like us, and you care about the future of our planet and all the beings on it, youll want to understand how we got here, to this time, in this moment. To understand the heroes and villains of today, we must understand the heroes and villains of yesterday. So, join us as we initiate you into a secret society of remarkable women. We think youll like the other members.

Explore the lives of women who teach us that justice is always worth fighting for, whether on the battlefield, from the courtroom, or in the press.

Like the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes, women cannot be destroyed. Keep us out of school, and well learn to read in secret. Tell us were too weak to compete, and well beat you at your own game. Bar us from the halls of power, and well storm the gates and lift our voices anyway. Despite all thats been done around the world and throughout history to keep women down, we climb toward the light.

This section is devoted to sharing stories of rebellious women who refused to accept the status quo. These courageous fighters ignored the direct and indirect calls to say silent, and for that they sometimes paid a terrible cost. When they wouldnt sit quietly and act ladylike, they were met with violent opposition. But despite being despised, feared, and attacked, they kept goingeven when the odds were stacked against them. From India to Vietnam, from America to Egypt, they challenged powerful people and institutions, regardless of the personal cost.

REBELS DONT GIVE UP. THEY ARENT AFRAID OF MAKING PEOPLE ANGRY OR GETTING THEIR HANDS DIRTY.

Being a lightning rod for social change is emotionally taxing and often isolating, but rebels dont give up. They arent afraid of making people angry or getting their hands dirty. On the battlefield and in the courtroom, they keep marching, speaking up, and fighting for self-determination, religious freedom, and a better world.

For any student of social justice and human rights, the choice about which fearless fighters to include in a work like this presents a tremendous challenge. There are so many women who came before us and paved the way for our activist work today. We only have space to share a small sampling of the breathtaking resilience and courage that women demonstrate every single day. Reckless rebels such as Doria Shafik, one of modern Egypts pioneering feminists; Ida B. Wells, a crusading black American journalist and anti-lynching campaigner; Mai Bhago, an indomitable Sikh warrior; Lucy Hicks Anderson, a woman at the vanguard of the fight for transgender rights; and Triu Th. Trinh, one of the mothers of Vietnam, inspire us and give us the courage to fight against police brutality, environmental catastrophe, and discrimination and inhumanity in all their forms. Around the world, women are battling for a just world where all people are treated with dignity and respect. Be inspired by their stories and motivated by their courage, so that one day, we can all be like feminist activist and writer Audre Lorde, who proclaimed that when I dare to be powerful to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.