female writers – knitting in the dark

rhube:

prairie-homo-companion:

this is from a real diary by a 13-year-old girl in 1870. teenage girls are awesome and they’ve always been that way.

Read this – oh my goodness, this girl was wonderful.

Cite your sources! People always want to read the book or article!
From here

DS HOOBLER, DOROTHY Real American Girls Tell Their Own Stories; by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. Atheneum, 1999 104p illus. with photographs ISBN 0-689-82083-6 $12.95 R Gr. 4-6 Through excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, readers discover the child- hoods of American girls from a variety of class, cultural, and historical perspec- tives. The voices of twenty-four girls span the eighteenth through twentieth century. Arranged in brief topical sections, “Best Friends,” “School Days,” “In Trouble,” “Just Having Fun,” “Boys,” and “Becoming a Woman,” the excerpts come from primary sources, mostly from the mid to late 1800s. Many readers will recognize Louisa May Alcott and Red Cross founder Clara Barton, but most of the names will be unfamiliar, such as the Winnebago Mountain Wolf Woman or Helen MacKnight, one of the first women doctors in the U.S. The excerpts are humor- ous, distinctive, and implicitly feminist, while covering topics and feelings that will resonate with contemporary readers: “Have come across such a glorious book called ‘Boys Play Book of Science.’ Am going to read it through and see if whether ain’t some experiments Bess and I can try. Won’t it be jolly if we really can? But it takes money money money even for the privilege of blowing one’s self up”- from the diary of Martha Carey Thomas, 1870. The writings range from the girlish voice of a nine-year-old, to Mountain Wolf Woman’s poignant recounting of her first menstruation, to an incident of prejudice recalled by an Asian Ameri- can teenager. The best excerpts are diary entries which engage readers through the immediacy of first person and the specificity of time and place: “I don’t want to be alive when the year 2000 comes, for my Bible teacher says the world is coming to an end then, and perhaps sooner.” Black-and-white photos (unfortunately uncaptioned) and a list of credits accompany the text. This book should find readers among the fans of the American Girl or Dear America series and can serve as a springboard to history and journal writing.

actuallyclintbarton:

hungrysheepbookshop:

zcropercent:

could we maybe stop demonizing john green? like people literally wish death on him and I could literally argue with any reason people claim to hate him for

paper towns is literally entirely about how women are not here for your pleasure and you don’t know them the way you think and they’re literally just humans and to put them on any pedestal is harmful to everyone involved

looking for alaska was largely a way of coping with a classmate’s suicide as well as his own mental illness and existentialism, he again touches on how no person is there just for you and you never know what kind of shit people have seen and people are complex. alaska isn’t just hot and funny and rebellious and sexy like miles first sees her. she’s damaged deeply and coping poorly and he has no idea how to handle any of this. and it was his first novel so like cut him a break

colin singleton was gross and annoying that’s kind of the point

tfios doesnt glamourize cancer in any way. there’s frequent mentioning of the chubby cheeks, the hair, the inability to breathe, the accompaning depression, the self blame (hazel frequently talks about her lungs really negatively, calls them useless and shitty etc), the lack of ability or desire to get out of bed or eat, the puking, I could go on,,,,, basically cancer is never in any way glamourized??????

also tfios was loosely inspired by (but importantly, not based on) Esther earl, a fan who he became friends with, who died at 16. he knew she was sick, as did everyone, but never to what extent.

john talks all the time about her and frequently speaks on and supports the charity her family made in her name, This Star Won’t Go Out.

he does so much charity shit oh my god. working with bill and melinda gates, tswgo, and just supporting whatever he can whenever he can.

he makes educational videos purely out of the desire for education.

not only does he make the crash course videos we all know, he also works with mental floss, and makes educational videos on racism, sexuality, gender, religion, politics etc on vlogbrothers.

he has experienced existential depression and has ocd and (as indicated by how he talks about it in many videos and interviews) very severe anxiety. he takes medication and actively discusses mental illness and makes an effort to remove stigmatization.

he admits to imperfection, frequently corrects himself, and calls his younger self out on his ways of thinking all the damn time.

this post was only supposed to be the first four lines. I just literally cannot contain how undeserving of adament hatred john green is ok goodbye

I don’t know much about John Green or care about his works one way or the other, but I’m always surprised by the amount of negativity I see regarding him, especially since we were all luuuurving him a couple of years ago. Cut the guy a break OK? Apparently he’s doing some great stuff.

The guy is not perfect. I don’t always like shit he says or how he reacts to things.

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t do a lot of good and isn’t a human who deserves more respect than fucking wishing death on him.

I know very little about John Green but the criticism I have seen has often pointed out that he’s being put on a pedestal for writing stuff that female writers have been doing in YA lit for decades, but because he’s a dude it’s somehow considered groundbreaking. That’s not exactly something he has a lot of control over, but YA is a field where women deserve more props for the breaking of ground they did in a market that fell between children’s book and adult lit and wasn’t really made a big deal of until recently.