I’m back! I’m back! Thank you for the stellar work last week Saxey.

Today I’ve got a Feminist Friday full of articles about being a woman and being tough, in various ways. I hope that you enjoy it.

When this article starts, it looks like it’s going to be about Mad Max, and then it opens out to be about many things that are not Mad Max. It is, in part, a history of toughness as a feminine quality, rather than one that’s borrowed from masculine qualities.

And Britomart, arrayed in armor and furnished with a magic spear, fights her way through the book like a man might do. She is described as being “full of amiable grace / with manly terrour mixed therewithal.” She’s appealing, but intimidating, specifically in the manner of a man. But Britomart, when she rides out in armor, is not cross-dressing, passing for male, or even inhabiting a genderless space. She is interacting with her female identity—with love and fidelity, which are women’s qualities to Spenser but also human concerns—in a way that’s entirely different from the perfect lover or the damsel in distress.

http://penguinrandomhouse.ca/hazlitt/feature/warrior-womans-work

Perhaps you have not yet seen the exciting story of the woman who gave birth in the woods then lived there for three days, fighting bees. There is no pullquote that can do full justice to this:

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-woman-lost-forest-20150630-story.html

Just a really important message about whether politeness constitutes sexual tension:

If a smiling woman who isn’t bludgeoning you to death with a portafilter is what you look for in a mate, may I suggest looking elsewhere?

https://medium.com/absurdist/you-see-her-almost-every-day-cc30d1bc2b66

Enjoy the sunshine, everyone,

Alex.