Hi hi,

Happy Good Friday! I hope you enjoy today’s feminist treats as well.

I was vaguely aware of Leonora Carrington before I read this article – enough that I read the headline and thought, Leonora Carrington isn’t forgotten, don’t patronise me – but then I read the article and realised that I knew next to nothing about this interesting woman and her tumultuous life:

In contrast to the tendency of Surrealism's male artists to depict women as thin, young, fragmented, static, and perpetually naked muses, Carrington's women fell across a spectrum: often very old, powerful and threatening, in a state of action and transformation. Her idiosyncratic way of filtering them through her imagination and experiences meant a Carrington painting or story had a uniquely charged, multi-dimensional meaning. As her patron Edward James said, her paintings were "not merely painted. They are brewed."

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/surrealist-painter-leonora-carrington

As well as being an artist, Leonora Carrington wrote short stories and a memoir. The story referenced the most in the above article is The Hyena, and it’s got a great first paragraph – enjoy the full text in the below link:

WHEN I was a debutante I often went to the zoological garden. I went so often that I was better acquainted with animals than with the young girls of my age. It was to escape from the world that I found myself each day at the zoo. The beast I knew best was a young hyena. She knew me too. She was extremely intelligent; I taught her French and in return she taught me her language. We spent many pleasant hours in this way.

https://biblioklept.org/2014/01/05/the-debutante-a-short-story-by-leonora-carrington/

This got me reading about hyenas and hyena societies! Which are also incredibly interesting, not only because of their matriarchal societies but also because for a long time it was thought that hyenas could change gender at will. Lots here for biology fans and people who didn’t know they were biology fans until they read an article about hyenas:

female spotted hyenas are bigger and more aggressive than males. Every clan is a matriarchy ruled by an alpha female. In the clan's strict power structure, adult males rank last. […] At a communal carcass, adult males eat last—if there's anything left. When a male kills dinner on his own, he must gorge quickly before female clan members shove him aside. Nor do things improve much when it comes to mating. "With most animals, males duke it out and the winner gets the girls," says Holekamp. "But with hyenas, females have 100 percent say."

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/whos-laughing-now-38529396/?all

Love,

Alex.