Women judges on the Supreme Court

Elena Kagan, Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor are the Supreme Court's only women judges, ever.

1. Sandra Day O'Connor (1981-2006)
2. Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993-present)
3. Sonia Maria Sotomayor (2009-present)
4. Elena Kagan (2010-present)

Toxic masculinity

Irreverin says the toxic message is "women are here for men's enjoyment."  In other words, she says, the real problem is patriarchy.

"Whether they realize it or not, American men have been shaped by this kind of misogyny.  Thankfully, some men also learned some other values that more strongly influence their relationships with and treatment of women.  But left unchecked, this all-too-common assumption of entitlement leaves men filled with rage when a woman asserts her autonomy.  It makes for a world full of men who can’t cope with rejection; men who shoot up high schools to 'teach those bitches a lesson,' who force themselves on female acquaintances, or who maybe just follow a woman to a deserted place and make her suffer for their own sick pleasure."

Read Irreverin's short article:  A Border Wall Won't Protect Against Toxic Masculinity.  So how did masculinity get so toxic?

Click to enlarge, so you can read it more easily.

Consider these gender stereotypes, shown in "pink and blue" (of course!), which is another stereotype.

From Facebook (slightly edited):

The way our culture treats boys sickens me.  I had an 11-year-old boy in my room to have blood drawn today.  He was crying.  Not bawling or throwing a fit, just a few nervous tears.  His guardian kept telling him to 'man up' and 'stop acting like a sissy.'  Then she threatened to record him crying to show it to all his friends, which made him cry more.  I told her we had a strict no recording/photo policy, and she got mad at me for 'ruining the joke.'

When this woman went to the bathroom, I told the kid it was okay to express his emotions however he needed to, that even grown men are scared of needles, that everyone is scared of something, and he was brave for doing it even though he was scared.

Stop. Telling. Boys. They. Aren't. Really. Boys. For expressing emotion.

You know why women and femmes have to fear violent men?  Because of this sh*t that represses boys and men.  Crying doesn't make you weak.  Fear doesn't make you weak.  But berating a child for showing those things make you a weak adult.

What to say to little girls

Gumption

Don’t call me pretty or say that I'm beautiful.

That's not what matters to girls who have spunk.

Tell me I'm smart or I show such compassion.

Say I have spirit or always seem savvy.

Tell me I'm witty or clever or funny,

and point out whenever I'm loving and kind.

Looks are not all that a girl should consider,

so tell me I've got what it takes to succeed.

― Bonnie Setliffe Jacobs, August 2, 2018

The #metoo phenomenon

Why are women just now speaking up?

Here's the best answer I've seen:

"We’re not.  You are just now hearing us."

Immigration raids

Today, the Rev. Susan Henry-Crowe of the United Methodist Church issued this statement on current immigration raids:

In the past few days, the United States has seen a surge of raids targeting immigrant communities by Department of Homeland Security officials.  These raids are occurring in homes, places of work, and even near churches.  We are especially troubled by the raid outside of a United Methodist Church in Virginia on February 8th where men exiting a hypothermia shelter were confronted the minute they crossed the street off of church grounds.  Targeting those seeking sanctuary or services provided by houses of worship will not be tolerated.

The United Methodist Church believes that “migrants should be given due process and access to adequate legal representation.  Due to these raids and the ensuing detentions and deportations that follow them, families have been ripped apart and the migrant community has been forced to live in a constant state of fear.”

While raids occurred over the past decades under the Obama, Bush and Clinton Administrations, we are especially concerned about the lack of discretion that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have shown recently as they profile communities – especially Latinx people – and engage in mass arrests.

To the United States government:  we call upon you to immediately cease arrests, detainment, and deportations of undocumented immigrants, including children, solely based upon their immigration status until a fair and comprehensive immigration reform is passed.

To people of faith:  We affirm that all are created in the image of God and we are called to welcome immigrants into our congregations, provide care for those facing separation from their families, and advocate for policies that uphold the civil and human rights of all migrants.

To all who live in fear of detention, deportation, or separation from your family and community:  you are valuable, deserving of opportunity, your contributions to society are important, and we will stand with you to advocate for justice.

“To refuse to welcome migrants to this country – and to stand by in silence while families are separated, individual freedoms are ignored, and the migrant community in the United States is demonized by members of Congress and the media – is complicity to sin.”

This statement can be read online here.

Peace,
Susan Henry-Crowe

She quoted twice from the United Methodist Book of Resolutions,
¶ 3281 "Welcoming the Migrant to the United States."

What about me?  What will I do now?

Since I can't do everything at once, I have decided to focus on the plight of immigrants and the Native Americans fighting the pipeline being forced through their treaty lands.  Often, these two issues intersect with the many forms of discrimination I have been fighting for years without much success:  racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, and others.

in·ter·sec·tion·al·i·ty = the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.

Here's another definition of the word:

Intersectionality (or intersectional theory) is a term first coined in 1989 by American civil rights advocate and leading scholar of critical race theory, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw.  It is the study of overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination.  Intersectionality is the idea that multiple identities intersect to create a whole that is different from the component identities.  These identities that can intersect include gender, race, social class, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, age, mental disability, physical disability, mental illness, and physical illness as well as other forms of identity.

TWO items from the library

Ms. Magazine ~ Winter 2015 issue

This issue explores Angelina Jolie’s fight to end child marriage.  An estimated one-third of girls in developing countries will become brides before age 18. These child marriages not only force girls to give up on their dreams and drop out of school, but endanger their very lives when they’re expected to become young mothers.  It also features Black women at the forefront of a new civil rights movement, #BlackLivesMatter, which has emerged following the police killings of African American youth.  The blurb that first caught my attention, though, was the article by Barbara Kingsolver about climate change.

Few women graduated from the NYC police academy in December 2014.

Spread across the two pages exactly in the center of the magazine is this article: How to Defuse Police Violence | By Katherine Spillar. "One simple answer has been overlooked:  Hire more women officers."

Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, From Myth to Reality ~ by Helen Scales, 2009, marine biology

Poseidon's Steed trails the seahorse through secluded waters across the globe in a kaleidoscopic history that mirrors our centuries-old fascination with the animal, sweeping from the reefs of Indonesia, through the back streets of Hong Kong, and back in time to ancient Greece and Rome.  Over time, seahorses have surfaced in some unlikely places.  We see them immortalized in the decorative arts; in tribal folklore, literature, and ancient myth; and even on the pages of the earliest medical texts, prescribed to treat everything from skin complaints to baldness to flagging libido.  Marine biologist Helen Scales eloquently shows that seahorses are indeed fish, though scientists have long puzzled over their exotic anatomy, and their very strange sex lives:  Male seahorses are the only males in the animal world that experience childbirth!  Our first seahorse imaginings appeared six thousand years ago on cave walls in Australia.  The ancient Greeks called the seahorse hippocampus (half-horse, half-fish) and sent it galloping through the oceans of mythology, pulling the sea god Poseidon's golden chariot.  The seahorse has even been the center of a modern-day international art scandal:  A two-thousand-year-old winged seahorse brooch was plundered by Turkish tomb raiders and sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

TWO
     When I returned a couple of books to the library last week, I (for once) didn't have any other books on hold to pick up.  Yet I still brought home these two items — from the library's sale shelves.  I was pleasantly surprised to get the current issue of Ms. for a mere quarter.

Books to empower girls

Women's History Month is celebrated during March in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.  I'll celebrate with books, of course.  Here are two of my favorite children's books that empower girls.

Miss Rumphius ~ by Barbara Cooney, 1982, children's, 10/10

This beautiful book, which won the American Book Sellers National Book Award, passes along the wisdom of a grandfather's philosophy of life.  He told Alice Rumphius that she should not only travel the world and come home to live by the sea, but also to do something in her life to make the world more beautiful.  Little Alice grew up, traveled, and settled by the sea, and what she did to make the world more beautiful was to plant lupines all over the place.

Once upon a time, I was asked, "If you could meet any fictional character who would it be and why?"  My answer was "Miss Rumphius."  I love how she grew up wanting to make the world a better place — and how she figured out a way to do it.  I've written about Miss Rumphius again and again on this blog.

The Paper Bag Princess ~ by Robert N. Munsch, 1980, children's, 9/10

Princess Elizabeth is a spunky little girl.  The dragon smashed her castle, burned all her clothes, and carried off Prince Ronald (p. 28).  The only thing the princess could find to wear was a paper bag, yet she bravely went after the dragon.  Was Ronald grateful when she rescued him?&nbsp Oh, no!  He said (pp. 46-48):

"Elizabeth, you are a mess!  You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag.  Come back when you are dressed like a real princess."

"Ronald," said Elizabeth, "your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat.  You look like a real prince, but you are a bum."

They didn't get married after all.

This is another book I've mentioned more than once, like for the 25th anniversary edition.  I love children's books that go against the norm.

And look!  This article about Twelve Empowering Children's Books To Add To Little Girls' Bookshelves includes both of my favorite children's books.

Library Loot ~ December 10-16

Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference ~ by Cordelia Fine, 2010, women's studies

A brilliantly researched and wickedly funny rebuttal of the pseudo-scientific claim that men are from Mars and women are from Venus.  It’s the twenty-first century, and although we tried to rear unisex children — boys who play with dolls and girls who like trucks — we failed.  Even though the glass ceiling is cracked, most women stay comfortably beneath it.  And everywhere we hear about vitally important "hardwired" differences between male and female brains.  The neuroscience that we read about in magazines, newspaper articles, books, and sometimes even scientific journals increasingly tells a tale of two brains, and the result is more often than not a validation of the status quo.  Women, it seems, are just too intuitive for math; men too focused for housework.  Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience and psychology, Cordelia Fine debunks the myth of hardwired differences between men’s and women’s brains, unraveling the evidence behind such claims as men’s brains aren’t wired for empathy and women’s brains aren’t made to fix cars. She then goes one step further, offering a very different explanation of the dissimilarities between men’s and women’s behavior.  Instead of a "male brain" and a "female brain," Fine gives us a glimpse of plastic, mutable minds that are continuously influenced by cultural assumptions about gender.  Passionately argued and unfailingly astute, this book provides us with a much-needed corrective to the belief that men’s and women’s brains are intrinsically different — a belief that, as Fine shows with insight and humor, all too often works to the detriment of ourselves and our society.

The line that jumps out at me is that "we tried to rear unisex children — boys who play with dolls and girls who like trucks — we failed."  I have two daughters and one son.  The twins are three years older than their brother, and I was a feminist when they were growing up in the 1960s.  I gave toy cars and trucks and dolls to all three children, but yes — "we failed."  My children didn't become "unisex," but I do have competent daughters and a compassionate son.  What "failed" was that, although each of them played with the same toys, their play was different.

Cars and trucks
My daughters "talked" as they pushed little cars from place to place.  "We go around the corner and over the bridge to grandmother's house, and we park the car and go inside."  My son, on the other hand, pushed his cars while making noises for it:  "Vroom!  Vroom!  VROOM!  Screeeech, BANG!"  I didn't teach them how to play, so it must have been innate.

Dolls
The girls cuddled their dolls and rocked them to sleep.  They put them to bed and covered them up with doll blankets as they played "house" with each other.  My little boy insisted on having G.I. Joe dolls, not baby dolls.  His idea of playing with dolls was to tie a handkerchief or wash cloth to the doll with strings and throw it off the deck to see if his make-shift parachute would work.  G.I. Joe usually fell rapidly to the ground, landing with a splat!

How scientific is that anecdotal evidence?  Not very.  But I'll be interested in seeing what Cordelia Fine has to say about society and neurosexism.  I can debunk the idea that "men’s brains aren’t wired for empathy and women’s brains aren’t made to fix cars."  I could do a better job of fixing what was wrong with my car than the man who pulled up behind my stalled car one day, jumped out and ran up to grab the pliers out of my hand (he was truly trying to be helpful).  But then he just stood there, staring at the motor of my car.  I took back my pliers, thanked him, fixed the problem, and drove off.  Meanwhile, I can assure you I raised a perfectly fine young man with oodles of empathy, who cares for others.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Linda @ Silly Little Mischief that encourages us to share the names of books we checked out of the library.  See what others got this week.

Library Loot ~ January 29-February 4

Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 ~ by Michelle Markel, 2013, children's history

When Clara Lemlich arrived in America, she couldn't speak English.  She didn't know that young women had to go to work, that they traded an education for long hours of labor, that she was expected to grow up fast.  But that did not stop Clara.  She went to night school, spent hours studying English, and helped support her family by sewing in a factory.  Clara never quit.  And she never accepted that girls should be treated poorly and paid little.  So Clara fought back.  Fed up with the mistreatment of her fellow laborers, Clara led the largest walkout of women workers in the country's history.  Clara had learned a lot from her short time in America.  She learned that everyone deserved a fair chance.  That you had to stand together and fight for what you wanted.  And, most importantly, that you could do anything you put your mind to.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Linda @ Silly Little Mischief that encourages us to name the books we checked out of the library.  Click here to see what others got this week.

Beginning ~ with a letter

Paris, France, January 1952

Lucy was dead.  Eleanor Roosevelt sat alone in her suite at the Hôtel de Crillon and looked at the obituary a friend had mailed to her the week before.  It was from the newspaper in Aiken, South Carolina, dated January 7, 1952:  "Lucy Page Mercer Rutherford, fifty-seven years old, died from complications of kidney disease.  Widow of Lord Edward Rutherford."

Eleanor vs. Ike ~ by Robin Gerber, 2008

It is a time of turmoil, with the nation mired in an unpopular war in Korea and with Senator Joseph McCarthy stirring up fear of a lurking Communist "menace."  Racial discrimination is rampant.  A woman's place is in the home.  And when a shocking act of God eliminates the Democratic presidential nominee, the party throws its support to an unlikely standard bearer:  former First Lady and goodwill ambassador to the world Eleanor Roosevelt.  This fast-paced book pits the unforgettable Eleanor against the enormously popular war hero Gen. Dwight David ("Ike") Eisenhower.  But while the opponents promise "an honest campaign," their strategists mire the race in scandal and bitter innuendo.  Suddenly Eleanor finds herself a target of powerful insiders who mean to destroy her good name — and Ku Klux Klan assassins dedicated to her death — as she gets caught up in a mad whirl of appearances and political maneuvering ... and a chance encounter with a precocious five-year-old named Hillary Rodham.

I'm finally getting around to reading this novel, which I mentioned last year in a Friday Five about women:

Name a famous woman from history with whom you would like to have lunch.

Eleanor Roosevelt was first lady when I was born in 1940.  Eleanor vs. Ike, a 2008 novel by Robin Gerber, is hiding in a box somewhere in my apartment.  When I find the right box, I'll read this alternative history of a political campaign between the unforgettable Eleanor and the popular war hero Gen. Dwight David Eisenhower, known as Ike.  I was twelve when Ike was elected in 1952, but what fun if Eleanor had become the first woman president.  Will it happen in this book?

The book has been unpacked from that box, and I'm ready to read it now.  I read to explore ideas — this book explores the idea of a woman running for president of the United States six decades ago.  Apparently, the majority of people in the United States are still unable to imagine such a thing.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Beginning ~ with a pregnant traveler

America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines ~ by Gail Collins, 2003, history

"Eleanor Dare must have been either extraordinarily adventurous or easily led.  In 1587, when she was pregnant with her first child, she set sail across the Atlantic, headed for a continent where no woman of her kind had ever lived, let alone given birth."

I remember learning about Virginia Dare in school.  She was the first English baby born in America, so I figured the pregnaant Eleanor Dare must be her mother.  I knew from the back cover that Gail Collins "tells the story of how women shaped the nation and our vision of what it means to be female in America."  And I'm interested.  The history lessons I was taught were all about men and wars and politics; but this book is about "how women lived, what they cared about, and how they felt about marriage, sex, and work."  I've finished the first chapter, so far, and look forward to the rest, including the last chapter — "The Sixties: The Pendulum Swings Back with a Vengeance" — which covers the time when I was a young mother.  I've already read Gail Collins's 2009 book, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present, which I reviewed here.  Now I need to catch up with what came before.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays. Click here for today's Mister Linky.

One read, one received ~ books, of course!

(Click to enlarge any photos)

On Monday, I traveled to Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville with my friend Donna, who must see a specialist in pulmonary hypertension there every few months.  Sorry it was so overcast as we headed home, with Donna driving and me using my cellphone as a camera.  Can you read "Chattanooga" and "Memphis" on the two highway signs?

You might say we used the time profitably by taking along books — but, of course!  While she drove, I read aloud and we discussed what Marcus Borg had to say about Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power — and How They Can Be Restored (2011).  Although I didn't distract her by reading when the traffic was heaviest, we still managed to get through the Introduction and four chapters.  Here's what I underlined in the introduction (page 2):

"To redeem means to set free from slavery, bondage, captivity; it is not about being saved from our sins.  In this sense, Christian language needs to be redeemed — to be set free from its captivity to contemporary literalism and the heaven-and-hell Christian framework."

When we got home last night (we're roommates), we found that UPS had delivered another book.  Ten days ago, Wendy @ Caribousmom emailed to tell me:

"You were one of the lucky winners over at the Chunkster Challenge blog giveaway this month. You won a copy of The Emperor of Lies by Steve Sem-Sanburg."

This novel (2009, English translation from Swedish 2011) is a "chunkster" itself, at 664 pages.  (Click to read Wendy's review.)  From the back cover of the paperback:

"In February 1940, the Nazis established what would become the second-largest Jewish ghetto in the Polish city of Lódz.  Its chosen leader:  Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, a sixty-three-year-old Jewish businessman and orphanage director.  From one of Scandinavia's most critically acclaimed and bestselling authors, The Emperor of Lies chronicles the tale of Rumkowski's monarchical rule over a quarter million Jews.  Driven by a titanic ambition, he sought to transform the ghetto into a productive industrial complex and strove to make it — and himself — indispensable to the Nazi regime.  Drawing on the chronicles of life in the Lódz Ghetto, Steve Sem-Sandberg captures the full panorama of human resilience and asks the most difficult questions:  Was Rumkowski a ruthless opportunist, an accessory to the Nazi regime driven by a lust for power?  Or was he a pragmatic strategist who managed to save Jewish lives through his collaboration policies?"

This blurb says "February 1940," but the heading of the first chapter says "April 1940."  That's the month I was born, 72 years ago, so when this story takes place, I was alive on the other side of the world from Lódz.  Somehow, that makes it seem even more current and real to me.  I imagine, like Wendy, I'll find the novel emotional to read.

Revised Helen Reddy song
for the older woman:
"I am woman, hear me snore."


This was part of a "humorous" email that came while I was on the road yesterday.  Like this cartoon woman, my mom dozed in her recliner when she was elderly.  Wait!  That was when my mother was in her sixties, years younger than I am now.  Does this mean I'm elderly?  (Interesting how our perceptions change, isn't it?)

Library Loot ~ May 23-29

The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade ~ by Ann Fessler, 2006, history

In this deeply moving and myth-shattering work, Ann Fessler brings out into the open for the first time the astonishing untold history of the million and a half women who surrendered children for adoption due to enormous family and social pressure in the decades before Roe v. Wade.  An adoptee who was herself surrendered during those years and recently made contact with her mother, Ann Fessler brilliantly brings to life the voices of more than a hundred women, as well as the spirit of those times, allowing the women to tell their stories in gripping and intimate detail.

A discussion arose in one of my groups about "the value of girls."  I said, "I’m 72, and being a teenager in the 1950s was very different from now — or even from when you were a teen.  Any girl who got pregnant dropped out of school and seemed to disappear."  Martha replied, "If you haven’t read it, Bonnie, I recommend The Girls Who Went Away for a look at the societal framework that encouraged and supported that disappearing. It’s heart-wrenching."  My library had a copy, which I checked out this afternoon.  It's absorbing, and I'm already halfway through the book — even though I had intended to just "take a quick look at the contents."  Ha!

 Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Marg @ The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share titles of books they’ve checked out of the library. To participate, just add your post to their Mister Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries this week.

Eleanor, Quiet No More

Eleanor, Quiet No More: The Life of Eleanor Roosevelt ~ by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Gary Kelley, 2009, children's biography, 9/10

Yes, that's the front cover of this book, in its entirety.  The book's title is on the back.  Here's a summary of the book:

Eleanor Roosevelt was raised in a privileged but stern Victorian household, with an affectionate but mostly absent father and a critical mother who made fun of her daughter's looks.  Alone and lonely for much of her childhood, Eleanor found solace in books and in the life of her lively and independent mind.  Her intellectual gifts and compassionate heart won her the admiration of many friends — and the love of her future husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

While other young women of her class were spending time at dances and parties, Eleanor devoted her energies to teaching children in New York City's poorest neighborhoods.  Later, she became the most socially and politically active — and controversial — First Lady America had ever seen.  Ambassador, activist, and champion of civil rights, Eleanor Roosevelt changed the soul of America forever.

Rappaport thanked a classroom of third graders for their honest appraisal of the book, so it was easy for me to read straight through this afternoon.   The author does a good job of making clear what Eleanor Roosevelt was like, as I remember her.  Here are a couple of quotes by Mrs. Roosevelt (the book has no page numbers).

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you'll be criticized anyway."

Eleanor learned to think for herself, partly because she had a teacher who "shocked [her] into thinking."  She was a woman ahead of her time.  Though she died in 1962, before President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, look at what she did "anyway," based on doing "what [she] felt in [her] heart to be right."  These words are enlarged and laid out as in the book.

The Daughters of the American Revolution 

refused to let the great black contralto 

Marian Anderson sing in their auditorium.  

Eleanor resigned from the group:

"To remain a member implies

approval of that action,"

she wrote in her newspaper column.

And millions read her words.

She arranged for Anderson to sing

at the Lincoln Memorial.

More than 75,000 Americans —  black and white —

came to hear her.

I rate this book 9 of 10, an excellent book.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

Bonus story:  When I checked this book out of the library for my roommate (yes, I read it before she did and can probably count it as Library Loot this week), the librarian told me a story.  A library patron who is in his 80s told her he once "babysat Eleanor."  I started doing the math, and that didn't add up.  But wait!  He worked at an airport somewhere, and Eleanor was the only person waiting for the only small plane scheduled to leave.  His boss told him to "take care of her."  So now this elderly gentleman has fun telling folks he "babysat Eleanor."  I think it's a sweet story, and it shows how people loved her.

Ageless

"The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been." ~ Madeleine L'Engle

"I'm all the ages I've ever been." ~ Bonnie Jacobs

"We are always the same age inside." ~ Gertrude Stein

1967 was only 45 years ago

The Boston marathon had always been for men only.  In 1967, Katherine Switzer signed up by using her initials.  An article by NPR (posted yesterday) tells what happened on the day of the marathon.  The article also includes a PBS video interview with Katherine Switzer, as she remembers that day.

Will the real Elizabeth please stand up?

The Paper Bag Princess: The Story Behind the Story ~ by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko, 2005 (25th anniversary edition), 9/10

Robert Munsch's tale of a dragon, a princess named Elizabeth, and the bum of a prince she rescues has sold over three million copies since it was first published in 1980.  I learned in this "story behind the story" that there really was a girl named  Elizabeth.  She is now an adult, is married, and has two children — a son and a daughter.  And she says (p.14):

"It's amazing to me now that the book is read by so many people.  It's even studied in feminist literature classes!"

Yes, people love The Paper Bag Princess!  I loved it when I first read it in 2010 after Helen of Helen's Book Blog told me about it in a comment:

"I love children's books that go against the norm.  One of my favorites is The Paper Bag Princess where the princess is the strong one and doesn't marry the goofy prince in the end."

It's true.  Princess Elizabeth is a spunky little girl.  The dragon smashed her castle, burned all her clothes, and carried off Prince Ronald (p. 28).  The only thing the princess could find to wear was a paper bag, yet she bravely went after the dragon.  Was Ronald grateful when she rescued him?  Oh, no!  He said (pp. 46-48):

"Elizabeth, you are a mess!  You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag.  Come back when you are dressed like a real princess."

"Ronald," said Elizabeth, "your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat.  You look like a real prince, but you are a bum."

They didn't get married after all.

Girls are more than the clothes they wear, and that's why the original book is studied in college classes on feminist literature.  Bob Munsch, the author, says (p. 51):

"There are no princes but there are a lot of bums, and you don't want to marry one."

The same page (p. 51) of this "story behind the story" reports:

"The story has now crossed generations — those who loved the book as kids are reading it to their own children — and has even traveled around the world.  Not bad for a girl dressed only in paper."

Best illustration, where she ducks but doesn't run away. (Click to enlarge.)

Christopher Garcia, an educator in El Paso, Texas, says (p. 53):

"Our young princess's handling of pesky dragons and arrogant royalty inspired my students and me.  Self-respect and confidence in one's self are her gifts to girls and boys alike."

I rate this book about the book 9 of 10, because it's fun to read.  And I'll give the author the final word here (quoting from p. 62):

"A paper bag
Does not last long,
It burns or blows away.
But now that mine is 25,
I think it's here to stay."

I agree, especially since it has now been seven more years (32 so far) and is still attracting readers like me.

BTT (#15) ~ category

Booking Through Thursday asks:  "Of the books you own, what’s the biggest category/genre?  Is this also the category that you actually read the most?"

Most of the books I have at my house fall into two categories:  (1) theological books, and (2) books about women.  Yes, these are the books I actually read the most.

Theology:  I have a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in philosophy and religion, a Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree in theology, and worked on a Doctor of Ministry (DMin) degree; I taught Religions of the World at Chattanooga State; I am an ordained United Methodist pastor, retired; and I have written a Bible study on Genesis: Soap Opera with a Twist.  So theology and religion is my primary area of expertise.

Women:  Before that, I taught managers EEO compliance — specifically racism and sexism — and I am now writing a book about Women Unbound.  That means I read lots of books about women, both fiction and nonfiction.  So women and the issues we face is another of my areas of expertise.

These two categories make up the majority of the books I own.  Books I read to relax aren't necessarily ones I care to own, so usually they are borrowed from the library or traded at a used book store.

Dispatches from the Mother Ship

The Rest of Us: Dispatches from the Mother Ship ~ by Jacquelyn Mitchard, 1997, essays, 9/10

Motherhood is the general topic Mitchard covers in this collection of her column called "The Rest of Us" (notice "mother ship" in the sub-title).  How appropriate is a review of a book about motherhood on the day before Mother's Day?

Mitchard writes about her life, including her experience of raising five children as a single mother after her husband died when he was only forty-five.  At forty, she had to figure out how to be the only parent.  I really liked reading about her boldness.  I had to stop to make a note of this from page 145:

"And what is living -- in the time we're given to do it -- except daring?"

I like lots of things about this book.  The cover, for one.  Look closely, and notice a son behind her, a teenage daughter in the doorway, a son bent bent down to look at the baby in the high chair.  The cover is perfect for this book.  And it doesn't look staged.  It looks like a moment in a busy household with children.

I like her way of thinking about things from wishing on stars to raising children who aren't prejudiced:

"I believe in the afterglow of a good and long relationship, like the light of a star that keeps pulsing visibly to earth long after the star itself has been extinguished.  It may not make your wishes come true, but it can light your way" (p. 145).

"...determined to help my children grow up believing that one person's gender or religious preference doesn't shape the world for anyone else" (p. 147).

That last one is from the chapter entitled "One Giant Step for Womankind."  And finally, below, is the last quote I'll share here, something that made me think -- and remember:

"My parents believed they had put me to bed, but I would creep out into the hall, with my book or my writing pad, nearer to the small light from the bathroom, and listen to my parents, their family, and their friends, talking below. ... These long eavesdropping nights made me a storyteller.  They communicated to me, without anyone's ever needing to tell me, that the true apprehension of life's puzzles and pains is not in the living but in the recounting" (pp. 202, 203).

Ha!  I remember listening, too.  But mostly I can relate to the feeling that I haven't finished living an event until I've told it.  Maybe that's what I like best about having a blog.  And it doesn't matter if no one else reads what I write, though that's a bonus.  The important part is that I get the story right.

I recommend this book for lots of reasons -- its excellent writing, her down-to-earth thinking, and the shortness of each section that allows me to stop whenever I need to do something else, and still come back for more.  And more.

Rated:  9/10, an excellent book.

Studying Genesis

Nobody has asked me why I'm studying Genesis, but I'll tell you anyway.  This weekend, Friday the 11th and Saturday the 12th, I'll be leading a Women's Spiritual Retreat at Camp Lookout near Chattanooga.  Knowing that, you shouldn't be surprised that we will be looking at some of the interesting women of the Bible.  Here are some of the books I've been reading to refresh my thoughts about life in an early patriarchal society (list of women below).

• Genesis: A New Translation of the Classic Bible Stories ~ by Stephen Mitchell, 1996, religion
• Original Sinners: Why Genesis Still Matters ~ by John R. Coats, 2009, religion
• In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis ~ by Karen Armstrong, 1996, religion
• The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman's Commentary on the Torah ~ by Ellen Frankel, 1996, religion 
• Genesis: Soap Opera with a Twist ~ by Bonnie Setliffe Jacobs, 1992, religion

At the bottom of that list is the quarterly study of Genesis I wrote, calling it a soap opera.  I remember a Bible study I led in Jonesboro, Georgia, in the mid-1980s.  One older woman kept saying about all the reprobates, "But he's in the Bible!" or "But she's in the Bible!"  I don't know where she got the idea that biblical people were all perfect examples for the rest of us.  Here are the women I've lined up for next weekend:

• Sarah ~ wife of Abraham, mother of Laughter
• Hagar ~ Egyptian slave, mother of Ishmael
• Keturah ~ third wife of Abraham, mother of six sons (What, you didn't know Abraham had eight sons?)
• Edith ~ Lot's nameless wife (named by the rabbis), who turned to salt one day
• Rebekah ~ wife of Isaac, mother of Esau and Jacob
• Milcah ~ grandmother of Rebekah, sister of Lot
• Leah ~ Jacob's first wife, mother of six sons and a daughter
• Zilpah ~ Leah's slave, who bore two more sons to Jacob

• Rachel ~ Jacob's favorite wife, mother of Joseph and Benjamin
• Bilhah ~ Rachel's slave, who bore two more sons to Jacob
• Dinah ~ daughter of Jacob and Leah,  who was raped
• Jochebed ~ mother of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses
• Miriam ~ a prophet, sister of Moses (see "her five book" above)
• Shiphrah and Puah, Egyptian midwives
• Batyah ~ "daughter of God" (named by the rabbis), Pharaoh's daughter
• Tamar ~ who seduced her father-in-law Judah
• Rahab ~ a prostitute of Jericho, who survived its destruction
• Ruth ~ Moabite wife of Boaz and great-grandmother of David
• Bathsheba ~ wife of Uriah, taken by King David, mother of King Solomon

Sound interesting?  The veiled woman (at the top) is on the cover of the booklet I have prepared for the weekend.  I've titled the study:  "Unveiling Women of the Bible."  I'll review these books on Genesis later, after I lead the retreat.