Alligator Charmer, 22Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1894
(Source: sisterwolf, via monkeyknifefight)
Mod culture in Japan
(Source: marekrodriguez, via monkeyknifefight)
Hanna
Elizabeth Banks continues to vindicate my super-big girl crush on her.
The Suffragette That Knew Jiu-Jitsu
Edith Garrud sounds like a pretty formidable character. As one of this country’s first female professional martial arts instructors, she trained the Suffragette’s defence unit, the 30-strong “Bodyguard”, which protected its members from police arrest.
This Saturday, Islington Council is commemorating her work with a People’s Plaque. The new plaque will be unveiled at 1pm on Saturday at her former house at 60 Thornhill Square.
It’s thought that Garrud learnt jiu-jitsu in the late 19th century. She worked with the Suffragettes between 1908 and 1911, at her women-only training hall, a room at the Palladium Academy dance school in Argyll Street. Garrud, who was just 4ft 11 tall, boasted of her skills in an illustrated article explaining how woman using the jiu-jitsu had “brought great burly cowards nearly twice their size to their feet and made them howl for mercy”.
“Woman is exposed to many perils nowadays, because so many who call themselves men are not worthy of that exalted title, and it is her duty to learn how to defend herself,” she wrote, in 1910. It doesn’t seem to have done her much harm: she lived a long and happy life, dying in 1971, aged 99.
Cllr Catherine West, leader of Islington Council said, “Edith Garrud’s pioneering career and the Suffragettes’ victory on votes for women have contributed to making our society fairer and more inclusive. Its historic contributions like hers that have stamped their mark on our borough and inspired residents to vote in their thousands for their Islington’s People’s Plaques heroes.”
Here’s a depiction of Garrud in Punch in July 1910, single-handedly taking on a group of policemen.
(via Londonist)
bike with a basket
In the Ukraine, a country where females are victims of sexual trafficking and gender oppression, a new tribe of empowered women is emerging. Calling themselves the “Asgarda”, the women seek complete autonomy from men. Residing in the Carpathian Mountains, the tribe is comprised of 150 women of varying ages, primarily students, led by 30 year-old Katerina Tarnouska. Reviving the tribal traditions of the Scythian Amazons of ancient Greek mythology, the Asgarda train in martial arts, taught by former Soviet karate master, Volodymyr Stepanovytch, and learn life skills and sciences in order to become ideal women. Little physical documentation existed on the tribe, until recently, when renowned French photographer, Guillaume Herbaut, met the Asgarda back in 2004 in the midst of the Orange Revolution.
(Source: thechocolatebrigade, via seaghostsoaring)
Nightwitches
for those not in the know, night witches were russian lady bombers who bombed the shit out of german lines in WW2. Thing is though, they had the oldest, noisiest, crappest planes in the entire world. The engines used to conk out halfway through their missions, so they had to climb out on the wings mid flight to restart the props. the planes were also so noisy that to stop germans from hearing them combing and starting up their anti aircraft guns, they’d climb up to a certain height, coast down to german positions, drop their bombs, restart their engines in midair, and get the fuck out of dodge.
their leader flew over 200 missions and was never captured.
HOLY SHIT THIS IS RAD AS FUCK
how can be so cool
can i be this cool
"When a beautiful actress is cast in a movie, executives rack their brains to find some kind of flaw in the character she plays that will still allow her to be palatable. She can’t be overweight or not perfect-looking, because who would pay to see that? A female who is not one hundred per cent perfect-looking in every way? You might as well film a dead squid decaying on a beach somewhere for two hours. So they make her a Klutz. The hundred-per-cent-perfect-looking female is perfect in every way except that she constantly bonks her head on things. She trips and falls and spills soup on her affable date (Josh Lucas. Is that his name? I know it’s two first names. Josh George? Brad Mike? Fred Tom? Yes, it’s Fred Tom). The Klutz clangs into stop signs while riding her bike and knocks over giant displays of fine china in department stores. Despite being five feet nine and weighing a hundred and ten pounds, she is basically like a drunk buffalo who has never been a part of human society. But Fred Tom loves her anyway."
— Mindy Kaling on the women who only exist in romantic comedies | Flick Chicks (via rufustfirefly)
(via asdasmnbiwe)
