Iconic Photo: Photo 30 (2 days late)

The Truth Is Always This--I look good in black leather, and black leather-like, or black plastic, black rubber, or other black leather-like variants, but I really love a marshmallow: A Book To Be Written by Lily-Elaine and Matt

Or, The 30-Day Iconic Photo Challenge, A Consideration of Relationships, and An Account of Why Daphne Guinness is Important, plus snacks, plus wine

(Also known as: there's too damned much in this here post but we're going to do it anyway)

Daphne Guinness
Vogue Italia 2010

Here's the thing. In an attempt to refocus on my blog I posed a 30-day challenge for myself--to post a different iconic photo of an inspirational woman everyday for 30 days. The idea, for me, was that the image would somehow be iconic and it would point us to a woman whose story inspired us to see how we could choose what lives we want for ourselves, doing so could mean surpassing both our own and others expectations for us, and in so doing we could possibly create something uniquely our own, and so then also new.

There are, of course, innumerable women in the world that could be taken as inspiring, and innumerable others that are, of course, iconic--they stand in the midst of the mundane everyday as someone that we would wish to be, or that we recognize as importantly human, or that shine as a reminder of how brilliantly simple human elements can come into concert and so become a symphony.

The trouble, for me at least, is that approaching the end of the 30-day iconic photo challenge I'd set for myself I suddenly froze. There I was with only one day left and I suddenly couldn't come up with any clear sense of what photo, or what woman I'd want to feature on the 30th day. In that final day I unexpectedly faced a kind of meaning to the 30th day, the final day, I hadn't anticipated--the woman featured on the 30th day would provide a kind of frame to the rest of the women featured in the challenge. Her image and brief biography would offer a way of interpreting all the women that had been chosen before her. In the pressure of such high demand I didn't know who to choose and so on the 30th day I ended up posting no one. I failed my own challenge.

Honestly, right this minute, having now picked someone to post for the 30th day, I could just back-date this very message and act as though nothing had been missed at all. I'd just casually insert the final image on the day that would have been day 30 and go on as though I'd missed nothing. But, instead, maybe because I'm a pain in the ass, maybe because I want to offer an explanation, maybe because I need to come to terms with just my self, or maybe because I ate too many beans and didn't drink enough coffee--FOR SOME REASON instead here I am typing away in a semi-non-sequiter rambling that will all eventually come around to the woman I've chosen for the last day, Daphne Guinness.

Daphne Guinness
buy life campaign

Continuing in this moment of seeming non-sequiter I have to make a confession. Without any advanced warning that this would happen, my 30 days of iconic photos of inspirational women happened to overlap with a profound personal event. It turns out near the beginning of the month I met someone I liked an awful lot and over the course of the month I actually fell in love. There's a saying that comes from somewhere all insightful and wise that says Love is a spontaneous grass, not a garden plant. That is, it comes up in fresh ground, almost unexpected, without being intentionally cultivated, and truth be told, without your input or control. The thing is, I've resisted those kinds of views about love. I have long thought of it as a more determined thing, and even if I was willing to grant that perhaps the feelings could not be directly controlled part of me tried to maintain that I could somehow sculpt the channel through which they'd flow, there by shaping how the feelings would go. There's a sense in which this has "worked" for me, in as much as controlling our feelings can ever work for anyone--it's a little like pouring freshly shaken soda pop down a fountain--even if the liquid more or less follows the predetermined path it's gonna bubble and blow all over other stuff too.

Somehow before this last month my own attempts to control such things had waned. I can't exactly say how I managed this except that I know I have spent the last year very intentionally simplifying my own life and I believe that through this process I opened my self up to greater intimacy with my own feelings--living in a kind of communion with them, rather than needing to try and direct them as objects separate from me.

Let me say I tried, when I met this person I liked a lot, not to fall in love. First I called and told him we couldn't see each other. He responded so well to that though I realized I wanted to see him and relented. So we visited together and I liked it a lot and then I freaked out again and said again we couldn't see each other. Then I was walking through town and somehow ended up in the same general area that he was so I tried to cross the street before bumping into him and without realizing it put myself right on the edge of a SIDEWALK CLOSED CROSS BACK TO OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET situation. Really. The avoidance route wasn't open to me anymore. So I crossed back over to the original side of the street, and then a few minutes later there he was beside me calm and smiling. After that we started spending more regular time together. (Honestly, I actually freaked out again more and everytime there he'd be beside me calm and smiling. The truth is I've never had anyone capable of doing that with me. In the past I've had to be the one that stays calm and smiling while someone else freaks out, and if it was my turn to freak out there wasn't really someone there to stay calm next to me. I'd end up in a room on my own talking myself through it.)

Anyway, the point of all this is it's been a struggle for me. In the midst of falling in love I've faught myself outside my own heart quite a lot, while inside my own heart I've softened and come to understand myself in an entirely new way. It isn't that I've gone without feelings for others in the past. It's that this time I've gotten to be more fully myself in the midst of them, and be more fully recognized by him than anyone has before. Still, it's been hard.

What the hell does any of this have to do with Daphne Guinness?

Here's part of the tension I'm dealing with--my heart is open and in a sense has already given itself to someone. In that level of simple connection I feel as though we are two hands calm and holding each other. In that I feel a kind of constancy I want, a constancy that inspires me to think better of myself, to see life as more fully full of possibility, to recognize that I can passionately choose the life I want. At the same time, the future of this situation is fully indeterminate. It is of course indeterminate in that existentialist sense of life is wide open and we can't predict where it will take us. But, the future of this particular circumstance is also indeterminate in the literal sense--we've only recently met and started spending time together and our everyday life plans right now appear to take us in significantly different directions. (I choose here not to get into details out of respect for both our privacy, but let me just say it's all more about geography than any more green and gobbly relationship eating monsters in case you're out there projecting all kinds of panic and worry into all this for my sake.)

It would be easy in such a situation to decide in advance that things can't work and to close down to all the feeling I've had. Or, it could be easy (for a time) to naively give myself away to just the feeling and dwell in the fantasy of what I imagine is possible hoping everyday life will eventually match up. The bigger challenge, and the one I'm recognizing is essential for me to live out here, is the risky maneuever of honestly facing both truths of this relationship--my heart is open and has given itself to someone, and what that will mean in literal terms of the relationship it will continue to develop is entirely unclear. I cannot predetermine what the meaning of all this will be, nor can I decide before its time what form of relationship all this will get to take. Instead, I can only know that I've gotten to know my own heart more fully than ever before, even when the truth is it's only been a month. As fluffy as that sounds, as my friend Matt pointed out when I talked to him about all of this -- we really love a marshmallow. That is, we're both people that look really damned good in black leather, and black leather-like variants, like black polyeurethane, or black vinyl, or black latex, or other forms of black pleather, and black leather-like variants, and there is something fantastically tough about that and we really do both own clothing made out of all those things. But truth be told, we also really love a marshmallow--a soft and sometimes fluffy heart. There is no paradox in that. Or, at least, if there is a paradox, there is something important about living the the truth of BOTH irreconcilable positions honestly, and in recognizing that the apparent contradiction might be definitively who or what we as humans are.

Daphne Guinness
circa Spring 2008

This brings me, finally, back to the 30-day iconic photo challenge. I could easily just write up a bio with appropriately iconic accompanying photo of Daphne Guinness, back date it to appear on this blog on what would have been the 30th day of that challenge and leave it at that. Somehow, instead I'm writing up all of this.

When the idea of writing about Daphne Guinness here (and I've posted about her on this blog plenty before) occurred to me I resisted initially because I didn't want to have to explain why she should count as one of the 30 day women, nor why she was appropriately THE 30th woman that would frame our reading of all the rest, even though in many ways I shouldn't have to explain anything. How she counts seems to me just obvious.

Daphne Guinness is regularly touted as a fashion icon. She has an incredible ability to transform herself aesthetically and to direct her form through a wide range of appearances. But, to use the word "appearances" there is misleadingly simplistic. In her wielding of what we could call "style" or "fashion" -- her ability to just get dressed -- Daphne Guinness reveals how thoroughly our interactions with each other, or our responses to others, are dictated and trained by appearances. Her ability to transmogrify her very persona through what we often take as the simple notion of self presentation calls attention to how very used to our own social standards and norms of human appearance we really are. She has an incredible ability to pull on our standards of beauty, repulsion, glamor, discomfort, female form, and human body all at the same time. In so doing she often pushes us out of our own preferences for these norms (I'll admit I haven't posted some of the more vivid examples of her enacting this sense of "pushing us out of our own preferences" -- such images can readily be found online simply by searching her name). In this way, Guinness allows us to see how the reality of something as simple as getting dressed is actually a complex intersection of our profound ability to on the one hand choose exactly what we want to be, while on the other hand being fully incapable of escaping the pressures of how others are going to perceive us and therefore respond to and interact with us. That is, Daphne Guinness illustrates that the utterly simplistic act of putting on clothes in the morning is a lived paradox too--our accoutrement and presentation arises out of two irreconcilable truths--we can choose who and what we want to be, and we are constrained by our interactions with others. But even more importantly, Daphne Guinness shows us how fantastical, extravagant, and fulfilling it can be to take up the irreconcilable truths of this process and so live them both out honestly simultaneously. That is, Daphne Guinness is the woman fully alive, fully expressed through paradox.

Daphne Guinness
image from Harper's Bazaar
February 2011

It is often said in our culture that fashion, or worry about outward appearance as presented through the idea of clothing, is superficial. By extension, people that focus on such things, or take such things to be important are also claimed to be shallow. I read years ago in an article on fashion published in THE NEW YORK TIMES that this commonly held view is arguably just a hold over from our Enlightenment era view that the mind and body are separate or separable, and the mind is more important than the body. In such a view the body would just be a vehicle for our more powerful thoughts. In fact, the venerable Roger Ebert (whose blog I very much like to read) made exactly this claim just this last week.

What I'm claiming here is that Daphne Guinness shows how wrong such a view turns out to be. Of course there is some sense in which a person could live a shallow life focused too much on fashion. But that's not what we're talking about here. The commonly held view mentioned above assumes that the body itself is somehow less important than the mind, and by extension fashion simply is shallow because it doesn't dwell in the land of thoughts. I'm saying that Daphne Guinness is not only inspirational, but also iconic because she makes vivid how the body is precisely the land of thoughts, or, more accurately, the two are simply not separate--aesthetics is the dance through which the two marry and dwell.

What the hell, then, does Daphne Guinness have to do with love?

Daphne Guinness
2010 Nars Makeup Ad Campaign

The thing about my romantic situation is that there is no honest way for me to determine its future right now. If I was to try and demand it to be more than it is, I would have to be pushing it into a form of relationship that is not arising from the genuine interactions of he and I together, but instead is being grabbed from the grab-bag of social norms for romantic relationships--marriage, engagement, affair, friendship-only, etc. Any of these, are of course, wonderful forms for romantic relationships to take when they arise from the energy and commitment of the two people in the relationship. But, very often we instead grasp for security by trying to squeeze what we feel with someone into one of these shapes before the relationship has gotten to such a state all on its own. I could, of course, also just end it and walk away from the relationship as it stands telling myself things like it is too amorphous for me to feel right in it, or that it doesn't have enough to offer me to feel secure, or etc. The truth is, it is, perhaps a little amorphous right now, and it might not be offering me total security right now either, but it might also be too soon to know if the relationship will develop its own clearer shape, or what level of security it could have to offer. The point, I'm making is that right now it is still time, it seems, for me to dwell in the wealth of feeling I have found and to remain open to an indeterminate future too. What I'm pointing out is that much like how we are quick to assume a focus on fashion is superficial, we as people also seem quick to assume that having important romantic feeling for someone means we must move into a romantic relationship with a determined, or committed-to future, and short of that we're doing something wrong, or we're just having one-night stands. Importantly, this isn't to say that we should avoid those relationships where we want to and do commit to pre-determined futures. There are times when marriage, for example, is a wonderful thing to do. This also isn't to say that people that engage in either serial monogamy or so-called one-night stands are doing the better thing by refusing to commit--notice in either of these cases we might say there is a sense in which such people have precisely committed--that is to not having a continuing future with the person (or people) they engage in those activities with.

Daphne Guinness (in red dress)
Vogue Italia

Camus describes the human condition as a lived paradox. For him the way to live a genuine, or what I've been calling an honest life, is to accept that we live in conditions that simply are a paradox--that at a foundational level what it is to be human is to have to face two irreconcilable conditions of human existence and refuse to deny either one of them or attempt to reconcile them either. We must dwell in what seems like an impossible state of accepting an apparent contradiction. For Camus, this contradiction is found in relation to the simple reality that we do die. He states that to be fully alive in our human condition we must face the very real reality of our death and refuse to live it now. That is, we must accept that we will die and as a result here on earth we will also eventually be forgotten, but perhaps more importantly, each and every one of the projects we take up now while we are living will come to an end. Our investment in them will be as naught, even if someone else takes them up for us after we die--our own investment in them will be over. We will be gone. In a certain sense that makes everything we are invested in now meaningless--when we measure our lives against an infinite horizon it is as if we cannot even be seen to exist. Still, the truth is, here we are very much alive, panting and heart-beating our way through every moment of our lives right up until that very second in which both our breath and our heart stops. These moments of breath and heart belong to us and to us alone. That is NOT to say our lives are isolated to us alone and that our choices impact no one. That IS to say our lives are ours to choose what to do with and those projects we choose to invest in (including the people we have relationships with) are precisely what make our lives utterly meaningful. That is, we decide. We make our lives meaningful. It is not some pre-determined future we are working our way towards--it is us right now in our choosing. Camus describes this state as living in acceptance of our mortality without being resolved to it--that is, we face everyday the knowledge that we will die, without resolving ourselves to the limitations it might seem to imply. We accept that we will die precisely to demand we be alive now.

We make our lives meaningful. This is true whether we are my dear friend Kim that I featured part way through my 30-day iconic photo challenge--a woman who lives every day in faith, fully committed to raising two beautiful kids with a rambunctious adorable dog and a loving husband--or whether we are Marilyn Monroe, a woman whose persona was shaped in, in response to, and in a sense for the public spotlight, but whose life, nonetheless, was chosen and successfully expressed as a pinnacle of that Hollywood glamor. In both cases we find women that everyday wake up and re-choose their lives, determining in this sense for themselves the meaning it will have--both, strongly in relation to the effects of their own lives on other people, but the choice arises nonetheless precisely from themselves.

Similarly, Daphne Guinness everyday chooses a life that expresses another aspect of the human paradox--that we can reshape how we are taken by others, how we appear to ourselves, and thus too how we are expressing the way we feel about being in the world, that our insides and our outsides are continuously co-creating and in interaction with each other.

Daphne Guinness
Vogue Italia 2010

Right now I rest in my own sort of paradox. I am here carefully trying to navigate the reality between my open heart and how it leads me to imagine a possible future with a man while at exactly the same time the practical realities of the situation would seem to point in the direction of a different possible future. I know many people would tell me the practical realities tell me to stop being involved. While I know too many other people that would tell me the feelings mean to change everything for the sake of continuing in those feelings.

I am saying that Camus is right--to live this situation genuinely I need to accept that both things here right now are true without resolving to pre-determine the conclusion for this situation based on either one. That is, I can't claim this situation means there is no possible future just because our everyday lives bring us in different directions. But I also cannot claim there is the brightest possible future just because my heart can't help but love him. To claim either would be to deny the truth of the rest of the situation.

What I do know is that in the midst of this I have gotten to live in and recognize my own heart more fully than I ever have before, even as I also recognize I do not know where all this will bring me even just next week. This will be true even if the daily aspects of this relationship end tomorrow.

Honourable Daphne Suzannah Diana Joan Guinness
image by Rene Habermacher

I don't approach fashion. Fashion approaches me.
-Daphne Guinness

He is quite obviously the love of my life.
-Daphne Guinness, on her relationship with French philosopher Bernhard-Henri Levy

The heiress to the Guinness Beer fortune, Daphne Guinness married the son of a Greek shipping billionaire in her early 20's. Together they had three children. It is understood that though in merely financial terms Guinness had access to practically anything in the world, the marriage quickly became quite unhappy for her, resulting in her living a rather limited personal life. To cope with the unhappy situation Guinness dove into the world of fashion accumulating what was already at the time a greatly admired collection of haute couture, and other unique pieces from the fashion world. She became known not only for her impressive access to fashion designs, but also for her own impeccable talent for showing such pieces at their best on her. As a result, she was named to the International Best Dressed List in 1994.

Guinness divorced in 1999. Though she initially took time to live in comparable solitude, her unique style eventually connected her to work as a fashion journalist and stylist for some of the most interesting and prominant fashion magazines in the world. Several years after her divorce Guinness donated the entirety of her fashion collection from the period of her marriage to auction with all proceeds being given to charity. When asked about the choice she said that though she had loved the pieces dearly, they were also associated with incredible grief in her life so that she was ready to start fresh and allow her previous grief to be transformed into a financial difference for others.

Several years ago Guinness befriended the French philosopher Bernard-Henry Levi. She has described their relationship as including a strong connection that she resisted initially, both for being wary because of her romantic past and because Levi is married. She has never had an inclination to date married men, even if there have been numerous opportunities. Over the years the two continued to bump into each other at various social events, and also then to simply choose to develop their connection further. Guinness admits a kind of contradiction to her relationship with Levy. Of it she says the following.

He is quite obviously the love of my life. My greatest sorrow has been the unresolved question of the state of our relationship. ...when things are real, and when there is bound to be collateral damage, you have to look at what's most precious. And that's love.

Iconic Photo: Photo 29

Vita Sackville-West

A flowerless room is a soulless room, to my way of thinking; but even one solitary little vase of a living flower may redeem it.

The life of Vita Sackville-West offers a portrait of a woman passionately committed to love on her own terms, and to creatively demand equal rights for women at a time when doing so was both legally and financially impossible. She was able to make her way in aristocratic England as an author and poet, winning the Hawthorn prize both in 1927 and 1933. Sackville-West is also famously associated with two novels that both bear witness to her intriguing heart and unusual way of life.

The first novel, Sackville-West's own book CHALLENGE, was started in conjunction with her long term lover, Violet Trefussis, though Sackville-West would end up completing it on her own. Together the two conceived of a novel that would present a story of their affair with slightly altered personas. Having met as teenagers, Trefussis and Sackville-West formed a bond with each other--neither was allowed to have sexual liason with their own husbands. Within the duration of their affair the two would travel abroad together with Sackville-West dressing the part of a young man, the consort of Trefussis. In this way, the two were able to feel free to be intimately involved at large in the world. Their novel CHALLENGE presents their love affair through the guise of two primary characters, the part of Sackville-West represented through a male character, Julian. Sackville-West's father, however, read the book before its publication and instantly recognized the portrayal of his daughter in Julian. He found the tale too embarassing to allow it be sold to the general public and insisted it not be printed in England. Of the rendition, however, Sackville-West's own son stated the following.

She fought for the right to love, men and women, rejecting the conventions that marriage demands exclusive love, and that women should love only men, and men only women. For this she was prepared to give up everything… How could she regret that the knowledge of it should now reach the ears of a new generation, one so infinitely more compassionate than her own?
-Nigel Nicolson (son of Vita Sackville-West)

The affair with Pertussis ended badly but the two remained loving towards each other. Though they would never again return to the original commitment of their bond, the two would meet on occasion over the years for brief liaisons and confessed to remaining in love with each other through the rest of their lives.

The second novel associated with Sackville-West is Virginia Woolfe's ORLANDO. The two women shared a passionate affair in the late 1920's that Woolfe freely claimed changed her life. The novel ORLANDO is written as a kind of exploration of Sackville-West offering Woolfe the chance to revel in the nuances and character of her lover by exploring her possibilities across three different centuries and as both man and woman. In this way, ORLANDO was meant to offer Sackville-West a kind of freedom unavailable to women, even aristocratic class women, early in the 1900s. Sackville-West though too is seen as a person that could readily inspire such profound imagination in an adept writer such as Woolfe--Sackville-West had already proven herself willing to play the part of a man to suit her own desires, and was seen as a woman that demanded her life fulfill her own goals in as much as she was able. Woolfe also explained that the novel was meant to cheer Sackville-West after the loss of her ancestral home due to legal entitlement of a male heir only. The story of ORLANDO includes a woman losing her family property because she is not a man, and yet continuing on in a happy life. ORLANDO is also considered to be Woolfe's most light-hearted writing in that it explores the idea of historical biography in a satirical manner. Many have thought that such light-hearted writing in Woolfe reveals too the extra happiness that Sackville-West brought into Woolfe's life, though Woolfe remained committed to the claim that her own husband brought her the greatest happiness. In these ways, Sackville-West's son Nigel describes the book ORLANDO as the "longest and most exciting love letter in literature."

Though Sackville-West is associated with the above two novels, her own two best known pieces of fiction are THE EDWARDIANS and ALL PASSION SPENT. Interestingly, the second novel explores the story of a woman that later in life gives up her life of convention to fully explore her own sense of freedom. Sackville-West also wrote what is considered an early written (for a woman writer) science-fantasy. The novel GRAND CANYON, published in 1942, warns against the possibility of a Nazi invasion in the United States. It is considered an unusual story for its time offering an atypical story for a woman writer and a surprising twist on the idea of invasion.

Sackville-West is the only writer to win the Hawthorne Prize for poetry twice--first for her long form poem, "The Land" (remarkably, it is possible to find a recording of Sackville-West herself reading this poem on youtube), and then for her collected poems. She was also an established biographer writing a novel on Joan of Arc, and another of Saint Teresa of Avila, among others. She was bestowed the title Companion of Honour for her services to English literature.

Iconic Photo: Photo 28

Alice B Sheldon, aka James Tiptree, Jr., writing

It has been suggested that Tiptree is female, a theory that I find absurd, for there is to me something ineluctably masculine about Tiptree’s writing. I don’t think the novels of Jane Austen could have been written by a man nor the stories of Ernest Hemingway by a woman, and in the same way I believe the author of the James Tiptree stories is male. -Robert Silverberg

In 1967 a new voice in American Science Fiction began publishing, James Tiptree, Jr.. It was widely understood that the name Tiptree was a pseudonym, but it was generally assumed to protect the identity of an intelligence official that couldn't be exposed because of their working for the government in top secret matters. As a result, Tiptree was able to publish for years successfully without making public appearances, though the author regularly corresponded with both fans and other science fiction writers.

Fans would often ask Tiptree for biographical details. The author regularly complied while at the same time avoiding references to gender. Finally, in 1976, in a letter with a fan Tiptree mentioned the death of his mother and revealed that she was also a writer and had lived in Chicago. Fans took the information and used it to locate the obituary and its accompanying family information. In this way, sci-fi fans discovered the name of Alice B. Sheldon. In looking up further information about Sheldon they further found the biographical details provided by Tiptree were consistent with Sheldon's life. Soon after the revelation that James Tiptree, Jr. was actually a woman writer a number of other well-established authors in the sci-fi community suffered embarrassment for having argued strongly in years previous that based on the perspective Tiptree had brought to certain topics he couldn't possibly be a woman.

In this way, Tiptree brought an awareness of the realities of gender to the world of sci-fi, a previously masculine dominated field both in terms of writers and topics. Originally, Sheldon had worried that the revelation of her gender would negatively impact the public's or critic's views of her writing. Gratefully her role as a beloved writer had been well-enough established at that point that such adverse side effect was not overwhelming.

It had been true that the person the name Tiptree was meant to protect really had worked as an intelligence officer for the CIA. Alice B Sheldon was also known to be an staunch gun collector, and avid traveler. It just hadn't been true that Tiptree was the psuedonym of a man. Sheldon explained that after working for an extended period for the government, and earning a PhD in experimental psychology, she began to feel a yearning for a new career. She began writing science fiction on a sort of long standing interest but sent stories in for publication initially as a whim. Together her and her husband concocted the psuedonym taking the last name Tiptree from a jar of jam. In short order Sheldon surprised herself by making a successful living as a writer. Able to give up her other careers she focused full-time on writing and communicating via letter with the science fiction community. Sheldon explained that her use of a man's name was not intended to trick anyone as much as it was meant to keep her "under the radar" so to speak. In such a masculine field she thought her work would be more comfortably read if it too appeared to be written by a man.

Sheldon was able to continue writing as James Tiptree, Jr. for another decade after the revelation of her actual identity. She died at the age of 71 at the same time as her beloved, then 84 year old, husband.

Today the James Tiptree, Jr. Award for Science Fiction is given annually to a writer that has importantly used science fiction to explore considerations of gender.

To read more about Alice B Sheldon, read her biography, JAMES TIPTREE, JR.: THE DOUBLE LIFE OF ALICE B SHELDON by Julie Phillips, or a review of it in the New York Time Book Review

To read James Tiptree, Jr.'s writing consider the omnibus collection HER SMOKE ROSE UP FOREVER


A male name seemed like good camouflage. I had the feeling that a man would slip by less observed. I've had too many experiences in my life of being the first woman in some damned occupation. -Alice B Sheldon

[Tiptree's work is] proof of what she said, that men and women can and do speak both to and for one another, if they have bothered to learn how. -Ursula K Le Guin

Iconic Photo: Photo 27

Sylvia Rivera

at New York City Hall

Considered the mother of the Trans-Rights Movement, Sylvia Rivera dedicated her life to moving forward both Trans and Gay Rights. She is a Civil Rights pioneer beginning such work towards the end of the 1960s when fighting for such rights was not only dangerous but also less common than it might appear currently in the United States. Rivera also importantly anticipated many of the critiques of the Gay Rights Movement that are still relevant today.

Born in the back of a Taxi cab in 1951, Rivera's life began in Brooklyn. Rivera's mother died, however, only three years later, causing the young Rivera to move to live with a grandmother. Rivera was born Rey Rivera, and was being raised a boy, but when the young Rey took a liking to women's makeup and clothing at an early age the grandmother began beating Rey for what she considered to be effeminate behavior. Escaping this bad environment, Rey moved to living on the streets at the age of eleven living as a young drag queen.

In 1969 police spontaneously raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village of New York City. The raid purposefully targeted the Inn because it was known to be frequented by homosexuals. In response to the occurrence an ongoing series of demonstrations and violent protests. The Stonewall Riots mark the first time in the history of the United States that the gay community intensely protested government sponsored discrimination against homosexuality. The riots instigated movements across the United States demanding protections and rights for the gay community. In this way, the Stonewall Riots are considered the beginning of the Gay Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

During the Stonewall Riots Rivera was one of the major speakers at the Stonewall Inn, one of the primary organizing centers during the riots. In this way, Rivera became one of the major figures of the gay civil rights movement from the very beginning. However, when conversations with the general public became possible through the riots, other leaders of the movement attempted to "clean up homosexuality" to make it more palatable to members of the heterosexual mainstream. In this way, the gay rights movement initially tried to ignore trans and drag rights, even though many of the people fighting in the Stonewall riots would have been disregarded as a result. Rivera refused to allow trans and drag rights to be thrown out of the conversation in this way and stepped to the forefront by speaking even louder on the issue. Her argument was that instead of legitimately fighting for recognition and protections on their own terms, gay rights leaders were trying to simply assimilate into mainstream heterosexual culture. Why would assimilation be desireable into a culture that was already actively oppressive and violent towards those attempting to assimilate? Assimilation wouldn't lead to gaining freedoms, it would just allow a new form of oppression.

Unfortunately, Rivera's attitude led to her being banned from New York's Gay and Lesbian Community Center, as well as being marginalized generally from the very community she'd helped to defend in the face of police abuse.

Rivera started the Gay Liberation Front, and the Gay Activists Alliance, and helped to start STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), a group dedicated to helping homeless trans youth, much like Rivera had been in early life. She was also radically activist for the rights of people of color, specifically those that were members of the gay community. The gay rights movement had been predominately focused on white issues ignoring the particular needs of people of color. Rivera demanded that the needs of people of color had to be addressed as well. Rivera's position was unique in that gay rights groups tried to ignore Rivera's Latina (Puerto Rican and Venezualean) identity, and those fighting for Latino/a rights tended to avoid gay rights.

When asked to discuss her commitment to civil rights, Rivera explained that her goals, and those of people that worked with her, were actually to destroy the Human Rights Campaign. After trying for a long period to work with the organization, Rivera realized that even in such a group people in positions similar to hers were forced not to ride at the back of the bus, but to ride on the bumper of it, and that even only if they were lucky. She argued that if that was as good as they could get through the Human Rights Campaign, then the Campaign didn't deserve to be fought for. The very campaign that claimed to strive for equal rights was actually just perpetuating the same oppression coming from mainstream culture but by pushing it further into the very group of people that otherwise could have been understanding and helping each other. The point of activist work was for recognition and rights to be far more inclusive, and far less assimilationist, and in that way far less damaging to real people, than that.

Sylvia Rivera's presence in the Gay Rights and People of Color movement was deeply controversial, even in the midst of her total dedication to it. Today she is considered one of the crucial leaders of those early stages, and also recognized as importantly radical in comparison to her more assimilationist counterparts. There is also a sense of grief and regret for the marginalization and mistreatment that Rivera suffered, not only from mainstream America, but also on the part of the very community she fought to defend. Her critique of the community was for the sake of the community--to help bring true liberation for the people.

Rivera stands as a deeply important reminder of the need to be committed to critiquing the very causes, issues, and ideas we value most. It is through our willingness to demand more that genuine care and gains can be had. Rivera reminds us too that when it comes to a question of something as foundationally important as human rights, assimilation may appear safest but is often not a genuine path to acceptance nor so-called equality.

When interviewed about her role in the Stonewall Riots, Rivera said, I'm not missing a minute of this. It's the revolution.

A street in Greenwich Village New York has been renamed Rivera Way in her honor. Her legacy also lives on through the Slyvia Rivera Law Project and the Slyvia Rivera Food Pantry in New York.

Iconic Photo: Photo 26

Bessie Coleman

In 1921 Bessie Coleman became the first African American woman in the world to earn an aviation pilot's license, actually earning the higher certification of International Pilot's license, taking her examination in France. Soon after doing so she realized she could actually make a living as a pilot and changed her life towards doing so.

Born in 1892, Coleman was the 10th of 13 children in the deeply segregated south. Recognizing the limitations of life in small town Texas, Coleman moved with two of her brothers north to Chicago. She worked there for several years as a manicurist until she managed to save enough money to first study French, and then, in 1920, move to Paris.

Living in France Coleman was exposed to opportunities previously unvisited during her life in the United States. After learning to fly in France, Coleman further developed her skills by studying for over two months with an ace pilot. She then returned to the states to begin a new career. In pursuing her flying career (this is decades before commercial flying became a reality) Coleman realized she would have to develop even stunt flying skills to attract attention from the public. Unfortunately, in the United States the fact that she was a black woman meant no one with such knowledge was willing to teach her. Determined, she sailed back to Europe and studied first advanced aviation in France, and then went on to the Netherlands to studying individually with a stunt pilot there.

In 1921 she returned to the United States and quickly became a star performing as Queen Bess, showcasing her signature stunt of barnstorming. She became a huge draw for crowds and was known for doing whatever it took to complete incredibly difficult stunts. As a result she was also flying in the United States three years before the famed Amelia Earhart would begin.

Coleman said that from the beginning she was determined to channel any fame she garnered through this career towards higher ends. Coleman was known for using her reputation towards making positive social changes in whatever manner she could, even if only towards small changes.

Coleman's lifelong dream was to begin a school of aviation in the United States specifically dedicated to training black men and women that wanted to learn to fly. Unfortunately, she died before being able to achieve the goal. However, William J. Powell began the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in 1929, and also wrote BLACK WINGS, dedicated to Coleman, promoting the cause of black aviation. In the book he said of Coleman, "Because of Bessie Coleman, we have overcome that which was worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream."

Coleman died unexpectedly at the age of 34 due to a mechanical error on her newly purchased plane. Her body was brought to three different funeral services in three different cities in the Eastern United States. More than 16,000 people combined attended the three funerals. Following her death, the reality of Coleman's position in American aviation took hold in a new way. In honor of her legacy, recognition of black aviation exploded across the United States leading to the organizing of Bessie Coleman Aero Clubs throughout the country, and a number of all black aviation exhibitions, each of which gathered thousands of guests. She has been inducted into both the Texas, and the United States Halls of Fame, and also has a park in Chicago named in her honor.

Iconic Photo: Photo 25

Valentijn de Hingh
circa 2011

21-year old Dutch model Valentijn de Hingh has walked in shows for the likes of Maison Martin Margiela, Commes des Garcons, and been featured in editorials for VOGUE ITALIA and shot by Patrick Demarchelier. Her modeling career started at 17 with great success but after a growth spurt that put her at 6'1" she was, briefly, considered too tall to model. Compared to the likes of other current it models such as Lea T. and Andrej Pejic, de Hingh's career again finds itself taking off.

During her brief slowdown in the fashion world, de Hingh used her extra time off the catwalk to study literature at the University of Amsterdam and work at booking models for extra money on the side.

Though not super well-known, de Hingh's star has recently begun to shine brightly as she finds herself walking for major designers and appearing in the world's top fashion magazines.

de Hingh's story in the public spotlight begins even younger. She was the featured subject of a 2007 Dutch documentary, filmed by Hetty Niesch. Niesch discover de Hingh when she was being raised as an 8-year old boy in Amsterdam. With de Hingh already exhibiting transgender practices Niesch became interested in following de Hingh's development and as a result followed de Hingh's life through film from the age of 8 through 17. At 17 de Hingh underwent gender reassignment surgery. Immediately after the film was released on Dutch television. Upon seeing it de Hingh said she was very happy with how it was able to explore the challenges and decisions in the daily and on going life of transgender youth, and that she was glad to be able to help raise awareness of these realities.

The world of fashion currently considers de Hingh to be a beautiful, angular and willowy focus for the industry. She stands as an inspiring example of someone that has helped bring awareness to a unique position through her appearance in Niesch's documentary on transgender youth, and at the same time as someone that has succeeded in the fashion industry irregardless of her currently-unusual background.

To see more of Valentijn de Hingh check out Vogue Italia's video interview of her here: VOGUE ITALIA

Iconic Photo: Photo 24

Veuve Cliquot Champagne cap
featuring the image of Madame Cliquot

image found on flickr by claude...

Widowed at the age of 27, in the year 1805, Madame (Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin) Veuve Cliquot took over her husband's wine business. She had a strong skill with wine, and turned out too to be a talented business woman. Under her direction the wine company developed an early form of champagne, thus revolutionizing the wine industry, and bringing joy to the hearts of innumerable future generations (read here: me and a number of my dear friends).

Prior to Madame Cliquot's intervention, champagne was a very sweet, cloudy, and large bubbled wine drink with a lot of yeast sediment remaining in the bottle. Madame Cliquot developed a technique of putting the wine bottles upside down during the second fermentation so that the yeast sediment would gather and settle into the bottle neck. Then, after adequate time, the neck of the bottle would be near-frozen so that theyeast and surrounding wine would turn into a plug that could be simply removed upon opening the bottle. A touch of wine to replace what was removed would be added, and voila! a less sweet, less cloudy, no sediment, smaller bubbled version of the drink was made.

Her invention changed the face of the wine industry, and her bold business dealings took over a region. Madame Cliquot was impressively successful at a time when women were rarely seen at such a level of independence and wealth. The champagne company Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin still bears her name.

(For those of you that don't know: Veuve means "Widow" in French. So the name "Veuve Cliquot" is literally Widow Cliquot. Her maiden name, however, was Ponsardin.)

To read more about Madame Cliquot, and wonderfully too about champagne:
THE WIDOW CLIQUOT: THE STORY OF A CHAMPAGNE EMPIRE AND THE WOMAN WHO RULED IT

Iconic Photo: Photo 23

Katherine Hepburn

Cold sober I find myself fascinating. --Katherine Hepburn

Though her success in Hollywood started early, in an interview about her time in the public spotlight, Katherine Hepburn said, "Who is this Katherine Hepburn? It took me a long time to create that persona."

One of the most iconic women of Hollywood, Katherine Hepburn stands as a wonderful reminder of someone making their own way. She was known for having a direct, and determined persona at a time when women were not celebrated for such traits. It was also commonly understood that if she did not like you, there would be no doubt about the truth of it. She felt free to let people know. As a result, her career in film started to disappear. No one would hire her. So, Hepburn appeared in the Broadway play THE PHILADELPHIA STORY. Seeing what a success the play was, and how well loved the characters from it were, Hepburn bought the film rights to the story and waited. Years passed but eventually Hollywood went to her in an attempt to begin the movie production process for the story. She told them they could only have it she got to reprise her hit Broadway role. The move worked and with the release of THE PHILADELPHIA STORY movie her career was again a success.

In the 1940s Hepburn met Spencer Tracy, the man she would come to characterize as the love of her life. In the 50s the two spent little time together, but in the 1960s when he became ill Hepburn took five years off from her own career to care for and be with him. Tracy was married but a devout Catholic he refused to divorce. Still, theirs is considered one of the most recognizable and ultimately devoted relationships in Hollywood history. Upon his death, Hepburn avoided Tracy's funeral out of respect for his family.

Katherine Hepburn was also known for lending her name to a variety of political and social causes. As a result, she was awarded the American Humanist Award in 1985, and given numerous forms of recognition, including a dedicated garden, and theatre, after her death.

She is the only actress ever to receive four Academy Awards for Best Actress, having been nominated twelve times. She has also won Emmys, Tonys, and eight Golden Globes. In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked her as the greatest female star in the history of American cinema. She was also one of the first women in Hollywood to do all of her own stunts herself. When asked about her reasons she remarked, "The stunt women never stand up straight enough."

Iconic Photo: Photo 22

Jenny Shimazu

A mechanic, Jenny Shimazu was discovered while straddling a motorcycle on which she was working. Her modeling and acting career began with her posing as a fragrance and fashion model for Calvin Klein.

She was featured as a "successful lesbian" in the 2005 documentary Power Lesbians UK (also shown elsewhere as Power Lesbians, which featured her specifically as a successful lesbian living in LA). Shimazu's career began at a time when it was less 'safe' to be out as a lesbian in Hollywood, but she kept her androgynous and butch aesthetic front and center irregardless. Her success in the modeling and acting industries have been directly linked to this attitude and appearance.

At the peak of her modeling career, Shimazu walked away from it in order to return to LA and get back to working on cars and motorcycles. She has since re-entered acting work occasionally when the project suits her interests.

To read more about Jenny Shimazu, Tokyo Magazine

(Can I say quickly too that Shimazu is so hot in this pic it makes me feel a little weak.)

Iconic Photo: Photo 21

Martha Graham
image by Barbara Morgan

The only sin is mediocrity. You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost. --Martha Graham

Martha Graham was a modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on the craft has been compared to that of Picasso on art, or Stravinsky on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright on architecture. When asked about her success she responded thus, "I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable."

Her dance company is the oldest in the United States and continues to perform. She was the first dancer ever to perform at the White House. She was also given the highest honor from the government available to a civilian, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was awarded Japan's Imperial Order of the Precious Crown, along with numerous other awards throughout her lifetime.

Graham's success is an inspiration to all. She stated that anyone could be successful. Her manner of success was unique, but not her level of success. The difference was merely that she actively pursued and committed to it. Following are several other inspirational thoughts from Martha Graham.

Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.

There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.

We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. One becomes in some area an athlete of God.

Iconic Photo: Photo 20

Elizabeth Eckford
image circa 1957 by Will Counts

On September 4, 1957 Elizabeth Eckford became the first Black student to integrate a White Southern school.

Later she would come to be known as one of the Little Rock Nine, the first nine students to enter a previously segregated school, thus helping to change the direction of education in the United States, as well as the direction of the Civil Rights movement. However, on September 4, the Little Rock Nine had arranged to meet and enter the school for the first time together. The meeting location was changed the night before, without Eckford knowing, thus causing her to arrive at the school and enter alone.

Eckford approached Little Rock Central High School on her own. The school was surrounded not only by an angry mob but also by the National Guard, which actually worked WITH the mob in attempt to keep Eckford from entering the school (under orders of the Arkansas Governor). She then went to the local bus stop where the crowd attacked and attempted to lynch then-15 year old Eckford. Finally, two white people (one of whom recalls that she reminded him of his own 15-year old daughter) surrounded and protected her from the mob, also trying to comfort her in the middle of the crisis.

The next day the National Guard was removed, with local police stepping in in an attempt to protect the nine students. However, the mob grew larger. On the third day President Eisenhower sent in the United States Army to protect the nine students and accompany them into the school. The Army remained stationed at the school for the rest of the school year, assigned specifically to ensure that the Little Rock Nine were able to attend the previously all white high school. Even so, Eckford was thrown down a flight of stairs by other students later in the school year.

The next year ALL Little Rock high schools were closed. As a result, Eckford did not graduate from Little Rock Central High School, but she successfully earned her high school diploma through correspondence and night courses. Eckford went on to receive a BA in History from Central State University in Ohio.

Eckford was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, along with the other members of the Little Rock Nine, by President Clinton. The Little Rock Nine were also awarded the Spingarn Medal for their work to desegregate high schools in the south.

Eckford specifically has also shared the Father Joseph Blitz award for doing reconciliation work in the years following integration of the schools. She has gone on to do public speaking with Hazel Bryan Massery, the white woman that appears in the above photograph obviously screaming at Eckford. Massery was a known segregationist that fought against integration. However, towards the end of the last century the two women appeared together to speak publicly at reconciliation rallies. It is with Massery that Eckford shared the Father Joseph Blitz award.

To learn more about Eckford read specifically about Brown versus the Board of Education (the Supreme Court ruling that initiated the de-segregatation of schools in the United States), and about the Little Rock Nine.

You can also read more about Eckford and the particular moment shown in the above photograph in Vanity Fair.

Iconic Photo: Photo 19

bell hooks

Raised in racially segregated Kentucky in a family with five sisters and one brother, Gloria Jean Watkins was able to successfully transition into an integrated high school and then go on to receive a BA in English from Stanford University in 1973. She then went on to earn a Masters degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a PhD from University of California, Santa Cruz.

Soon after beginning her teaching career Watkins began publishing chapbooks of her own poetry under the pen name "bell hooks"--the name taken from her mother's middle name, and her grandmother's last name. Watkins explained that she kept the name in lower case in order to distinguish herself from her grandmother and to show that the name represented the substance of her writing, rather than herself.

hooks first major work was published in 1981, Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism, but had actually been written during her own undergraduate education at Stanford. The book quickly gained widespread recognition and is considered one of the formative early texts of postmodern feminist thought considering the intersection of class and race in contemporary social dynamics.

Though hooks has had no difficulty gaining University level teaching positions she intentionally avoided accepting tenure, realizing that the formality and its implications to the security of bureaucratic academic life were not what she wanted. She has published over 30 books on subjects ranging from race and gender, to love, to teaching, to personal memoirs.

In 2004 she returned to Kentucky to write within the Appalachian Studies Center at Berea College, in Berea, Kentucky. She continues too to do workshops and gives talks throughout the United States.

Iconic Photo: Photo 18

One of the elements of considering iconic images of inspirational women for me is the understanding that each of these women are real women living their daily lives in incredible accomplishment. As I've considered each of the women I've posted a picture of here they have stood for me as a reminder of how every single one of us can devote our lives to what we believe in and make remarkable things happen. I spent today meditating on who to select asking myself, who has inspired me in my life? In the midst of this process I realized I had a clear answer to that question--who has inspired me? The answer: my dear friend Kim.

Kim and family

Kim was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She excelled at art and writing and used such interest to develop her abilities in hand made jewelry and publishing as well. At the age of 16 Kim was lucky enough to meet the love of her life at a high school dance. Mutually recognizing their connection they dated for several years until then getting married in their early 20's. Kim's dedication to her family brought them out of Alaska to the South where her husband is now in the process of completing a PhD program. Recognizing that the public school system was not an ideal match for her children Kim shifted her career focus in order to develop a home schooling program that would work for her two children. She took her time at home to also dedicate herself to developing a widely loved, highly humorous blog where she writes on the trials of family life, homeschooling, and everyday matters ranging from discovering your own hidden diva (love your arm pits!) to standing for hours on end to help develop heart health. Her blog has connected her to a wide net of other bloggers that not only share in the process of blogging their own lives and projects, but also finding each other as deep wells of support.

Through the radical changes associated with moving from Alaska to the South, health scares that have faced her family, the incredible demands of having a husband in the midst of a PhD program, Kim has acted with both faith and grace sharing her experience honestly with others, and sharing her knowledge and understanding with those that are lucky enough to be in contact with her too. Further, she has regularly extended her care for others either in daily conversation, or as she knows they are struggling with personal demands.

On a personal note: my own contact with Kim has served as an incredible source of inspiration. Her open hearted dedication to her life choices, her family, and her friends has consistently reminded me how much is possible in my own life--that when I step up with grace and faith I too can live a life of everyday miracles.

To read more about Kim and share in her good humor, check out her blog A Parent's Life to Behold.

Iconic Photo: Photo 17

Waneek Horn-Miller, captain of the Canadian Water Polo Team
circa 2000

At the age of 14, Waneek Horn-Miller (Mohawk) fell into the Canadian spotlight in the midst of what came to be known as the Oka crisis. Kahnawake, Quebec is home to the Mohawk but in 1990 the land became a site of serious tension between the Canadian government that wanted to utilize it for white Canadian settlers, and the Mohawk that wanted to retain their land for their own use. Horn-Miller went to the front of the tension lines to deliver resources to the Mohawk that stood facing the Canadian military. Soon after her arrival, tensions erupted into violence. Picking up her four year old sister to try and get her away from the area to safety Waneek ran only to be stabbed by a Canadian soldier's bayonnet. The bayonnet entered Waneek's chest less than an inch from puncturing her heart.

Soon after the Oka crisis Horn-Miller dove deeply into sports. She excelled in water sports and soon became a co-captain of the Canadian Water Polo team, taking them all the way to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. She was one of the few water polo players that year to successfully goal as well. When interviewed about her participation in the Olympics, and her success in reaching such an accomplishment, she stated that she was deeply motivated by wanting to be one of the ones that succeeded, and to show other Natives that they too could surpass expectations and succeed at such a high level.

To read more about Waneek Horn-Miller read the following article on Native athletes
or watch the movie CLUB NATIVE

Iconic Photo: Photo 16

Patti Smith
(wearing Dior)
image by Stephen Sebring, originally found in NY Times

There is nothing to say but -- it is her.

Iconic Photo: Photo 15

Eleanor Phelps with her mother Claudia
circa 1922

In the winter of 1922 American Eleanor Phelps went on an around the world tour via the S.S. Laconia, a ship that would later be drafted for battle in World War II. She was one of few people at the time to have taken such a journey and yet at the end of all she'd seen she closed her journal with the following question.

How can one come to a conclusion or express an opinion on the world as I have seen it in 130 days?

To see Eleanor Phelps photographs from her world travels check out the collection via the South Carolina Library online database.

Iconic Photo: Photo 14

Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn is one of the world's most famous actresses, though she was always modest about her own abilities. She is also regarded as one of the last centuries fashion icons introducing an elfin quality to aesthetic standards. Designers of enormous stature such as Givenchy were inspired by her presence and regularly designed for the actress.

Hepburn's acting successes are numerous. However, in becoming such a recognized figure she quickly chose to channel her influence into doing humanitarian work around the world. Having lived through German-occupied Arnhem during WWII, Hepburn directed much of her effort towards areas impacted by war. Eventually she also focused on traveling and doing work in some of the most economically challenged areas of the world. Such efforts by Hepburn included both her doing work directly within the areas, and calling attention to the need for humanitarian aid encouraging people in both North America and Europe to send badly needed resources. Towards the end of her life, Hepburn was recognized with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work around the world with UNICEF.

During World War II Hepburns father actually worked to aid German forces as a Nazi sympathizer. Later he left the family to do work directly with Nazi forces. As a result, Hepburn and her mother relocated to the Netherlands only to find themselves almost immediately in an area occupied by German forces. Hepburn's mother put Audrey into ballet and other dance training, and the young girl quickly showed proficiency. When she became old enough to do so, the young Hepburn began performing for paying groups secretly sending all of the money to the Dutch resistance. As a result of the German blockade of Arnhem in the winter of 1944, scores of residents starved to death. Hepburn survived by making flour out of tulip bulbs dug out of the frozen ground. Hepburn said she also never forgot the experience of being a child seeing truckloads of Jews, including Jewish children, taken away from their area. The impact of being a child seeing other children impoverished and taken away by truck never left her. As a result, she devoted her life to working to improve conditions for people suffering in poverty and war conditions around the world.

Iconic Photo: Photo 13

Elaine Brown
with the Black Panthers upon their return from China

The first female leader of the Black Panther party, Elaine Brown has spent her life as an activist for improving the living conditions of Blacks in the United States, and for justice in the prison system working both to improve prison conditions and overturn wrongful convictions. She established the Mothers Advocating Juvenile Justice organization, and has spear headed the effort to appeal and free Little B for the wrongful conviction of a murder police claim he committed at the age of 13. Little B was given life in prison as a result.

Brown originally joined the Black Panther Party in 1978 as a rank and file member. Then Chairman of the party, David Hilliard, recruited Brown to record music delivering a message of revolution. She eventually became the editor of the Black Panther newspapers, and by 1971 became a member of the party's central committee.

In her memoir A TASTE OF POWER, Brown stated that women were considered inappropriate for leadership roles within the Black Panther Party. As she puts it, such positions were meant to bolster black masculinity. As a result, Brown was pushed to take up a more forceful persona to assume leadership and successfully head the movement. During her time in such position she focused on accomplishing change via electoral politics and community service. This work led to the successful win of the first Black Mayor of Oakland, Lionel Wilson in 1977. Eventually Brown left the Party stating that the strains of sexism within the movement were too oppressive for her to continue her work there.

Later in life, Brown went on to continue to fight for Black liberation, focusing more specifically on prison reform. Today she also strives to motivate others to both recognize poor conditions within the U.S. social system and to invoke change.

To read more about Elaine Brown see her memoir A TASTE OF POWER

Iconic Photo: Photo 12

Susan Butcher with sled dog Granite

You have to be very selfless in your dedication to your dogs. When you come into a checkpoint, although there may be a wood stove to warm your feet by, you stay outside; you take care of your dogs, get them bedded down and fed. It may take three hours. Then you can go and have your 15 minutes inside, and then it's time to go and check your dogs, massage them down and get ready to go again. I might get a catnap.

The first person ever to win three consecutive Iditarod races, the first to win four Iditarod Sled Dog races within five sequential Iditarod runs, and the first person to take a sled dog team to the top of Denali, the tallest peak on North America, Susan Butcher is one of the greatest athletes of the last century.

Butcher was born in Boston, Massachusetts with a fascination for the wilderness. She traveled to Alaska at the age of 20 and stayed for the rest of her life. After her arrival she quickly discovered dog mushing and began dedicating her winters to training dogs, working odd jobs in the summer to fund her winter sport. Her and her team would train 8 to 9 hour days outside of the racing season. When asked about the reality of riding the dog sled she explained that there are short periods when the musher can have a relaxing ride but in reality most of those 8 or 9 hours the musher is either pumping one leg to help the sled along or running along with it. In addition dog mushing includes steering 150 to 200 pound sled only with the weight of your own body and the momentum from the running dogs.

Incredibly, Butcher's first Iditarod was in 1978 and by 1980 she was consistently finishing with the top 5. The Iditarod Sled Dog Race is an 1152 mile run from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska including climbs over mountain passes more than 1000 feet in elevation change, temperatures reaching 70 below zero, and winds around 100 miles per hour. At a time when men dominated the race, Butcher became one of the most beloved and dedicated athletes to compete.

To read more about Susan Butcher check out her wikipedia page.
More on the Iditarod can be found here.

Iconic Photo: Photo 11

Emily Ivanoff Ticasuk Brown speaking with Jimmy Bedford

after her Masters graduation
circa 1980

My mother explained that my native name "Ticasuk" meant not just "hollow in the ground" but the place where the four winds stored their treasure gathered from all over the world, and I felt very good about my name after that.

Born in Unalakleet, Alaska along the coast of the Norton Sound in 1904, Emily Ivanoff Ticasuk Brown had to leave the remote village at an early age in order to receive her desired education. She journeyed all the way to Oregon, where she lived at and attended Chemawa Indian School in Salem. There for 9 years, Ticasuk lost her language for a time living completely removed from her family and culture. Returning to Alaska in her early twenties, Ticasuk was determined to regain her ability to speak her original language, and fight to help other Native students to both remain in Alaska for their studies and use their own Native languages while doing so. In the first half of the 1900's it was the law that students had to speak English in the schools so that they would more quickly assimilate into mainstream English-speaking culture. Ticasuk instead encouraged her students to speak their native language and was fired as a result. She made sure parents knew the situation and the public was immediately up in arms demanding their beloved teacher return. She was reinstated within one week.

Determined too to further her own education Ticasuk began returning to university in the summers and when she wasn't teaching. As a result she earned a Master's degree and was in the process of completing a doctorate as well when she died, in fact among the first Alaska Natives to do so. While working on her own studies she also helped start the Alaska Native Studies program at the University of Alaska. Ticasuk's own academic work included the preservation of Alaska Native legends, the oral history of her community of Unalakleet, and also the gathering of tribal-medicinal knowledge of Native plants along Western Alaska. Within only a couple of days after her death in 1982, the University of Alaska Fairbanks presented Ticasuk with an Honorary Doctorate for her work in preserving Alaska Native Culture, an honor she was aware of before her passing.

Ticasuk fought illness through the majority of her life surviving tuberculosis, breast cancer, and skin cancer. Throughout she was determined to continue her work. On her death bed her academic supervisor visited her and she asked him when he was going to start planning their upcoming Fall classes. She died before they could complete the project.

For her work on preserving, supporting, and continuing Alaska Native culture and tradition Ticasuk was given numerous awards including recognition as Alaskan of the Year, and a presidential citation by President Nixon for "exceptional service to others in the finest American tradition." A library in Nome, Alaska, and a school in North Pole, Alaska are both named after her.

To read more about Ticasuk check out the forward to her first book.