“A female all the while, A female all the while,
To think myself a drummer, Yet a female all the while.”
Gender equality, gender fluidity, choice of the
image you project, being who you want to be, being true to your self… all ideas
which are very ‘now’. A generation ago ‘that kind of thing’ was not talked
about, where it went on it was behind closed doors and people pretended not to
know.
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| A very historically innacurate picture of Boudica! |
In recent years the military have made a big
thing about equality and recruiting women and the roles they play in the armed
forces have changed. For reasons I can’t understand women want to join the
army, navy and air force. (Come to that I can’t understand why a man would want
to join up either!) There have always been female warriors, mythical or
real—think of the Amazons in mythology—and a few real women have made a name
for themselves whist leading armies—Boudica, Joan of Arc… but, on the whole,
war has always been considered a male preserve with the women waiting to pick
up the pieces.
Even in the last few hundred years if women
wanted to take on any role other than ‘wife and mother’ they often felt they
had to assume a male identity—think of authors like George Elliot. Until the middle of the 20th century a woman had to give up her job in teaching or
the Civil Service when she married. It
was even more difficult if they wanted to do anything active or adventurous.
Then they had to take on, not just a masculine name, but mens’ clothing and
persona as well, in other words pretend to be a man. This goes way back in
history. An early example would be the Chinese legend/folk tale of Hua Mulan
who took her father’s place in the army because he was old and sick. After
distinguishing herself as a warrior for 12 years her comrades were astonished
to discover that she was actually a woman!
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| Hua Mulan from a painting on silk |
Much closer to home there were women soldiers in
British and European armies in the 18th and 19th centuries and ‘the female
soldier’ or ‘the female sailor’ is a
common motif in folk songs. I don’t sing either of those but I do ‘The Female Servingman’ and ‘The Female
Smuggler’
LINK to The Female Smuggler
In the songs she meets with various fates. In
some, possibly the more ancient ones, she is thrown overboard when they
discover her secret as it was considered bad luck to have women aboard a ship;
in some her shipmates discover the secret but keep it quiet; in others it is
the captain who finds out and takes advantage of the situation himself!
Sometimes, of course, her secret is safe:
Here is The Handsome Cabin Boy sung by Bert Lloyd.
Click: The Handsome Cabin Boy
Most of these stories might just be fantasy or
wishful thinking but there were actual, historical examples of women joining up
as men, the most famous of these is
probably Hannah Snell. In the mid-1700s she served for two years in the Royal
Marines and fought in Europe and India. She was wounded several times, once in
the groin, and rather than let the regimental surgeon discover her sex she
allowed some local women to remove the musket ball. (She later had two children
so they must have done a reasonable job!)
After leaving the army she made a living as a
performer on the stage demonstrating drill with her musket. Sadly, she died in
Bedlam.
ANNE BONNY, THE FEMALE PIRATE
An even more romantic tale is the story of Anne
Bonny, the Female Pirate. The telling here is from an article Facts &
Fiction storytelling magazine, which I edit.
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| A contemporary image of Anne Bonny |
William Cormac was a lawyer in Cork. He had a
wife but he loved his servant woman, Mary Brennan, much more and they had a
daughter called Anne. In order to be together William and Mary ran away to
London. They dressed Anne as a boy and called her Andy as a way of helping
their disguise but his wife's family tracked them down so they fled to America
and settled in Carolina. William bought a plantation and did well in America
but Mary died when Anne was just 12 years old. Anne was bold and beautiful with
flaming red hair and a fiery temper to match. When she was 13 she stabbed a
servant girl with a table knife.
Soon Anne married a small-time pirate named
James Bonny. Anne was disinherited by her father and they went to a pirate
stronghold in the Bahamas where he became an informer for the governor.
While frequenting the inns and taverns of the
Nassau harbourside Anne met and fell in love with Calico Jack Rackham who was a
far more serious pirate than James Bonny. They went off together on his sloop
‘Revenge’ and over the next few years she divorced James Bonny, married Calico
Jack and had a son who they left in Cuba.
Calico Jack was pretty successful and Anne
Bonny, dressed in men’s clothing, played her part. She was her husband’s second
in command, fought alongside the other pirates and was as fierce as any.
Then they captured a ship bound to the West
Indies from Holland. On board was a handsome, young soldier called Mark Read.
He had already had an eventful life fighting with the British forces allied
with the Dutch against the French. He willingly joined the pirates and became a
valued member of the crew.
Anne Bonny, in her male guise, and Mark Read
felt an attraction that was more than just friendship so, one day, Anne took
Mark aside and revealed that ‘he’ was really a woman whereupon Mark revealed
that he also was a woman named Mary Read! She had fought in the British army as
a man, had then married a Flemish
soldier, and on his death had once again put on men’s clothing and set
sail to the West Indies. Because Calico Jack was becoming suspicious and
jealous of their friendship he too was let into the secret, and the three ‘men’
continued to lead their pirate crew until they were surprised and captured
whilst holding a drunken party.
Jack was hanged but it was discovered that both
women were pregnant so they were able to ‘plead the belly’ and their execution
was delayed until after their babies were born. Mary Read died of fever in
prison but Anne Bonny’s fate is unknown. She disappeared from the records so we
don’t know whether she was she hanged, or if she escaped from prison or if her
father paid her ransom, or one of many
other possibilities...
There are a lot more videos on his You Tube channel: Pete on You Tube
And you might be interested in Facts & Fiction storytelling magazine which he edits: Facts & Fiction
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