This week my piece at Oh Get a Grip! is about politics, morality and Violet Gordon Woodhouse.

Just when did women stop being quiet, submissive good girls and turn into outspoken, demanding sluts? Maybe someone can tweet that question during the next GOP debate. I’m sure they will be happy to support legislation to get women back in the home. After all, childless career women are responsible for the breakdown of the family and the downfall of our society. (And here I thought it was all Eve’s fault.) Let’s start by taking away their reproductive rights, shall we? Keeping them barefoot and pregnant should help keep them quiet. Sigh.

Speaking of childless career women, I don’t know when Violet Gordon Woodhouse came on my radar, but I often think about her when I listen to politicians get up in arms about women’s morals or women’s reproductive rights or women’s roles in society. I might have picked up a book about radical women at the bookstore and found Violet there. I seem to recall reading about her along with the likes of Mata Hari and Amelia Earhart. In any case, I had never heard of her until a few years ago. Have you?

Violet was a successful and accomplished musician-- some even called her a musical genius-- but she had a nontraditional personal life that made her a very bad girl by the standards of her era (she was born in 1872). What’s sad is that she would still be considered a very bad girl today, too.

Read the rest of Violet Gordon Woodhouse (and Her Men) at Oh Get a Grip!

Photo montage of Violet found here.

Posted by Kristina in Writing at 04:11 PM Permalink