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Well-behaved women rarely make history
Mar. 5th, 2019 08:41 amI recently discovered Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, a collection of short stories written by Baroness Emma Orczy (most famous for her Scarlet Pimpernel novels) about a female detective (!!!) in 1910 (!!!!!!)
It is, in many ways, the first rule 63!/genderswapped Sherlock Holmes fanfiction. Lady Molly’s exploits are narrated by her own ‘Watson,’ who worked alongside her at the (then-)fictional division of female police officers at Scotland Yard, before becoming Molly’s full-time sidekick/secretary/companion. Like Holmes, Lady Molly uses unorthodox methods (i.e. going undercover, faking emergencies) to gather evidence and identify the guilty party. On the other hand, I suspect that she was created in response to Holmes finding “the motives of women … so inscrutable,” since the narration makes a point that her advantage is being able to pick up ~domestic clues~ and understand the oh-so-inscrutable motives of women.
Anyway, they were fun stories, even if they were, uh, definitely products of their time, and now I desperately want a crossover fanfiction where Sherlock Holmes and Lady Molly go head to head on a case.
I’ve also just finished Suzanne Stark’s Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail, which is... exactly what it says on the tin, although it does focus specifically on the British Royal Navy. It’s a very quick read, being more of a crash course than a really deep dive, and is split into three sections, discussing sex workers,* warrant officers’ wives, and ‘women seamen,’ or women who disguised themselves as men to serve in the Navy. There’s also a fourth chapter that went more in-depth into the story of Mary Lacy, who spent 12 years with the Royal Navy as a sailor and shipwright under the name William Chandler.
I’ve always loved the Spunky Lass Disguises Herself As A Boy And Runs Off To Sea/War/Etc. trope (Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle was one of my favorite books as a kid) so it was interesting to learn about some of the real-life examples that are less famous than, say, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. I wish there was more information available about William Brown! I particularly enjoyed reading about Mary Lacy, since most of it was in her own words – she had published a memoir in the early 1770s – and she was apparently extremely popular with the ladies.** Interestingly, her family was totally chill about the whole thing (probably because by the time she wrote home to reveal her plan they were convinced she’d been murdered, and were so relieved she was alive that they weren't willing to quibble over the circumstances) and she even visited them while presenting as a man.
( footnotes )
It is, in many ways, the first rule 63!/genderswapped Sherlock Holmes fanfiction. Lady Molly’s exploits are narrated by her own ‘Watson,’ who worked alongside her at the (then-)fictional division of female police officers at Scotland Yard, before becoming Molly’s full-time sidekick/secretary/companion. Like Holmes, Lady Molly uses unorthodox methods (i.e. going undercover, faking emergencies) to gather evidence and identify the guilty party. On the other hand, I suspect that she was created in response to Holmes finding “the motives of women … so inscrutable,” since the narration makes a point that her advantage is being able to pick up ~domestic clues~ and understand the oh-so-inscrutable motives of women.
Anyway, they were fun stories, even if they were, uh, definitely products of their time, and now I desperately want a crossover fanfiction where Sherlock Holmes and Lady Molly go head to head on a case.
I’ve also just finished Suzanne Stark’s Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail, which is... exactly what it says on the tin, although it does focus specifically on the British Royal Navy. It’s a very quick read, being more of a crash course than a really deep dive, and is split into three sections, discussing sex workers,* warrant officers’ wives, and ‘women seamen,’ or women who disguised themselves as men to serve in the Navy. There’s also a fourth chapter that went more in-depth into the story of Mary Lacy, who spent 12 years with the Royal Navy as a sailor and shipwright under the name William Chandler.
I’ve always loved the Spunky Lass Disguises Herself As A Boy And Runs Off To Sea/War/Etc. trope (Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle was one of my favorite books as a kid) so it was interesting to learn about some of the real-life examples that are less famous than, say, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. I wish there was more information available about William Brown! I particularly enjoyed reading about Mary Lacy, since most of it was in her own words – she had published a memoir in the early 1770s – and she was apparently extremely popular with the ladies.** Interestingly, her family was totally chill about the whole thing (probably because by the time she wrote home to reveal her plan they were convinced she’d been murdered, and were so relieved she was alive that they weren't willing to quibble over the circumstances) and she even visited them while presenting as a man.
( footnotes )
