Folk & Fauna

Tag: history

  • Elizabeth Montagu: who was she, and why the blue stockings?

    Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827), Breaking Up of the Blue Stocking Club.
    Source: NYPL, The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle

    Last Tuesday, I went to York for my weekly salsa dancing class, with 2.5 hours to kill beforehand. I decided to go for a wander, the kind with no fixed destination in mind. In true flâneur style, I dropped my phone in my bag, put one foot in front of the other, and took whichever street I liked the look of.
    And that’s how I found out about Elizabeth Montagu.

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  • From crocodile dung to the combined pill: why women will always need contraception

    Photo by Photo By: Kaboompics.com on Pexels.com

    Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Clarence Thomas, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, wrote that the court should reconsider other cases, such as Griswold v. Connecticut, which established the constitutional right of married couples to access birth control. Contraception is a reproductive right; it is significant for the empowerment of women, and such a statement exposes its vulnerability.

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