Reaching Back: Bitches, Ho's And The Freeing Of Mary Todd Lincoln
It is with that in mind that we are republishing Bitches, Ho's And The Freeing Of Mary Todd Lincoln.
We read two posts today, one at The Anchoress and the other at Maxed Out Mama, two of the smarter bloggers out there. Each commented on a post by Pedro, over at the Quietest, in which he discusses the Left's new analysis of the real meaning of pregnancy. In Breeders Infected With Feeders, The Anchoress says,
“My alarm bells began to ring when I read the part about babies stretching out and therefore damaging the tonality of the vagina. I know how serious these folks are about their vaginas! They write to me - often - discussing the integrity of the vagina and the superiority of the vagina over any and all other sexual musculature/organs. How can their vaginas sound their barbaric yawps if the elastic integrity of that gritty little number is compromised?”Maxed Out Mama (we are delighted she is back at the helm) writes in Absolutely Crying With Laughter,
Working for a living can do all of the above things to a person's body as well. It causes stress diseases, wrinkles and grumpiness. So should we outlaw work next? I have met and read many la-la leftists who want to do exactly that. I ran into one on Howard Dean's website that claimed that having to work for a living was unconstitutional - it restricted his freedom. No lie”.We decided we were going to write about a real progressive and a real feminist. Chances are, you don't know who she is, because she is ignored by feminists and the feminist movement. Why? Because she wanted to make a real, tangible, difference in the lives of women, rather than make a political statement or push a particular political agenda. In a world that believes referring to oneself as a bitch, ho or any derivative thereof, is a huge liability. In placing the real needs of women instead of extolling female sexuality, this feminist's fate was sealed. She was forgotten, her ideals of feminism replaced with women praising 'Sex in the City' instead of dealing with 100 million women afflicted with FGM and no end in sight. The systematic rape of women in Darfur is supplanted with Women's Studies departments sponsorship of BDSM seminars.
I hope these types of hysterics won't control any debate. I doubt that it is easy for the state to regulate abortion well and rationally, because forcing a woman to continue a pregnancy that will probably kill her is not going to become law, and it is very, very difficult medically to know what will happen in many circumstances. From a woman's point of view, it is quite impressive if there are only 500 pregnancy-related deaths a year. Something is working incredibly well in our health system.
Compare todays feminists with the real thing- Myra Bradwell.
Do you know who Myra Bradwell was? Well, she was America's first woman lawyer and a true blue feminist- the real deal. She also won Mary Todd Lincoln's release from an unjust confinement in 1875.
These two seminal events in the history of our nation and in the march towards women's rights were accomplished without Ms Bradwell referring to her self as a bitch, ho or any other diminutive. Further she did not refer to or make reference to her vagina, or any other part of her anatomy.
This extraordinary woman remains largely unknown today. Perhaps she is ignored by feminists (and remains a footnote in history) because she had the temerity to concern herself with women's rights and injustice. She did not know what university Womens Studies programs were, she did not recite poetry praising the ultimate vagina (lesbian, of course) and she was far less concerned with politics than she was with human rights and dignity. We remain in the dark as to whether or not she pierced her nipples or any other part of her anatomy and celebrated that self mutilation as an expression of her femininity.
Unlike the current crop of highly self esteemed and trophied feminists, Myra Bradwell concerned herself not with poetry, sexual organs or witchcraft (why was every woman who recalls a 'past life' a high priestess, witch, Egyptian princess or sexual trailblazer in that past life? Didn't anyone do laundry?)
Myra Bradwell's husband, James, was the son of immigrants who worked his way through law school doing manual labor. Understanding the merits of real labor and adversity, he more than anyone appreciated Myra's determination to become a lawyer. It was he who encouraged Myra to read the law. She saw her studies as a way to help her husband with his growing practice. James Bradwell saw well beyond that. In 1869, Myra passed the Bar exam with high honors and then petitioned the Illinois courts for a license. Up to that point, Myra ended her civic duties- she raised money for the Union cause and nursed Civil War soldiers. Passing her Bar exam was to be the catalyst that was to result in the beginning of the next phase of Myra Bradwell's life.
Life was not to be so easy. The Illinois courts turned Bradwell's request for a law license down. The court argued that that as Mrs James Bradwell, she could not legally enter into a contract. The court referred to her status as the Marital Disability.
Myra Bradwell fired back, likening the courts argument to the Dred Scott decision, barring citizenship rights to Black Americans. A second attempt to secure a law license was rejected by the less circumspect Illinois Supreme Court. She was not to be granted a license, they ruled, because she was a woman.
Bradwell made her way to the US Supreme Court and was unceremoniously shot down. Justice Joseph Bradley summed up the High Court's ruling as follows: "The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many occupations of civil life....The paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign office of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator."
The Illinois court was to reverse itself in 1885 and grant Myra Bradwell a law license- a full 10 years after she entered and took center stage in a legal controversy that was to transform her from a narrow agitator for women's occupational rights into a full blown activist for a wide range of feminist demands.
In 1875, Mary Todd Lincoln was committed to an institution by her only surviving son, Robert Todd Lincoln, in a Cook County (Illinois) kangaroo court. Such legal proceedings were used to 'control' 'unruly' women- 'unruly' being defined in any number of ways, including interfereing with a man's access to money or property. One morning in May, Mrs Lincoln, with no warning, was arrested and brought to court. Testimony was offered up as to Mrs Lincoln's insanity by a half dozen doctors who never examined her and her defense lawyer, hired by her son, was well known to have a professed dislike for Mrs Lincoln. He mounted absolutely no defense and Mrs Lincoln was sent to an Illinois mental institution. Her 'legal representative' was well paid for his efforts.
Mary Lincoln was a prisoner, her every movement to be reported to her son, Robert Todd Lincoln. On more than one a occasion, he made clear his intention of keeping his mother 'put away' for a very long time.
Despite the tight security imposed on her by her son, Mary Lincoln managed to smuggle a letter to her friend, Myra Bradwell. They had come to know each other as neighbors in Chicago's Union Square neighborhood. The contents of the letter are unknown- Robert Todd Lincoln's lawyer bought the letter years later and had it destroyed. What is known is the in the letter, Mary Lincoln beseeches her friend, the only woman lawyer in the United States (though unlicensed), Myra Bradwell, to come to her rescue.
With limited options, Myra Bradwell came up with a plan that would make Madison Avenue proud. She would embarrass Robert Lincoln in the most public way she could. She would accompany legions of reporters to the institution where Mary Lincoln was held hostage. She told reporters that the owner of the for profit institution was trying to drive Mrs Lincoln insane. Myra Bradwell always noted that Mrs Lincoln was 'no more insane than I am”; “Is the widow of President Lincoln a prisoner?” and “The whole world will rejopice at Mrs Lincoln's freedom.”
Robert Todd Lincoln's plan to keep his mother out of sight never had a chance from the moment Myra Bradwell entered the fray. Protecting her friend, Mary Todd Lincoln, was to mark the beginning of Bradwell's efforts on behalf of women. The nature of those efforts were to guarantee Myra Bradwell's obscurity. Myra Bradwell wanted to make a difference in the lives of women- she was less inclined to make a political statement. It wasn't about what she might contribute to the effort. It was always about helping other women, including developing a statute that would give mothers equal rights when it came to child custody and giving women the right to control their own money. Myra Bradwell was to be at the fore of protecting battered and abused women and children.
She founded the Chicago Legal News. By 1879, she would report there were 26 female lawyers in the US. In 1885, as we noted, the Illinois courts awarded Bradwell a license to practice law.
Myra Bradwell died in 1894 at the age of 64. She was mourned by thousands of women, who owed a debt of gratitude for the easier life and equal opportunities she helped made a fact if life.
She never took her clothes off for attention, she never put politics ahead of helping women and she never wanted attention for herself.
No wonder Myra Bradwell is rejected and forgotten by feminists today. She was everything they'll never be.
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