International Women's Day 2019
For International Women’s Day 2019, I took part in an event by WEN
Wales and Springout, in ‘Five Women,’ which looked at Cranogwen,
Elizabeth Andrews, Lady Rhondda, Elaine Morgan and Betty Campbell, the
five who were shortlisted for a statue in Cardiff.
This is what I wrote and read, based on the blog post I posted then about ‘Hidden Heroines’. https://maireddog.blogspot.com/2019/01/lgbt-history-taboo-in-welsh-history.html
“This is an edited version of a blog post I wrote titled ‘LGBT+ History - a taboo in Welsh history?’ on my blog Maireddog. Dyma rhan o’r blog ysgrifennais i ar fy blog Maireddog.
Celebrating these five women, and the 100 women put forward by WEN Wales, has been great. But the campaign for the statue in Cardiff becoming a competition was criticised before, with BBC Wales then making it a vote. Sara Huws’ original research was ignored, which showed there wasn’t a statue of a named woman in Cardiff, not all of Wales. But though the BBC said it’d be the first in Wales, the statue would always be in Cardiff. Betty Campbell deservedly won, who was from Cardiff, but her statue won’t be in Butetown, where she had so much influence as the first black headteacher in Wales. I asked then, if she won, would the BBC explore the Black History of Wales, put Betty Campbell in her historical context, or just celebrate her symbolically? Welsh history is behind in gender history and queer history, but there’s a continued erasure of the history of black populations and the other populations of colour in Wales.
Calling the women ‘hidden’ was also a mistake - Deirdre Beddoe called for Welsh women’s history in 1981, which since developed into a gender history - like historians said during LGBT History Month, which was last month, their histories aren’t hidden anymore. It does a disservice to LGBT and women historians to claim that they are in 2019. Merched Mawreddog was the title in Welsh but it wasn’t Menywod Mawreddog (Great Women) or Arwresau (heroines in Welsh).
The issue I highlighted at the time was the hypocrisy of giving attention to ‘hidden’ history but keeping a part of their history hidden. The article and video on Cranogwen covered her experiences as a sailor, teaching, being the first female editor in Wales, but LGBT history was omitted for Cranogwen and Lady Rhondda. Norena Shopland’s research on them in her book on LGBT histories Forbidden Lives was ignored, and so was Jane Aaron’s research on Y Frythones, which showed Cranogwen’s queer influence as editor. They mentioned her Eisteddfod winning poem ‘Y Fodrwy Priodasol’ but not that it was a critique of marriage, or that her poetry to women was her most passionate - ‘Fy Ffrynd’ was written to her partner Jane Thomas, to Fanny Rees, or possibly to another women we don’t know about.
It says something that mainstream Welsh media erases LGBT+ Welsh history in 2019. The response was that they didn’t include personal lives ‘out of respect,’ but Elaine Morgan being married with 3 sons was mentioned. Cranogwen and Lady Rhondda are inspirational to LGBT+ people, to women especially, which is not disrespectful to say. It’s a missed opportunity for Welsh LGBT+ and straight people to learn that heroic, great people were, and are, LGBT+. This is intentionally omitted when it’s not just their personal lives omitted but, for example, that Amy Dillwyn wrote the novel Jill, considered the first Welsh lesbian novel.
I called for these issues, women and intersectionality in Welsh history, to be discussed, and for the Decolonisation of Welsh history - where Welsh history isn’t erased, but, within that, neither is the history of women, people of colour or LGBT+ people.
International Women’s Day events were partly organised during LGBT History Month. LGBT+ and Black History shouldn’t only be considered once a year but they’re a starting point. We should looked even at International Women’s Day and ask whether they’re including these aspects of women’s lives, like this event does, but is all the LGBT+ and Black history included?
Having a sense of your own belonging is vital. That’s the necessity of knowing your own history. We need to make sure that all women have ‘heroic’ representations of themselves - Women of Colour, lesbians, bisexual women, trans women, and so many more. Diolch.”
Sources & Further Reading:
Jane Aaron, ‘“Gender difference is nothing”: Cranogwen and Victorian Wales’ in Queer Wales.
Jane Aaron, ‘Developing Women’s Print Culture’ in Nineteenth Century Women’s Writing in Wales, 2007.
Deirdre Beddoe ‘Towards a Welsh women’s history’ Llafur 3:2 (1981).
Yasmin Begum, ‘An independent Wales must undo the darkness of white supremacy’, Planet, 2018.
Yasmin Begum, ‘25 Years on from Wales’ Race Riots,’ Media Diversified, 2016.
Dr. Nia Edwards-Behi, ‘How to challenge racism in white west Wales?’ Planet, 2018.
Kirsti Bohata in Queer Wales / anything by Kirsti Bohata on Amy Dillwyn, Queer literature or colonialism.
Cranogwen, Caniadau Cranogwen. 1870.
Cranogwen ed. Y Frythones, 1879-1891.
Dr. Jasmine Donahaye also called for a statue of Lily Tobias, showing there are more women than these 5 shortlisted who also need more attention in our history, as there is also a Welsh and Jewish history that should continue to be uncovered: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-33497685
Donahaye has since written more on the topic of statues of women in Wales, in a very interesting article on Nation Cymru. https://nation.cymru/opinion/betty-campbell-statue-jasmine-donahaye/
Katie Gramich & Catherine Brennan ed. Welsh Women’s Poetry 1460-2001: An Anthology, 2003.
Sara Huws, 'A Modest Proposal: A Statue of an Actual Woman for Cardiff,’ 2001. (Sara Huws originally brought attention to the lack of statues of real woman in Wales.)
Angela V. John, Turning the Tide: The Life of Lady Rhondda, 2014.
Norena Shopland, Forbidden Lives: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Stories from Wales, 2017. (Website: http://www.rainbowdragon.org)
Sian Rhiannon Williams, ‘Y Frythones: Portread Cofnodolion Merched y Bedwaredd Ganrif ar Bymtheg o Gymraes yr Oes’ Llafur 4:1 (1984)
Glamorgan Archives, Queering Glamorgan: A Research Guide to Sources for the Study of LGBT History, 2018.
Sadia Pineda Hameed, ‘“Save Our Sculpture” Questioning Cardiff’s Priorities,’ Welsh Arts Review, 2018.
This is what I wrote and read, based on the blog post I posted then about ‘Hidden Heroines’. https://maireddog.blogspot.com/2019/01/lgbt-history-taboo-in-welsh-history.html
“This is an edited version of a blog post I wrote titled ‘LGBT+ History - a taboo in Welsh history?’ on my blog Maireddog. Dyma rhan o’r blog ysgrifennais i ar fy blog Maireddog.
Celebrating these five women, and the 100 women put forward by WEN Wales, has been great. But the campaign for the statue in Cardiff becoming a competition was criticised before, with BBC Wales then making it a vote. Sara Huws’ original research was ignored, which showed there wasn’t a statue of a named woman in Cardiff, not all of Wales. But though the BBC said it’d be the first in Wales, the statue would always be in Cardiff. Betty Campbell deservedly won, who was from Cardiff, but her statue won’t be in Butetown, where she had so much influence as the first black headteacher in Wales. I asked then, if she won, would the BBC explore the Black History of Wales, put Betty Campbell in her historical context, or just celebrate her symbolically? Welsh history is behind in gender history and queer history, but there’s a continued erasure of the history of black populations and the other populations of colour in Wales.
Calling the women ‘hidden’ was also a mistake - Deirdre Beddoe called for Welsh women’s history in 1981, which since developed into a gender history - like historians said during LGBT History Month, which was last month, their histories aren’t hidden anymore. It does a disservice to LGBT and women historians to claim that they are in 2019. Merched Mawreddog was the title in Welsh but it wasn’t Menywod Mawreddog (Great Women) or Arwresau (heroines in Welsh).
The issue I highlighted at the time was the hypocrisy of giving attention to ‘hidden’ history but keeping a part of their history hidden. The article and video on Cranogwen covered her experiences as a sailor, teaching, being the first female editor in Wales, but LGBT history was omitted for Cranogwen and Lady Rhondda. Norena Shopland’s research on them in her book on LGBT histories Forbidden Lives was ignored, and so was Jane Aaron’s research on Y Frythones, which showed Cranogwen’s queer influence as editor. They mentioned her Eisteddfod winning poem ‘Y Fodrwy Priodasol’ but not that it was a critique of marriage, or that her poetry to women was her most passionate - ‘Fy Ffrynd’ was written to her partner Jane Thomas, to Fanny Rees, or possibly to another women we don’t know about.
It says something that mainstream Welsh media erases LGBT+ Welsh history in 2019. The response was that they didn’t include personal lives ‘out of respect,’ but Elaine Morgan being married with 3 sons was mentioned. Cranogwen and Lady Rhondda are inspirational to LGBT+ people, to women especially, which is not disrespectful to say. It’s a missed opportunity for Welsh LGBT+ and straight people to learn that heroic, great people were, and are, LGBT+. This is intentionally omitted when it’s not just their personal lives omitted but, for example, that Amy Dillwyn wrote the novel Jill, considered the first Welsh lesbian novel.
I called for these issues, women and intersectionality in Welsh history, to be discussed, and for the Decolonisation of Welsh history - where Welsh history isn’t erased, but, within that, neither is the history of women, people of colour or LGBT+ people.
International Women’s Day events were partly organised during LGBT History Month. LGBT+ and Black History shouldn’t only be considered once a year but they’re a starting point. We should looked even at International Women’s Day and ask whether they’re including these aspects of women’s lives, like this event does, but is all the LGBT+ and Black history included?
Having a sense of your own belonging is vital. That’s the necessity of knowing your own history. We need to make sure that all women have ‘heroic’ representations of themselves - Women of Colour, lesbians, bisexual women, trans women, and so many more. Diolch.”
Sources & Further Reading:
Jane Aaron, ‘“Gender difference is nothing”: Cranogwen and Victorian Wales’ in Queer Wales.
Jane Aaron, ‘Developing Women’s Print Culture’ in Nineteenth Century Women’s Writing in Wales, 2007.
Deirdre Beddoe ‘Towards a Welsh women’s history’ Llafur 3:2 (1981).
Yasmin Begum, ‘An independent Wales must undo the darkness of white supremacy’, Planet, 2018.
Yasmin Begum, ‘25 Years on from Wales’ Race Riots,’ Media Diversified, 2016.
Dr. Nia Edwards-Behi, ‘How to challenge racism in white west Wales?’ Planet, 2018.
Kirsti Bohata in Queer Wales / anything by Kirsti Bohata on Amy Dillwyn, Queer literature or colonialism.
Cranogwen, Caniadau Cranogwen. 1870.
Cranogwen ed. Y Frythones, 1879-1891.
Dr. Jasmine Donahaye also called for a statue of Lily Tobias, showing there are more women than these 5 shortlisted who also need more attention in our history, as there is also a Welsh and Jewish history that should continue to be uncovered: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-33497685
Donahaye has since written more on the topic of statues of women in Wales, in a very interesting article on Nation Cymru. https://nation.cymru/opinion/betty-campbell-statue-jasmine-donahaye/
Katie Gramich & Catherine Brennan ed. Welsh Women’s Poetry 1460-2001: An Anthology, 2003.
Sara Huws, 'A Modest Proposal: A Statue of an Actual Woman for Cardiff,’ 2001. (Sara Huws originally brought attention to the lack of statues of real woman in Wales.)
Angela V. John, Turning the Tide: The Life of Lady Rhondda, 2014.
Norena Shopland, Forbidden Lives: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Stories from Wales, 2017. (Website: http://www.rainbowdragon.org)
Sian Rhiannon Williams, ‘Y Frythones: Portread Cofnodolion Merched y Bedwaredd Ganrif ar Bymtheg o Gymraes yr Oes’ Llafur 4:1 (1984)
Glamorgan Archives, Queering Glamorgan: A Research Guide to Sources for the Study of LGBT History, 2018.
Sadia Pineda Hameed, ‘“Save Our Sculpture” Questioning Cardiff’s Priorities,’ Welsh Arts Review, 2018.
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