She Speaks Volumes, Season 2 - Episode 1, The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoirproduced by: Feral Culture Lab, Jan 2021 Website: https://www.feralculturelab.com/ (www.feralculturelab.com )Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FeralCultureLab (https://www.facebook.com/FeralCultureLab)Episode 1: Season 2 of the She Speaks Volumes podcast begins with an excerpt of The Second Sex by philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. The Second Sex is a harbinger of what we have come to call Second Wave Feminism. The book examines the question ‘What is woman?’ from an existential-feminist perspective. Sappho: 630-c. 570 BCE, a prolific, lyrical poet, Sappho had great influence over the poets of her own time. Sappho is best remembered today as a lesbian, rather than a poet; but in her own times she was represented as a promiscuous heterosexual. It wasn’t until a few centuries after her death that she was talked of as a lesbian, her reputation as a lover of women brought us the term sapphic, and defined a cultural history of lesbianism. read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho)Christine de Pizan: 1364-c. Proto-feminist, considered the first woman to earn her living as a writer; and ‘the first woman to pick up her pen in defence of her sex’ (Simone de Beauvoir). Christine de Pizan was a poet and writer at the court of King Charles the VI. In addition to writing several works on military tactics and history she wrote The Book of the City of Ladies (https://podcasts.captivate.fm/media/a92fe639-32bc-4f97-82f0-e058a1478048/cityofladies-pt1.mp3 (covered in season 1 of She Speaks Volumes)) and The Treasury of the City of Ladies.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_de_Pizan Mary Wollstonecraft: 1759 - 1797. Writer, philosopher, proto-feminist. Along with A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft wrote novels, history books, and travel literature. She died from complications giving birth to her second daughter Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. Covered in She Speaks Volumes- S1 Episode 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft)Olympe de Gouges: 1748 - 1793. Playwright, political activist, abolitionist, and early feminist. She wrote Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen amongst many other plays, political pamphlets, and manifestos. She was executed by the new revolutionary government during the Reign of Terror for anti-revolutionary activities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympe_de_GougesIsabella the Catholic: an active monarch, her reforms and influence bought changes to the wealth, and safety of Castille, she married Ferdinand II of Aragon, unifying Spain. She was then considered the first Queen of Spain. She was an devout Catholic, complicated in our understanding today as converting Jews, Muslims and Indigenous Peoples of North America was a motivating factor for her, but she was vehemently opposed to slavery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_I_of_Castile (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_I_of_Castile )Elizabeth of England: 1533 - 1603, Queen Elizabeth I the iconic ‘virgin-queen’ who reigned England from 1558, upon the death of her half-sister until her own death in 1603. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I )Catherine of Russia: 1729 - 1796, Catherine the Great, she was empress of Russia from 1762 until her death in 1796, Russia’s longest serving female monarch. She was credited with revitalizing and modernizing Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great)Catherine of Siena: 1347 - 1380, a lay member of the Dominican Order, was a mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and the Catholic Church. Canonized in 1461, she is also a Doctor of the Church....