It's hard enough to know, as a women's history student or teacher or researcher, that so much of the historical record ignored women, and so "her story" is hard to find.
But then, sometimes, you run into information that "everyone knows" but it just ain't so. I think that's just as bad!
Like the 1960s feminists burning bras. Like Pope Joan. (I admit: I kind of like that story, since our names are a little similar.) Like Jane Fonda's involvement in two deaths of American servicemen in Vietnam. Like Betsy Ross making the first American flag. Like Hillary Clinton serving as a lawyer, defending a Black Panther accused of murder. Like the origin of "rule of thumb" in common law allowing a husband to beat his wife with a switch no thicker than his thumb.
On the following pages, you'll find the best information I could dig up on each of these "Ain't So Stories."
More About Myths of Women's History:
- Myths Not History
- Bra Burning
- Pope Joan
- Betsy Ross and the First American Flag
- Jane Fonda and the POWs
- Hillary and the Black Panthers
- Rule of Thumb for Wife-Beating
- Pocahontas Saving Captain John Smith from Execution
- Join the discussion: What's your favorite Ain't So Story about women's history? Add your two cents
Text copyright © 1999-2005 Jone Johnson Lewis .
