Show Notes
After a lifetime of betrayal and abuse as an 18th century sex worker, Catherine Jemmat broke the ultimate social taboo: she wrote the truth about her life. Her "scandalous memoir" helped change the way English society thought about women's lives, and her second book introduced a radical new idea - that the true 'perpetrator' driving women into lives of so-called sin and degradation was, in fact, society itself.
Returning guest Miranda Garno Rossa of Marginalia Rare Books is back to introduce Olivia to this courageous, unexpected heroine.
Music featured in this episode provided by Amanda Setlik Wilson, The Herschel Ensemble, Kevin MacLeod, and Pablo Casals
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More from What'sHerName
They're usually billed as piracy's most famous female double act. But how did Anne Bonny and Mary Read find their way from obscurity and scandal to become the 17th century's biggest "open secret" - and how did they really feel about their lives, their shipmates, and each other?
350 years ago in Paris, Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy retired from espionage and formed a Fairy Tale Resistance. Her team of women wrote over 70 fairy tales, each with hidden critiques of patriarchy and gender roles. We now know their stories as Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast and more. But in their original versions, strong women saved themselves.
Goldie Griffith lived at least a dozen different lives. From preteen boxer in a sketchy snake-oil show, to bronco-riding superstar of the world-famous Buffalo Bill Wild West, to accidental bigamist and bartender - Goldie dived headlong into every new endeavor with her trademark fearless enthusiasm.
It's 1857. A clipper ship is headed into a monster storm at Cape Horn- the most dangerous waters on earth. The captain is in a coma; the first mate is locked up in the brig. Who can lead the ship through the jaws of death?
When 18-year-old Clare fled her family to become the world's first Franciscan nun, she committed to a lifetime of poverty, austerity, and caring for the poor. But when a powerful man tried to rewrite all the rules, Clare was faced with an impossible choice - defy the Pope or deny her own conscience. Then when Princess-turned-Abbess Agnes of Bohemia learned of Clare's struggle, she too joined the fray - two nuns against the patriarchy in the fight of their lives.