Historical Profile: Baroness Emma Orczy

When you think of heroes with secret identities, you probably think of the superhero genre and comics, but where did they begin? As far as we know, they begin with The Scarlet Pimpernel in the early 20th Century, which was the inspiration for later characters like Zorro and Batman. The Scarlet Pimpernel was set during the French Revolution, boasting a titular character who masquerades as a shallow dandy while leading a secret society of English aristocrats who rescue their French counterparts from the guillotine.

the cover of the 1908 edition

And, yes, that says Baroness. Because the creator of the original dual identity hero was a woman. Last week, Sarah was talking about the concept of the “fake geek girl” who is supposedly taking a thing that is just for boys and pretending to enjoy it for the attention. I didn’t mean for my post to tie in so nicely—I chose my topic before I actually knew what Sarah’s was—but this is a happy coincidence that lets me add this argument to the mix: How can it be just for boys when a woman wrote the play and subsequent adventure novels that inspired such a large part of the genre? Yeah, no, it can’t.

I’m not going to keep going with that though, because Sarah did a great job with it and this post is actually the first of a new series we will be updating intermittently on women of significance throughout history.

The famous quote goes that history is written by the victors, but there’s another facet of that is often left ignored: History is written by men. Women have contributed so much to the world as we know it, but they are frequently forgotten or their work is stolen by a man who presents it as his own. F. Scott Fitzgerald is certainly not the only example, but he’s the first I can think of off the top of my head.

NYAD’s series on historical women, then, serves to highlight women we wish we’d learnt about in school, women who impress or astound us, women we adore, women whose contributions deserve recognition. And this week, I’m starting with:

"Fake Geek Girls"

I’ve been in the Marvel fandom for over a decade now, and it wasn’t until joining Tumblr that I learned there was such thing as a “fake geek girl”. It's still a mind boggling situation to me. So let’s have a little chat about it. But first a little background information so you know where I’m coming from. Growing up there was one phrase I almost never heard said in real life that it seems everyone else heard too often. “That’s just for INSERT GENDER HERE.” I sit here now completely confused as to how this is possible. I had friends. I spent time with adults beyond my parents. I had a social life. Let’s be honest here, I grew up on a farm in a small town there should have been so much sexism there that you couldn’t take a breath without choking on it. But no, when the chicken barn needed shoveled the saying was, “I have a mask and shovel that’ll fit you,” and my parents did. When wood needed chopping: “I’ve got an axe that will fit your hand.” When laundry needed to be done: “You wore it you can learn to wash it.” When baby animals or the occasional baby human needed minding, it didn’t just get put off on my mom, sister, or myself. No, my dad and brother were tasked with just as many dirty diapers and bottles.