˚₊‧꒰ა. a femininomenon .໒꒱ ‧₊˚

a blog celebrating women of today and throughout history if you need someone to talk to, my dms are always open

[eternal-feminine]

welcome to eternal feminine!

i'm so glad you're here! this is a blog for people of all genders to celebrate women of all races, ethnicities, nationalities, religions, and sexual orientations.

what you'll find

i plan on posting a woman of the day as frequently as i can, but i'm also a very busy student (with some super helpful anxiety and ADHD) so there might be days that i miss.

each post will include links to the credible sources i use for my research.

my hope is to include the accomplishments of the women of tumblr, as well. if you would like to be featured, send me whatever makes you proud of yourself (artwork, writing, first place in a competition, etc) through the "submit a post" button. if you'd like to submit a feminine rage rant (or something similar), you're welcome to do that, too.

blog guidelines

this is an ai-free blog. please keep this in mind when submitting a post.

i only accept post submissions in relation to the last bullet point. if you have a post idea for a woman of the day, please send it to me through a DM or the "ask me anything" button. i will give credit for the idea, and, upon request, send the draft for approval to make sure everything you want is covered, but to ensure the use of credible sources, i will research and write it myself.

this is a hate-free blog. if you disagree with the views expressed in a post or comment, you are welcome to engage in a respectful discussion. if you feel you cannot do this without saying something hateful, please take a step back to collect your thoughts and reflect on how you arrived at this point in your life.

if you need someone to talk to, my DMs are always open!

please note: though i realize this is a blog meant to celebrate women, i will occasionally be including women who have done things most people will deem as wrong or immoral. this is not a reflection of my own views, but a reflection of their important place in history and/or today's society.

[eternal-feminine]

Kalpana Chawla

(1962-2003)

Kalpana Chawla was an Indian-American astronaut and the first Indian-born woman to go to space. Chawla was born on March 17, 1962 in Karnal, Haryana, India. In 1982, she graduated with a bachelor of science degree from Punjab Engineering College. She moved to the United States in the same year, where she studied at the University of Texas, graduating with a master's degree in aerospace engineering in 1984. After earning a PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado in 1988, Chawla began working at NASA's Ames Research Center, "where she did computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research on vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) concepts." Chawla became a U.S. citizen in 1991, and, in 1993, she joined Overset Methods Inc. as Vice President and Research Scientist. In December of 1994, she was selected as a member of the 15th Group of Astronauts by NASA and began training in 1995. Upon completion of her training, Chawla was assigned as "crew representative to work technical issues for the Astronaut Office EVA/Robotics and Computer Branches." On November 19, 1997, Chawla entered space for the first time, becoming the first Indian-born woman to do so. She spent 16 days aboard Space Shuttle Columbia as part of STS-87. Chawla was selected as a crew member of STS-107 in 2000, her second flight. Space Shuttle Columbia launched on January 16, 2003 after a series of delays. Throughout the 16-day mission, the crew "performed nearly 80 experiments studying Earth and space science, advanced technology development, and astronaut health and safety." During the launch, a piece of foam insulation struck the port wing of the orbiter. Upon re-entry on February 1, "the damage allowed hot atmospheric gases to penetrate and destroy the internal wing structure, which caused the spacecraft to become unstable and break apart." Chawla, along with her crew mates Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Laurel B. Clark, Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, and Ilan Ramon, died. Chawla posthumously received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.

Crew of STS-107

Sources

NASA, Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, The Astronauts Memorial Foundation

[eternal-feminine]

Ruth Handler

(1916-2002)

Born in 1916 to a family of Polish Jewish immigrants, Ruth Handler is best known for inventing the Barbie doll. In 1945, Ruth co-founded the toy company Mattel with her husband, Elliot, and Harold Matson. Mattel found success selling toy ukuleles, pianos, and music boxes, but when Ruth suggested selling dolls modeled on adult women instead of baby dolls to let girls imagine their future outside of the home, she was shot down. That changed in 1956 when Ruth vacationed with her family in Europe, where she saw the Bild Lilli doll--a grown woman. Ruth brought one back to the U.S. and convinced Mattel's designer to produce something similar. Named after Ruth's daughter Barbara, the Barbie doll debuted at the 1959 Toy Fair in New York City. Within the first year, Mattel sold more than 350,000 dolls. In 1961, Ken debuted, named after Ruth's son. Ruth was diagnosed with breast cancer in the early 1970s and underwent a mastectomy. She resigned from Mattel in 1975 due to her health issues and financial scandal--she and other Mattel executives were indicted in 1978 for conspiracy, mail fraud, and false financial statements. In the 1980s, Ruth created Nearly Me, a breast protheses line designed by and for women, specifically breast cancer survivors. She passed away in 2002 from complications following colon surgery.

Sources

TIME Magazine, PBS

[eternal-feminine]

Kathryn Bigelow

(b. 1951)

Today's woman of the day is Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win a best directing Oscar, receiving the award for The Hurt Locker (2009). Before turning to the world of film, Bigelow was an artist. During the '70s, she studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Whitney Studio Art Program. Through collaborations with conceptual artists, she became interested in film as an art form and attended Columbia University's film school. Her first feature film, The Loveless, was released in 1982, but it was her second movie, Near Dark (1987), that brought her enough success to make big-budget films. Her films combine action and deeper meaning as Bigelow creates an "active relationship" with the audience, allowing the viewer to experience empathy through immersion. She is "compelled to make emotionally, socially, and politically challenging pieces" and recognizes that "[t]here is a responsibility in filmmaking because it has the capacity to reach a wide audience, that the messaging—either latently or explicitly—is what is critical."

Sources

Harvard Film Archive, Directors Guild of America

[eternal-feminine]

Edwidge Danticat

(b. 1969)

Edwidge Danticat is a Haitian author, born in January 1969 near Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, during the Duvalier regime. When she was just two years old, her father left for the United States, and, two years later, her mother followed, leaving her and her younger brother in the care of their uncle. "At the airport my uncle had to peel me off my mother's body. The hardest part was not knowing if it would be for days or years," Danticat recalls. As a child, Danticat would listen to her aunt's mother tell stories in Creole, falling in love with the "vibrant interaction between teller and listener." In 1981, her parents sent for her and her younger brother, and they immigrated to Brooklyn, New York. She went on to study at Barnard College, earning a bachelor's degree in French literature. She received her master's in creative writing at Brown University. In 1994, at the age of 25, she published her first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory. She has since gone on to write 18 books, including Krik? Krak! (1995), The Farming of Bones (1998), and The Dew Breaker (2004). "[H]ow families are made and unmade by immigration" is a central theme in her works. She is the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities in Columbia University's Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies.

Sources

Danticat's website, The Guardian, Vilcek Foundation, Columbia University

[genderqueerdykes]

just so we're clear, replacing patriarchy with a matriarchy would be just as bad because it's the same exact thing. it's a power structure. it lends to systemic abuse.

equality doesn't mean "one gender is better than the other". equality means all genders are on the same playing field. no one gender is better, or worse, than the rest.

women are not inherently kind. women are not inherently charitable. women do not inherently have other peoples' best interests in mind. women are not inherently gentle and nurturing. women are not inherently smarter or dumber than any other gender. women are people, and that means that women are varied. chasing men of that pedestal and placing women there instead will create the exact same problems.

you can run around saying "women are just better than men" but you're doing the exact same thing that's being done to you right now, and that's not how you collapse the structure. you're just taking the same abusive power structure and painting it pink. enough. equality means we are all on the same level. equality does not mean one gender is superior to the rest. got it?