I made these points in a reblog, but I want to re-state them in their own post, so that it shows up in the main tag.
Mad Max: Fury Road is a story about sexists, told by non-sexists.
I know it’s a bit confusing, because we’re so used to seeing stories about sexists told by sexists. We’re so used to sexism being portrayed by sexist male filmmakers for the sake of a sexist male audience, that we’ve been fooled into thinking this is the only way sexism even can be portrayed.
eabevella’s review of MMFR pointed out that the villains never call women “bitches,” nor are they shown overtly leering at the women in the film, and took this as evidence that the villains in the movie are not sexist. That they objectify women, but only in the way that they objectify everything, and their objectification is in fact quite egaitarian.
While the assessment that the villains are not shown leering or spitting gendered slurs is correct, I’m going to go ahead and say that the conclusion eabevella drew from this is wrong, wrong, so very wrong.
See, there’s a great lie we’ve been told – that in order for an audience to understand that a character is sexist, women must be humiliated on camera.
The truth is this:
When a male character calls a female character a bitch in a movie, that is not the filmmaker’s way of showing the audience the character is sexist; that is the filmmaker’s way of showing the audience that the character’s sexist point of view is worth hearing.
Read that paragraph over and over until it sinks in.
Mad Max: Fury Road makes it absolutely clear that the villains are sexist, and it does so without ever once implying that their sexist point of view is worth hearing. Instead, we learn that they are sexist second-hand, through context and world-building.
We see that the wives have been dressed in ridiculous, impractical gauze bikinis. We see that the wives are not only young and healthy, but also model-pretty. Through these subtle details, the narrative makes it clear that Immorten Joe, the villain, chose these women not just as useful stock, but as sexual objects in which he took sexual pleasure.
In contrast, when the movie introduces the audience to the wives, the movie makes sure to portray them in as humanized, and non-sexualized a manner as possible. Even when they are literally bathing together, we don’t see any water running down chests while the models arch their backs and run their fingers through their hair and sigh pleasurably. Instead we see a bunch of women perfunctorily rinsing off legs and feet, looking exhausted. When they see Max for the first time, they take on fearful, closed off expressions, and project fearful, closed off body language.
Compare this to, for example, Theon Greyjoy’s castration in HBO’s Game of Thrones. We know he was castrated, even though no one ever says the word “castration” and the camera never shows a penis being lopped off. The filmmakers manage to convey that the mutilation has taken place, but respect the character enough not to make a lurid scene out of it (and yet proceed to make lurid scenes out of every possible denigration and mutilation of every possible female character they can cram into their commercial free timeslot).
.
As for Imperator Furiosa, it is hard for us, the audience, to not see Charlize Theron as a beautiful woman. But when we compare her appearance in the movie to that of the wives, it’s clear to see that Imperator Furiosa is, in fact, the opposite of what Immorten Joe and his war mongering culture view as desirable, beautiful, or womanly. They do not sexually objectify her because to them she is sexless.
If we ignore our own biased understanding of Furiosa – as a character that a beautiful actress is portraying – and instead immerse ourselves in the culture of the Miller’s world, it becomes obvious that Furiosa has taken great pains to make herself genderless under the villains’ gaze, and that her efforts have succeeded.
From Entertainment Weekly:
It was Theron herself who unlocked the image of the androgynous warrior—a woman who has escaped the fate of other women by erasing her gender.
“I just said, ‘I have to shave my head,’” Theron recalls. Furiosa is a war-rig operator living in a place where all other females have been enslaved as breeding and milking chattel. But Furiosa is barren and therefore of no value to the despot Immortan Joe and his soldiers. She is considered worthless. ”They almost forget she’s a woman, so there is no threat,” she says. “I understood a woman that’s been hiding in a world where she’s been discarded.” [x]
.
The villains in the movie are absolutely misogynist. They are absolutely sexist. They do absolutely view beautiful women as sexual objects that exist purely for the male gaze.
But the movie is not about them.
The movie, instead, portrays sexist men as obstacles for the heroes of the movie to overcome.
“oh hey,” she said, “it’s a really touristy area, but since you’re gonna be passing through anyway, you might as well stop by pier 29, see the dragons. also, there’s a—”
“hold on,” i said. “i knew your city had mountains, but. dragons? uh, actual living dragons?”
“dude, it’s not a big deal. they’re there all the time. of course they’re majestic and everything, but they’re loud and cranky and mostly they lie around eating garbage. now and then the city council will talk about trying to make them roost somewhere else, but—”
“dragons,” i repeated. i knew it was making me sound like a rube, but it was a lot to take in. “you live in a city that has dragons.”
“no, it’s cool, we used to go see them when i was a little kid. it’s worth doing. but that whole area is mostly dragon-themed gift shops, and the commercialization is kind of a bummer. also, sometimes a dragon will melt somebody’s car and it’s a whole problem.”
“honestly, i forget other cities don’t have them?” she said. “there’s a few other sites on the west coast where they gather. portland calls them wyverns, but that’s a portland thing.”
“chicago’s got, like, bunnies and songbirds,” i told her, “but otherwise it’s just your typical vermin. pigeons, rats, sphinxes—”
“sphinxes? what the hell.”
“oh, yeah, they nest in the el tunnels. sometimes a fucking sphinx will flap down out of nowhere, bring the whole train to a halt until the front car answers a riddle.”
“that sounds exciting,” she said.
“it’s the worst. your train winds up being twenty minutes late, and you just have to hang out hoping somebody up there read their mythology. there’s supposed to be a program where the conductors get trained in riddling, but i don’t know. rahm emmanuel keeps saying it’s not a budget priority.”
“huh,” she said. “guess the grass is always greener and all that. but on some level, it’s nice to remember that even with all these big box stores, the country still has some variety left in it.”
“yeah, did you know that in rhode island they call water fountains ‘bubblers’?” i said.
“whoa, seriously?”
“i read it somewhere. crazy, right?”
“crazy.”
i am here for urbanized mythological creatures
Switzerland has a lot of dragons, but dragons have long since moved on from collecting gold. There’s a purply-scaley one that roosts behind the Mad Mex that refuses to stop hoarding signposts. The city uses banners for the main roads and sells a lot of maps.
Golems love cities–with their stone buildings and sidewalks. There are strict laws about what one is allowed to say to them, because golems tend to be rather literal and very obedient. There’s always one kid who thinks he knows better. He doesn’t.
OH MY GOD THE CHICAGO SPHINXES, DON’T GET ME STARTED. Here’s the thing. When you buy your Ventra card at the machine - which is another one of Rahm’s scams, leasing that out to a private company, wtf was he thinking - it’s supposed to have the answer to the riddle on it, right? The sphinx is supposed to scan the bar code and let the train through.
that never fucking happens. Especially on the Blue Line which is down for maintenance all the time and constantly switching tracks and running shuttles, which means half the time you’ve got a sphinx that came over from the fucking Orange Line or some shit and is full of riddles that only the Irish mooks from Bridgeport understand. Or it’s in Polish only. Or it’s got a glitch that makes it stutter and if you interrupt it, it’ll get snippy and bite your head off. LITERALLY. They hush it up but it happens. Businesses lose millions from sphinx-related tardiness every year.
And then there’s a case back in ‘96 when it was proven after the fact that the “wrong” answer the Red Line Sphinx got was actually A PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE REGIONAL VARIATION but by then, the Sphinx had already eaten half a car full of drunken Cubs fans. I know, not much of value was lost there, BUT STILL.
You think SPHINXES are bad? Detroit has imps, thousands of them, and you know what they love? Buses. You know the major form of public transit in Detroit is? BUSES. So the drivers have to literally shoo away imps at every fucking stop, making them 30 minutes late, an HOUR late, and it’s not like there’s anything you can DO, because they’re all leftover from when the car companies were big, and ALL OF THOSE FUCKERS CLOSED.
So of course there were hundreds of orphaned imps, and they kept SAYING they were going to reopen the factories, or at least get some good junkyards, but nooooooooo, they never did, so the imps just bred and bred, and now they’re all over every bus and it’s not like you can ever count on getting anywhere on time and long story short, I’d take a sphinx over imps ANY day.
yeah as someone who did high school and college in michigan and now lives in chicago, i have to say that as far as the age-old sphinxes vs imps debate goes, they’re both terrible in different ways. the imps are way more common and they probably have a wider total reach, and oh my god nothing like trying to board a bus already covered in those little suckers when said bus is already forty minutes late—
(sidenote: ugh people from bloomfield hills saying stuff like “well if i lived in detroit, i’d have the sense to carry around a nice heavy club or walking stick—” yeah dude good luck with your walking stick against two dozen imps)
but the sphinxes. let’s not, uh, sugar coat this: the sphinxes don’t just slow commuters, they kill people. and yes, if you know the riddle, you’re fine. but what if someone else offers their answer first? what if you get some overly cocky freshman philosophy major who takes it upon himself to answer for the whole car?
i think in the back of our minds, all chicagoans know that rahm emmanuel’s administration isn’t gonna lift a finger until one of the sphinxes goes after a wealthy tourist and it makes national news. and even then, we’ll get, like, flashy riddle-solving software installed in all the red line trains, and maybe the brown line, but no way is it gonna cover the whole infrastructure.
basically if you ever need to take the green line or the pink line, you wanna start studying your classical mythology and folklore fucking yesterday.
@copperbadge do puns work on Sphinxes as well as riddles?
You bet your sphinxter they do.
(Sphinxes hate that one but they’re obliged to honor it.)
I want to write an alternative version of Romeo and Juliet where instead of being a little ponce and trying to work things out for himself, Romeo asks his smarter friends what to do about the whole thing and Benvolio and Mercutio come up with the world’s greatest plan:
Marriage of convenience between Juliet and Mercutio.
Think about it.
Juliet’s parents want her to marry into the Prince’s family. Mercutio is a good compromise between no marriage and Paris.
Mercutio probably won’t get his inheritance if he keeps being HELLA FUCKING GAY ALL OVER THE PLACE so a beard is only a benefit to him.
They would probably get along great rolling their eyes at how adorably stupid Romeo is.
Romeo and Benvolio could get a “bachelor pad” right next to Juliet and Mercutio’s house. Every night, Romeo and Mercutio high five as they hop the fence to go bang their one true love.
The second half of the play is just all of them trying to keep up the charade and being “THIS CLOSE” to getting caught all the time. But everything ends nicely because true love conquers all.
Everybody wins. Nobody dies.
THE SHAKESPERE AU I NEVER KNEW I NEEDED
DUDE DID YOU JUST FIX ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC PLAYS EVER CREATED?!
ONCE AGAIN EVERYTHING IS SOLVED BY THE QUEER LENS.
I tried to argue that Ophelia resonated because Shakespeare had made an extraordinary discovery in writing her, though I had trouble articulating the nature of that discovery. I didn’t want to admit that it could be something as simple as recognizing that emotionally unstable teenage girls are human beings. …
When Ophelia appears onstage in Act IV, scene V, singing little songs and handing out imaginary flowers, she temporarily upsets the entire power dynamic of the Elsinore court. When I picture that scene, I always imagine Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, and Horatio sharing a stunned look, all of them thinking the same thing: “We fucked up. We fucked up bad.” It might be the only moment of group self-awareness in the whole play. Not even the grossest old Victorian dinosaur of a critic tries to pretend that Ophelia is making a big deal out of nothing. Her madness and death is plainly the direct result of the alternating tyranny and neglect of the men in her life. She’s proof that adolescent girls don’t just go out of their minds for the fun of it. They’re driven there by people in their lives who should have known better.
Tumblr’s Staff has posted about a third party obtaining access to select tumblr accounts. While they say there has been no evidence to prove this third party is trying to access these accounts, there have been multiple people who have been affected and hacked. Mitzu ( @mitzusins) was one of those hacked. Oolay ( @oolay-tiger) has also been affected, but not hacked.
Please listen to me folks. If you have been signed out of your account without your own doing so, D O N O T click any links to reset a paaword on an email. You can do this on your own Tumblr, and clicking on any links can make your personal information available to this hacker.
If you have clicked on a link and reset your password, I’m telling you right now: CHANGE YOUR TUMBLR AND EMAIL PASSWORD IMMEDIATELY UPON READING THIS. You can possibly save yourself from being hacked and blocked from your email account by doing this.
Please reblog and spread this as fast as you can. Many peoples’ accounts and personal information are at stake and this is a horrific event that is happening. If you know anyone who is being affected ESPECIALLY forward them this post. Thank you all for sharing, and please be safe.
This is 100% true. I got logged out today, something that has never happened to me before. And I got sent a password changing link from ‘Gmail’…even though I wanted to change my TUMBLR password and my email is MSN. DO NOT CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD THROUGH A EMAIL LINK. YOU CAN CHANGE IT ON TUMBLR YOURSELF.
Please spread this around, because not only is it endangering you if you clicked the link but the minors who could of clicked it to. And giving out a minor’s information could attract predators to them and that’s really fucked up so please I beg you spread this. I don’t care what kind of blog you are just please get this word around.
me, the curtain lifting, the fog clearing, comprehension dawning, the realization hitting me directly in the face as a montage of the past few days goes through my head:
Ah
Im going through the reigns of Roman Emperors and jfc it’s either “rule: ~20 years in relative peace” or “rule: 3 months and 2 days. Stabbed to death by praetorian guard”, there’s practically no middle ground.
1. Do not kill bees, they aren’t trying to hurt you and rarely sting (because they die if they sting) chances are they’re buzzing around you because you’re wearing a bright colour and they think you’re a flower
2. If you see one on the ground, it’s probably not dead, try feeding it some sugar water or put it on a flower so it can get energy
3. Put bee friendly flowers in your garden so they have lots of pollen and maybe put a bee house too
4. If you have a bees nest in your attic/garden/shed etc, don’t call an exterminator! Call a bee keeper instead so they can be rehomed rather than being killed
Bees are very important and must be looked after! Without bees, humans wouldn’t survive
I feel like every major has a “mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” like a sentence or piece of info you hear over and over and is embedded in your brain. im curious so tag this w your major/field of study and what that thing is
When someone identifies with their favorite character it can say a lot about them. Whenever someone says “they are so me” believe them. Sometimes liking a favorite character they identify with is the closest thing to catch a glimpse of who they really are. Never tell anyone that they are talking about a fictional character too much, because deep down it could be the only thing thats been helping them battle their deepest insecurities. Even fictional characters can make a difference, regardless whether or not they are real.
Also sometimes loving a fictional character who reminds them of themself is the closest they can get to actually loving themself. So, you know. Maybe don’t shit on people for identifying with and loving a fictional character.
“When women are given advice about sex and clothing, when we’re advised to be chaste and modest, a striking amount of that advice compares us to consumer goods. We’re told that we’re chewing gum, and nobody wants gum other people have chewed. We’re told that we’re candy, and nobody wants candy without the wrapper. We’re told that we’re iPads, so our manufacturer recommends using covers which protect us and make us more beautiful. We’re told that we’re diamonds or pearls, buried deep in the ground or the ocean, valuable because we’re hard to reach. We’re told that we’re shoes, and nobody wants used, smelly, second-hand shoes. We’re told that we’re apples: the best are the hard-to-reach ones at the top of the tree, the worst are the rotten ones that fall off the tree and can be picked up by anyone, and only the best of men will go to the trouble of climbing the tree for the apples that are hard to get. We’re told that we’re cars or expensive watches or wads of cash, and if we’re left unlocked, or are flashed in dangerous neighborhoods, we should expect to be stolen. We’re told that we’re meat, and if we’re dangled in front of hungry dogs we should expect to get eaten. We’re told that we’re cows and that sex with us is milk, and we’re asked why anyone would buy the cow if they could get the milk for free.
And somehow, all of this is supposed to make us feel valued, and is supposed to teach us to value ourselves.
I have some important information: Women are human beings. We are not gum or candy; we are not diamonds or iPads; we are not watches or wads of cash; we are not cows or milk. Women are human beings — and when you treat us like consumer goods, you are not treating us as valuable. It doesn’t matter whether you’re treating us like expensive goods or cheap ones, whether you’re calling us diamonds or gum. When you treat us like consumer goods, you’re treating us as less than human. You’re teaching others to treat us as less than human. And you’re teaching us to think of ourselves as less than human.”—Women Are Not Consumer Goods: Lessons on Modesty and Chastity - Greta Christina’s Blog (via brutereason)
Okay, but imagine the first time Steve and Bucky hear the term “feminazi.” Some dudebro at a convention or public event the team is forced to go to calls a woman a feminazi, and Steve and Bucky just lose it and startyelling at the guy because they’ve lost friends to actual Nazis, and a woman standing up for her rights as a human being is not comparable to slaughtering millions of people.
“What did you say?” Steve leaves the stage and marches up the aisle of the auditorium toward the facilitator with the microphone and the audience member who had been speaking into it. “What was that word you just used?”
“Uh …” The man from the audience is understandably apprehensive at having Captain America charge him. “… feminazi.”
Steve gathers the front of the man’s shirt in his fist. “I fought Nazis. Are you equating the slaughter of millions with this person -” Steve hadn’t heard before of the woman that the audience member had stood to ask about during the question and answer segment, and has forgotten the name, but that’s way beside the point now. “- standing up for her human rights?”
Steve didn’t notice Bucky leaving the stage but now he’s beside them, speaking very quietly. “I think this guy is the one who sounds like a Nazi. What do you think, Steve?”
“I think you’re right, Bucky.” Bringing himself back under control, but also conscious of good-cop-bad-cop vibe in the contrast between his tone and Bucky’s, Steve allows himself not to speak as quietly as Bucky is.
“I think,” says Bucky, quietly but ominously, “that the smartest thing this guy could do in his entire life would be if right now he left this room and this building, and never spoke that word again. What do you think, Steve?”
“I think you’re right, Bucky.” Steve lets go of the guy’s shirt.
As the guy hastens down the aisle ultimately to exit the auditorium, Steve and Bucky follow slowly on their way back to the stage. “I never want to hear that word again,” says Steve, not needing a microphone. “Who came up with that word anyway?”
“Rush Limbaugh,” comes an anonymous voice from the audience.
RADIO SHOW TRANSCRIPT, EXCERPT
LIMBAUGH: (continued) So you see, in context this woman -
ROGERS: Stepped on your toes. And in your mind that equated her actions with the slaughter of millions of people?
LIMBAUGH: She wasn’t just -
ROGERS: I guess that tells me how much you value the lives of Jews and of Allied soldiers. Hundreds of millions per toe of yours.
Newspaper headline: LIMBAUGH PROGRAM LOSES ALL ADVERTISERS IN TOEGATE
SLAMS REBLOG BUTTON SO HARD
When writers take over a post is my fav god damn thing
@horrorflickchick85
today papa john’s called my starbucks and they were like “are u guys interested in a trade” and five frappuccinos later they gave us two large pizzas and a large order of cheesy bread
ok but this seems adorable to me
like kids at lunch
this is what my coffee shop does with the Subway next door. each large latte equals one 6 inch sandwich. we trade at noon and 7PM
I’m not even going to lie, I judge people, and I judge them hard. if I see a person with some wacky ass clothes on or a girl wearing bright blue eyeshadow up to her super thin arched sharpie looking eyebrows ya I’m judging them because I personally don’t agree with their choices, but I keep my mouth shut and keep my damn opinions to myself because I’m not a piece a shit who wants to put others down. it’s perfectly okay to not agree with someones choices, but there is absolutely no reason for you to tell them that you think what they’re doing is wrong or to tell them that you don’t like how they look or dress or act. THERE IS NO FUCKING REASON FOR IT. stop talking shit and then defending yourself by saying “oh well i’m just stating my opinions!!! freedom of speech!!!!” you’re not just innocently stating your opinions, you’re being a jerk.
no u dont. You dont want to have to drive an hour just to get some McDonalds. There is nothing to do here and everyone is racist. My neighbour’s chickens got stolen last week
the administration has determined that the designation of “sex” in Title IX protections also includes gender identity, which means that if public schools don’t comply with these protections, they lose federal funding
transgender students are only required to have their parent or guardian contact the school district to notify them that their identity differs from what is previously on record
these students do not need to provide a medical diagnosis, identification documents, or any other information regarding their transition
transgender students must be accommodated even when it makes others students uncomfortable
transgender students can be offered the use of single stall restrooms, but if other students are not required to use them, then they aren’t required, either, and specifically mentions that if a student is uncomfortable sharing a restroom with a transgender person they can be offered a single stall restroom
these protections also cover correct pronoun use as well, along with other guidelines
my favorite side effect warning is for antidepressants
pros: you won’t want to kill yourself
cons: you might want to kill yourself
Back when I was in a psychiatric hospital, and was offered antidepressants, my mother had declined them due to that apparent side effect. So the staff actually explained about this effect antidepressants have, that give reason to that warning. When first taking antidepressants they raise up your energy first. So that you have the energy to do the tasks you might have avoided doing due to your depression. Because of this those who were already suicidal, now have the energy to go do so. Which is the ones this warning is given for. It’s not that a side effect of antidepressants magically makes you want to kill yourself, it’s the energy it gives those who were already struggling with suicidal issues, to actually attempt the act.
Very informative…
Wow. I’m so glad you explained that. Now I understand
My high school choir/psych teacher actually told is about this. She also said if you have a suicidal friend who starts seeming like they might be getting better because they have more energy, that’s the time to be cautious because that’s when they may still be suicidal but they’ll actually have the energy to go through with it
THIS. a thousand times THIS. I had it explained to me in my AP psychology class in high school. super fucking important.
Philip Schuyler was a general in the Continental Army as well as a businessman. He was actually pretty good at it, and the British wanted to take him out of commission. One night, a raiding party broke into the Schuyler house looking for him. The family (Philip included) hid in an upstairs bedroom – when they realized that the baby was still in her cradle downstairs.
So, who volunteered to sneak through a house of armed men to get her? Who got grabbed on the way back up and, still holding the baby, lied to their leader when he stuck a gun in her face and demanded to know where General Schuyler was?
Peggy.
*and
When they asked her where he was, she responded something like “He has gone to get help.” which scared them all so much that they left the home before the back-up could arrive.
Peggy had her baby sister in her arms, her pregnant sisters and mother upstairs hiding, and a gun in her face and she managed to stay calm enough to save her family.
Anyone who says you can’t give flowers to boys clearly hasn’t tried it. Seriously, give a boy some roses, they get adorably flustered and go all red. It’s the most precious thing.
im so tired of “kids these days” discourse like if ur generation had iphones u would have fuckin loved it too, don’t pretend. i see thru ur bullshit martha
So I wrote a short story that I’ve been posting on here bit by bit (I WILL POST THE NEXT SECTION, I SWEAR TO GOD) and I happened to have written it for a class and I brought it in to be critiqued and I just. I can die happy, because I straight-up witnessed a room full of Very Serious Critical Authors (yes I am a little derisive of my Very Pompous College Peers) get into a violent ship war. It escalated to shouting, the teacher looked horrified, and at least two people had brought in copies of the story annotated to support their ship–and these two came in armed and loaded for bear. Or heteronormativity, but same difference.
And so after class I came back to my dorm room and burst through the door and announced to my roommate:
“I have thrown the golden apple of ambiguous lesbianism among the masses and war has broken out.”
And honestly I’ve never been so proud of a sentence that ever came out of my mouth.
like i will see people apologize for making a lot of them and i’m just
dude
a) it’s YOUR blog, you can recite the greek alphabet one post at a time if you really want to
b) you don’t owe your followers shit
c) personal posts are fucking interesting, man. if i am following a blog i am okay! with knowing about the person behind that blog! nobody’s gonna begrudge you having a life outside the intermajig and talking about it.
I WANT GAY ROMANTIC COMEDIES GOD DAMN IT I AM SO TIRED OF THE ONLY GAY MOVIES BEING DRAMATICALLY SAD BECAUSE THEYRE GAY AND SOMEONE HAS AIDS OR SOMEONES A COWBOY OR SOMEONE DIES GIVE ME YOU’VE GOT MAIL WITH TWO WOMEN GIVE ME SIXTEEN CANDLES WITH TWO BOYS GIVE ME SOMETHING
I know I run a book blog so maybe this isn’t the right platform for this, but girls: Please look out for other girls. Tonight I was stuck at a bus stop in Shoreditch circa 2 AM and saw another young woman getting harassed by a drunk, aggressive dude, and at first I thought, “She’s got it under control.” But then he started touching her and I went “No, that’s definitely not right.” So I barged over and shoved him out of the way and said, “Beth?? Oh my God, how are you, I haven’t seen you since grade school!” And this girl I’d never seen before in my life threw her arms around my neck and whispered, “You are an angel, thank God.” We talked for fifteen minutes, the creep lost interest, I watched her get on the bus and I will sleep so much better knowing she got home in one piece. If you see something weird happening, intervene. The worst that can happen is embarrassment, and I think that’s worth the risk when you consider the alternative.
Ninety-year-old Freddie Oversteegen was one of the few women that were active in the Dutch resistance during WWII – along with her sister Truus and the famous Hannie Schaft, who was killed just before the end of the war. When Freddie was 14 years old, a gentleman visited her family home to ask her mother if she would allow her daughters to join the resistance – no one would suspect two young girls of being resistance fighters, he argued.
And he was right. The Oversteegen sisters would flirt with Nazi collaborators under false pretences and then lead them into the woods, where instead of a make-out session, the men would be greeted with a bullet.
Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you, The real Black Widow
