I'm getting annoyed by this book.

[lyssie]

Out of curiosity, I picked up The Women Who Lived For Danger: The Agents of the Special Operations Executive. It's written by Marcus Binney, who had access to all sorts of documents and stuff. (ladyspies in WW2 are amazing, this book aside)

And while nominally about the women, it constantly, CONSTANTLY talks about the men, the men, the men. It's also framing these women as "delicate, gentle, sensitive creaturess" who are not "manly" or "horsey" or "tomboyish", and they look pretty in crinolines or whatever.

Because their ability to be pretty is all that REALLY counts, especially as they're not those ugly mannish types of women.

Also, there's a sense of "how dare she" in the bits about Christina Granville, as she had many lovers and was also married at the time--I just get this sense the author Highly Disapproves (and also keeps making comment on her many lovers. WE GET IT. SHE HAD SEX A LOT. MOVE ON AND TELL ME ABOUT HER COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS, godamn)

Then, worse, at the end of the chapter on Granville (who was brutally murdered in 1952 by a man who'd been stalking her--or what we'd consider stalking today, he basically was turned down by her and then decided if he couldn't have her, no one could), "Yet it will forever remain a puzzle as to why a woman who had lived with danger for so long, whose antennae were usually so finely tuned, allowed such a threatening situation to develop. She recognised the warning signs of course, but for once only when it was too late. Had life lost its edge for her after so many setbacks?"

(emphasis all me)

GETTING MURDERED WAS ALL HER FAULT. BECAUSE SHE WAS DEPRESSED AND SAD AND DIDN'T NOTICE HER STALKER IN THE SAME BUILDING WITH HER.

Actually, the last paragraph of the chapter is all about her (male) lover, who requested that his ashes be buried along with her. While I'm sure that's sweet, it's just as obnoxious. The chapter should have ended on Granville, who was the SUBJECT of it, not on the dude she had sex with.

(also, invading poland has never been so appropriate, before. Christina was, after all, Polish, and worked undercover in Poland)

Comments

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a terrible book about an amazing subject. I think the hint that she *liked* the danger of being stalked and murdered is vile.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

It is. It's making me more annoyed, the more I think about it.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Lucie Aubrac and Nancy Wake both wrote autobiographies (Aubrac's is better written; Wake's is no-nonsense and quite brutal) if you're wanting to get a better perspective.

[st-aurafina.livejournal.com]

t's also framing these women as "delicate, gentle, sensitive creaturess" who are not "manly" or "horsey" or "tomboyish",

Ugh. So much ugh. Sometimes I want to grab these people, shake them, and scream "Have you ever actually spoken to a woman?"

ETA: Except then I'd have to touch them.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

bwah. But yes. It's a bit like "look at these museum exhibits of women. Don't worry, boys, these women don't really exist!" or something, but with less elegance than that.

[sabaceanbabe.livejournal.com]

Ugh, ugh, UGH!

[ancarett]

Bah! Christ, what an asshole that author was!

Instead of that piece of crap, read these that I used for my chapter on women resistance fighters for "Star Wars and History":
* Sarah Helm. A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII (New York: Nan A. Talese, 2005).
* Nancy Wake. The Autobiography of the Woman the Gestapo called the White Mouse (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1985).

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I have the Vera Atkins book, so I shall read that instead. The Nancy Wake book is only available for reference work in the library. I may have to spend a day there, reading it.

[ancarett]

The Vera Atkins book is much more readable and woman-focused in a good way. The Nancy Wake book is a gripping narrative - she did so much in the late 30s and through the war.

[kathgrr.livejournal.com]

I hate writers like that! It's too bad the writer is so bias, otherwise the subject might have been interesting.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

It is so frustrating, as at times, the writer would actually forget himself and there'd be actual interesting stuff. Then he'd get side-tracked into talking about the men again, or about lovers or whatever, and lose the plot. Bah.