8/8 In 2002, she died at 85 due to complications from colon cancer, and as such, never saw Rhea Perlman’s portrayal of her in the 2024 Barbie movie.
@izoldat.bsky.social
7/8 manufactured a more realistic version of a woman’s breast called Nearly Me, aiming to boost women’s confidence regardless of their health. The invention became quite popular; first lady Betty Ford was fitted for one after a mastectomy.
6/8 in naming the Ken doll. His profession was “boyfriend.”
In the 1970s, Ruth was diagnosed with breast cancer and found the available prostheses to be suboptimal. With the help of new business partner Peyton Massey she founded a new company, Ruthton Corp. She
5/8 prior, the only dolls available for girls were babies, to groom them for their main role in life: motherhood.
Barbie became an icon for girls to role play with their dolls as a woman in (eventually) 125 different non-mother professions.
Ken, her son, was immortalized shortly after,
4/8 Children started playing with them and Handler imported the idea to the USA, and with Jack Ryan (inventor/designer; not action hero) redesigned the concept into the first Barbie doll, named for Handler’s daughter. Launched in 1959 at Toy Fair in New York City, the doll was an instant hit, as…
3/8 In 1956, after noticing how much her daughter Barbara and friends loved playing with paper dolls, she traveled to Switzerland (or Austria, depending on source) and noticed an adult woman doll “Bild Lilli,” marketed to adults, modeled after a satirical comic strip.
2/8 They shifted to doll furniture, and brought in business executive Harold “Matt” Matson. “Matt” and “Elliott” formed the name “Mattel,” claiming it would have been hard to fit “Ruth” into the name.
Mmm-hmmm…
Ruth was president of Mattel from 1945-1975.
1/8
#WomensHistory #23
Ruth Handler 1916-2002
Creator of the #Barbie doll.
Handler (née Mosko) was the youngest of 10, and grew up in her sister’s drug store/soda fountain until age 19. With a mind for business, she&artist husband Elliot formed a company making furniture of Lucite and Plexiglass.
4/4 for equal rights for both African Americans and women, especially the right of suffrage.
In 1920, she would finally become eligible to vote in the USA, had she not died 18 years earlier.
3/4 a central tenet of the women’s movement. She was also active in other social reform activities, especially abolitionism.
After the Civil war, Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were the main organizers of the American Equal Rights Association, which campaigned…
2/4 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, the first convention to be called for the sole purpose of discussing women’s rights, and was the primary author of its Declaration of Sentiments.
Her demand for women’s right to vote generated a controversy at the convention but quickly became…
1/4 “The best protection any woman can have…is courage.”
Women’s History #21
[wikipedia] Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) American writer and activist who was a leader of the women’s rights movement in the U.S. during the mid- to late-19th century. She was the main force behind the…
3/3 “When she stopped conforming to the conventional picture of femininity, she finally began to enjoy being a woman.”
― Betty Friedan
2/3 …sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century. In 1966, Friedan co-founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men."
1/3 “No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor. ”
― Betty Friedan
Women’s History #20
Betty Friedan 1921-2006 was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book “The Feminine Mystique” is often credited with…
For old times’ sake, we should hold the trials in Nuremberg.
"Seemed."
I know it's a lot of words to sift through, but they all have meanings. ;)
“But if I can’t have perfect, the next best thing is burning it all to the ground!” (Some people seemed to say)
3/3 the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology".
2/3 Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, Franklin's contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognised during her life, for which Franklin has been variously referred to as…
1/3 Women’s History #19
Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer. Her work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal, and graphite.
My guess would be the heavily trafficked ones get overwhelmed so they build more.
But we could always use a few more libraries. Especially ones without masturbating homeless dudes.
9/9 * Although it is no longer March, @izoldat.bsky.social suggested “Women’s History can be celebrated all year.” So I’ll probably make 30 or so of these.
8/9 “ Although critics generally denounced her racy plays, West got the last laugh. Her legacy as a pioneer for gay rights and feminism, a woman who dared to stretch the boundaries of conventional sexual mores, lives on.”
___________________
7/9 “ In 1932, Paramount offered West a contract, and as she transitioned to film she eventually stopped writing plays. However, she channeled her writing abilities into screenwriting: she wrote nine of the thirteen films in which she starred.
6/9 West was undeterred—her plays were commercial successes, so she continued to write. Her 1928 smash hit, the raunchy “Diamond Lil,” launched her into stardom and earned her the attention of Hollywood.
5/9 widely condemned. Censorship also hindered her attempts to establish herself as a provocative playwright; her plays were often shut down; “Sex,” her 1926 debut, which she authored as Jane Mast, earned her a jail sentence for “indecency” and “[corrupting] the morals of youth.”
4/9 writing sparkles with traces of her sharp wit and her strong command of language—the double entendre was her favorite literary device. However sharp and skilled her writing was, most critics could not get past subject material such as prostitution and homosexuality, and so she was…
3/9 she won meatier roles on Broadway. As she began to earn a more established name on the stage, she also began to write plays. West had always loved to write, and she was especially proud of her skill. Though it is unclear whether she ever had a formal education, her…
2/9 conventional mores regarding homosexuality and female sexuality—even in the ‘libertine’ Jazz Age.
“ Born in Brooklyn, New York, West dove almost instantly into show business. By age fourteen, she was a well-known vaudevillian under the stage name Baby Mae. At 18, her career blossomed and…
