Jasmine Plummer is an eleven year-old from Illinois.
What makes her so cool is that as quarterback, she will be leading the Harvey Colts into the national Pop Warner tournament (Junior Pee Wee league) in Florida next week. She is the team leader, a national youth wrestling champion, a youth track star and an honor student.
She is also the only female to play quarterback in the 56 years this tournament has existed.
The photo has been changed since the original posting of this because now I was able to find one of Jasmine. When the story was first released, there were no papers online posting her photo. So, now y'all can see what the quarterback really looks like.
The crowd is whistling and shouting. You're sitting astride a wild mustang, straps in hand, hat perched on your head. They open the gates, and off you go! You're a cowgirl in the old west.
There was a time when cowboys and cowgirls did rodeos side by side, Annie Oakley's, and Buffalo Bill Cody's doing tricks, roping, barrel racing, and bronc riding together.
In the 1800's women rode cattle drives with men as well. We all hear of Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, Daniel Boone, but what of the women of the wild west? Such as Charlie Parkhurst, a man who was a woman. Charlie spent most of her life driving stagecoaches, defending her passengers, and baggage with gun in hand. When rheumatism crippled her she spent the rest of her days raising cattle, and then chickens.
And 52 years before the 19th ammendment Charlie was the first woman to cast a vote.
Margeret Borland, who after being widowed three times, losing several children and grandchildren to yellow fever, took charge of her husband's estate. She owned 10,000 cattle, and is thought to be the only woman to have ever led a cattle drive in that time.
Pearl Hart, the first known woman stage coach bandit. After being apprehended she was quoted as saying she "would never consent to be tried under a law she or her sex had no voice in making, or to which a woman had no power under the law to give her consent." 1
Or the most notable, Annie Oakley, who's incredible markmanship has yet to be matched. Even after the accident that nearly paralyzed her, her aim was impecable. "At 90 feet Annie could shoot a dime tossed in midair. In one day with a .22 rifle she shot 4,472 of 5,000 glass balls tossed in midair. With the thin edge of a playing card facing her at 90 feet, Annie could hit the card and puncture it with with five or six more shots as it settled to the ground."2 Immortalized in the musical "Annie get your gun" she has lived on as a heroine of the old west.
These women and many others had the courage to be pioneers of the harsh wilderness. Taking charge of the homestead, riding on cattle drives, carrying on when their husbands died of disease, or were killed in a time when it wasn't believed a woman was capable of much more than bearing children, and keeping house. Heroines in the truest sense.
Sources:
1: http://www.outlawscribe.com/Pearl_Bywater.html
2: http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/oakl-ann.htm
http://www.over-land.com/westpers2.html
Laila Ali holds three titles:
The International World Boxing Federation Super Middle Weight Champ, The International Boxing Association Super Middle Weight Champ, and
The Womens International Boxing Association Super Middle Weight Champ. Though she may be best known for being the daughter of Muhammad Ali, she clearly holds her own in the ring. Athough she only began boxing in 1999, she has an amazing record of15 wins, 0 losses.
Ali, born in 1977, earned a degree in business before deciding to become a professional boxer. She has already won recognition in over 20 major publications.
This just goes to show that athletic women are not relegated to non-contact sports.
June 18, 2003In the darkness of Medeival Europe, women were highly limited. It was the period of the Inquistion, the destruction of Greek and Roman art, literature, and philosophy. Theatre was limited to Quem Quertis, biblical plays first held in the church, and then Corpus Christi plays in wagons around certain towns in England. The only form of non-religious theatre was in Italy, the Commedia dell'arte. It was the only theatre that included women. It was performed in troupes which traveled about from city to city. Their reputations preceeded them. They were known as beggars, thieves, and whores. They were loved and despised. They entertained, they lived freely, they were persecuted, and misjudged. If you haven't guessed, they were most commonly called gypsies. In a period where a woman's choices were limited to being a wife, a courtesan, or a whore (or on the rare occasion, a warrior), traveling with a Commedia dell'arte troupe was a blessed freedom. They had to use their wits. They seduced men behind the wagons, where other gypsies would rob them. They danced, and sang, and best of all some fifty to a hundred years before it would be permitted for a woman to perform on a stage, they acted.
This is a tribute, a thanks, a moment of humble recognition(for lack of any stronger words) to women who weren't afraid to do whatever it took to live their lives as they wished.
March 17, 2003Freud's theory of development, a psychosexual theory, has been the most widely taught, and recognized theory in recent history. The theory, like many of its day, focuses on male development, and accepts that findings with male subjects apply to female patients as well.
Karen Horney, a psychoanalytic theorist, was the first person to offer a feminist based criticism of Freud's theory. Karen "developed a model of women with positive feminine qualities and self-evaluation. Her critique of Freud's theory included reference to a male-dominant society and culture." (John W. Santrock, Life Span Development). Karen was a revolutionary of psychoanalytic theory, and presented an enlightening view of women. Especially in today's changing view of gender roles, and society.
"Psychoanalysis can free a human being who has been tied hands and feet. It cannot give him new arms or legs. Psychoanalysis, however, has shown us that much that we have regarded as constitutional merely represents a blockage of growth, a blockage which can be lifted."
For more on Karen Horney and her work, visit http://www.karenhorneycenter.org/
Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama January 7th, 1891. A year or so later her family moved to Eatonville, Florida. The first all black town in the US. The community of Eatonville had a great influence on her life and writing. She spent most of her life, from a very young age, traveling, studying, and living life. Zora portrayed women as she portrayed all people, as they truly are. No smoothing over the wrinkles, and no sweeping things under the rug. So women who were weak and stupid were portrayed as such, but women who were strong and intelligent were given the same treatment. One of her best loved characters, Janie, is just this type of woman, from her most well known novel, 'Their eyes were watching God'. Zora also wrote during an era where women writers were not given much credit, and she was known to use the pseudonym "Neale Hurs". Being a black woman during that time certainly made things more difficult. She was very involved in the Harlem Rennaissance, known for her cocked hat, and shocking habit of smoking in public, Zora made friends with such notable people as Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, and Jessie Fauset.
"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.
Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.
So the beginning of this was a woman and she had come back from burying the dead."
Zora Neale Hurston's works are brilliant glimpses into the mind of a woman who lived life for what it was, who wanted nothing more than to have "...a busy life, a just mind and a timely death.". She lived as she wrote, to the fullest. She wasn't just a writer, but also an anthropoligist who brought to light the folklore, and culture of nations that before her there had been little study of. She brought new, exciting views of the world through her poetic words, and is a shining example of what it is to be a woman. Intelligent, driven, and confident.
Mini-bio:
Charlotte Bronte grew up the daughter of a poor Irish immigrant. Her father joined the church to escape total poverty, and
was excepted into the nobility as a result of it. She was still treated poorly by her schoolmates however. Charlotte and her
two sisters, Emily and Anne, led quiet, secluded lives. Their lives were far from dull though, each sister possessed a
brilliant imagination. They wrote poetry together, "Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell" (1846), and many other works seperately.
She had brains:
Charlotte wrote the controversial (for her time) novel "Jane Eyre", the story of a young orphan who struggles through life
pursuing that ever elusive happiness. Charlotte believed everyone deserved happiness, and in her novel openly attacked the
Victorian idea that suffering made one more loved by and acceptable to God; That it wasn't too much to want to have a job
one enjoyed that earned one enough money to live. She also created a fiercely independent, witty, and resourceful female
character who gets by in life without anyone's help, much less a man's. This idea was unheard of, since a woman was
practically owned from birth to death, passing from father to husband, or finding herself on the streets. Even prostitutes
depended on the money and patronage of men to live. There were very few jobs then that were accessible to an independent
woman. "Jane Eyre" has been hailed as a feminist tract by some, passed off as a simple romance, and praised for the heroines
determination to survive. Whatever it may be, it's an empowering story for women everywhere.