Difficult Woman N°19 Josephine Baker (1906-1975) Who: American born “erotic” dancer, singer, and actress. French Resistance Fighter. Civil Rights Activist. Recipient of the Croix de Guerre, Légion d’Honneur and Rosette of the Résistance. Taught herself French by reading her own press clippings. Animal lover. Signature Difficult Moves: During World War II, snuck encoded information out…
In Praise of Difficult Women
Josephine Baker: Visionary
Janis Joplin: Gutsy
Difficult Woman N°18 Janis Joplin (1943-1970) Who: American Blues singer/”Queen of Rock and Roll.” Fashion icon. Southern Comfort aficionado. Tattoo-getter long before it was trendy. Capricorn on the cusp of Aquarius. Signature Difficult Moves: Ridiculed in high school for her weight and bad complexion, she fled her native Texas for California and Haight-Ashbury where…
Mary Shelley: Impetuous
Difficult Woman N°17 Mary Shelley 1797 – 1851 Who: English novelist, travel writer, and mother of science fiction. Daughter of noted feminist and rabble rouser, Mary Wollstonecraft. Signature Difficult Moves: At sixteen fell in love with one of her father’s students — married, twenty-one year old radical poet Percy Shelley. After declaring their love…
Rosalind Franklin: Secretive
Difficult Woman N°16 Rosalind Franklin 1920 – 1958 Who: English chemist and x-ray crystallographer. Discovered DNA. Victim of research theft, when her colleagues James Watson and Francis Crick (along with Maurice Wilkins) took credit for her breakthrough and went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1962. Signature Difficult Moves: Long before discovering the double…
Martha Gellhorn: Witness
Difficult Woman N°15 Martha Gellhorn (1908 – 1998) Who: One of the first female war correspondents. Also, novelist, travel writer, stylish badass. Signature Difficult Moves: Gellhorn covered virtually every major world war and conflict over the course of her sixty year career. Specialized in rule breaking to get a story such as stowing away…
Betty Ford: Velvet Hammer
Difficult Woman N°14 Betty Ford 1918-2011 Who: First Lady of the United States. Founder and Chairperson of the Betty Ford Center. Classically trained dancer. Cancer survivor. Unwittingly contributed a lot of fodder for stand-ups. (Example: “I used to be a bartender at the Betty Ford Clinic” — Steven Wright) Signature Difficult Moves: Despite being…
Hedy Lamarr: Outside of the Box Thinker
Difficult Woman N° 13 Hedy Lamarr (1914 – 2000) Who: Actress, inventor, legendary beauty. Collaborative inventor of a radio guidance system utilized used during World War II, later the basis for wireless communication technology. (That cell phone you’re reading this on? Thank Hedy!) In 1997, first female recipient of the BULBIE™ Gnass Spirit of…
Hillary Rodham Clinton: Unstoppable
Difficult Woman N°24 Hillary Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) Who: First major party female presidential nominee. Secretary of State. Senator from New York. First Lady of the United States. First Lady of Arkansas. Pantsuit aficionado. Signature Difficult Moves: Upon entering the White House as First Lady in 1993 insisted upon using Rodham as…