Tag Archives: kickass women

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Kickass Woman: Khutulun

Every month I write an article for Smart Women, Trashy Books about kicks women in history and link to it here.  This month I’m featuring Khutulun – military leader, archer, soldier, and champion wrestler.

Khutulun served as her father’s military leader and took part in combat, taking many prisoners.  According to Marco Polo:

“[She would] make a dash at the host of the enemy, and seize a some man thereout, as deftly as a hawk punches on a bird, and carry him to her father; and this she did many a time.”

She’s most famous for being an unbeatable wrestler.  She refused to marry any man who she could defeat in a match until finally she fell in love with one of her father’s soldiers.  Khutulun continued to lead the army after her father died.

Head over to Smart Bitches to find out more about this amazing woman!  For more warrior women, I highly recommend the book Secret History of the Mongol Queens, by Jack Weatherford.  You can read my full-length review of the book here.

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Kickass Women in History: Annie Londonderry

AnnielondonderryAs many of you know, I’ve recently started a project at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books called “Kickass Women in History”.  This month, I write about Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, also known as Annie Londonderry.

Annie Londonderry was the first woman to bicycle around the world.  She did, of course, take the occasionally boat ride.  Her detractors claimed that she carried her bike more than she rode it.  Be that as it may, she made it around the world in fifteen months, and went on to be a reporter, stating,

“I am a journalist and ‘a new woman’ if that term means that I believe I can do anything that any man can do.“

For more about Annie and how cycling changed the world for women, check out my post at this link!

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History’s Hidden Heroes: format change

TaipingRebellion.com-rebelsHello my lovely Geek Girls, Guys, and People Who Identify as Intersex or Other-Wise Non-Binary.  We have a format change here on Geek Girl in Love because to my great delight the amazing Sarah Wendell at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has asked me to write a monthly column for her about real-life women in history.

The only problem with this delightful development is that I don’t actually have time, in between reviewing shows and books and raising my kid and trying to round up freelance projects, to write multiple columns a month on amazing people in history, much as I’d like to.  So once a month I’ll be sharing a link to Kickass Women of History at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.

This month’s Kickass Woman is Su Sanniang.  She was a Robin Hood style bandit who became a general during the Taiping Rebellion.  She was said to have “powerful arms and the air of a hero.”   My kind of woman!  Click on the link above to learn more about her, or go to smartbitchestrashybooks.com.