Rrrrrrrrrrrrr-- She Be A Woman, Matey

Robotnik asked if I would do a post about International Talk Like A Pirate Day, and on doing a teeny bit of research, I saw that there is, indeed a day of that glorious nature. But it's not till September 19, so a post on it today would be a bit premature.

But in the midst of that search, I saw a cool "action figure" of Anne Bonney, legendary female pirate and therefore instant feminist icon. So I thought to myself "Self.... write something on women pirates" and then there was a long dialog with said self about how I really should do something more productive, of which the procrastinate-y self won out (as usual.) So putting my skills as an English major to use, I came up with the following post.

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Anne Bonny & Mary Reed
Apparently, it was not as unusual during the 18th century as we might think for women to cross-dress and go to sea, as Ann Bonney and Mary Reed, her co-pirate at arms, did. I remember in what I thought was a great movie, Pirates of the Caribbean with Johnny Depp (as a cross between Pepe le Pew & Keith Richards), there is a scene where the black woman pirate (Zoe Saldana) is at first somewhat shunned as a member of the crew, but eventually wins over the ship and proves to be one of the best pirates on board. Then there was the movie with Gina Davis (Cutthroat Island) a few years ago-- which I never actually saw, but remember meaning to see (mental note to rent that movie). Female pirates are interesting-- they cross this line between the ultra masculine, ultra seedy, dirty, cursing scoundrel and the so-called "feminine ideal" of the pure woman dressed in clean floral prints and fanning herself with exertion. But perhaps that "ideal" is something of a later time period-- according to some critics, it really only came about in the 19th century. The idea of the fainting flower of a woman is a much later invention than we might admit.

According to Marcus Rediker,

Women had long gone to sea, and in many capacities--as passengers, servants, wives, prostitutes, laundresses, cooks, and occasionally as sailors, serving aboard naval, merchant, whaling, privateering, and pirate vessels. They also made their way into armies. An anonymous writer insisted in 1762 that there were so many women in the British army that they deserved their own separate battalions, not unlike the women warriors who fought for the African kingdom of Dahomey during the same period.*

Both Bonny and Reed were born illegitimate, and both raised as boys in order to allow for more freedom and to possibly escape from the poverty that would face them in the other more common kinds of lives they could choose. They were both "discovered" to be women pirates when, after having been arrested as part of "Calico Jack Rackam's" pirate crew, the two pleaded "pleaded their Bellies, being Quick with Child, and pray'd that Execution might be staid."

Dorothy Thomas, one of the witnesses against Bonny, said in court that the women: "wore Mens Jackets, and long Trouzers, and Handkerchiefs tied about their Heads, and that each of them had a Machet[e] and Pistol in their Hands." (So the above action figure is a pretty accurate rendition of that image). They also "cursed and swore at the Men" and "were both very profligate, cursing, and swearing much, and very ready and willing to do any Thing on board."

As a little girl, I was very attracted to the idea of a pirate. The reality, I'm sure, was grubby, dangerous and uncomfortable. But the heroic myth persists: going anywhere you wanted, of obeying a law unto oneself, of sailing to exotic places when most stayed in a small village most of their lives. Being free to fight, and curse, and dress in comfortable clothes, and make a fortune on your own merits, just like the man at your side. When you're a little girl being told that you are not allowed to do something "because you're a girl" or that the standards are different, and you're a stubborn girl who doesn't feel any different, and if different, feels superior to the little boys she could wrassle to the floor and whup-- well, there's pirates. And if there are pirates, there are other things, too, that girls could do as well as some men.

All of this is just to say "Pirates are Cool." And female pirates are even cooler because they defied even more rules. It might not be a big deal for a boy to "try his fortune" at sea, but for a girl, there were so many more dangers that a woman who made herself a success was truly admirable. There are 42,700 hits for Anne Bonny on google. There are musicals, plays, books, movies, murder-mystery events devoted to her. While Reed apparently died in jail (perhaps of tyhpus) Bonney seems to have "disappeared." Perhaps she went back to her life as a woman and raised her child in "normal" society.

Andrew has a dream of perhaps one day owning a boat large enough to live on for extended periods of time. Sailing around the Med, stopping in to shore to perhaps teach a semester at some overseas university (me) while he trails around dragging our kids to museums and stuff. There is a definite appeal to that idea. I can picture it, and it does not sound like it would suck (most of the time.) So perhaps one day, you'll see us pull up with this flag flying, and the voice of Maia or Sean yelling out "prepare to be boarded, ye' scalawags".

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*Source: Rediker, Marcus. "When Women Pirates Sailed the Seas." Wilson Quarterly;17:4 (1993)102-111.