Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World

I knew from [b:California Dreamin'|26617460|California Dreamin'|Pénélope Bagieu|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442482259s/26617460.jpg|46654650] that Bagieu is a master of long-form biography, and now I know she is just as adept in the short form, hitting the high points of a person's life in a lively style that draws you along entry after entry through this anthology. My biggest pleasure was seeing how she would choose to illustrate a theme or high point from each person's life in the brilliant two-page portraits that followed each story. I love the diversity of the subjects and how Bagieu doesn't just depend on the usual suspects for her biographical sketches, teaching me about a lot of people I had not heard of but who deserve show more my attention and respect. show less

BRAZEN is an amazing and enlightening book, encompassing history, art, music, literature, sexual challenges, and beyond!

It opens with The Bearded Lady and moves through The Wizard of Oz and Nellie Bly to Dr. Mae Jemison with Non-Fiction
biographies in bold CAPS at the top and fiction accounts below.

Penelope Bagieu's cartooning expands and enhances the fun and understanding in ALL directions
and her artwork, notably for NZINGA, totally captures each of the women, their courage (often at an early age!),
love, accomplishments, and messages.

Hedy Lamar was the most welcome surprise and Temple Grandin, who supports animal experimentation
despite her cattle whispering, the least.

It also would have made President Obama's legacy stronger if he had show more come through for Lawyer Jesselyn Radack.

My daughter and I hope the next volume comes out soon.

It would be good to see Mildred Fish Harnack, Wisconsin Justice Shirley Abrahamson, and, for fun,
the statue of Forward with the Badger on her head that stands above the Wisconsin State Capitol. show less

Indomite è un gioiellino. 30 racconti di donne che hanno lottato per affermarsi e per trovare il loro posto.
Le storie spaziano nel tempo e in tutto il mondo, ci sono sportive, attiviste, attrici, cantanti, donne più o meno famose, ci sono storie di (apparentemente) piccole e grandi conquiste, tutte accumunate dall'impegno e dalla forza nel perseguire un ideale.
La Bagieu ha la capacità di raccontare con estrema sintesi e leggerezza qualunque cosa: le storie hanno pochissimi dialoghi e una scelta dei colori molto mirata, volta a dare un ritmo e a focalizzare l'attenzione su alcuni aspetti, dando a tutto iìun ritmo incalzante e sottolineando, non senza una leggera ironia, differenti aspetti del racconto.
Una cosa che ho apprezzato show more molto (e che probabilmente deriva dal fatto che la raccolta è stata da principio pubblicata su un blog) è anche la presenza di un format sempre uguale ma sempre diverso: ritratto della donna, svolgimento della storia e tavola a doppia pagina riassuntiva, solitamente bellissima e molto evocativa.
Un libro forse da gustare e da tenere lì, più che cominciarlo e finirlo: una piccola coccola da farsi quando ci si sente non all'altezza di noi stess* o non al posto giusto. show less

There are dozens of books dedicated to women (well-known and less so) who defined their field and couldn’t care less about what society and established norms had dictated for them. Many of these books are successful, others are a bit problematic. Allow me to say that Brazen by Pénélope Bagieu is probably the best I’ve read.

Including widely diverge choices, Bagieu gives voice to women from every continent and presents their lives’ work through a carefully crafted and extremely successful combination of humor, feistiness, sassiness and absolute respect. She is meticulous in her approach - she even includes thirty more rebel ladies as honourable mentions- and her illustrations are absolutely beautiful. Without further ado, let us show more meet women who refused to conform and became pioneers and idols in their fields.

Clémentine Delait from France: The Bearded Lady who rocked the world.

Nzinga from Ndongo (present-day Angola) and Matamba: Fierce enough to kill a few men who just didn’t get her ideas of equality and social justice.

Margaret Hamilton from the USA: The Witch of Oz. Enough said.

Las Mariposas. Patria, Minerva and Maria Theresa Mirabal from the Dominican Republic: Three sisters who resisted Trujillo, the tyrant of the Dominican Republic, and gave a powerful boost to the fight for freedom.

Josephina Van Gorkum from the Netherlands: A woman who didn’t succumb to the frivolous fights of different religious dogmas, her only religion being love.

Lozen, an Apache warrior and shaman: Fierce and loyal to her people’s principles.

Annette Kellerman from Australia: The woman who changed swimming and liberated the world from ‘’swimsuits’’ that were actually cages.

Delia Akeley from the USA: The first woman to cross the African Continent.

Josephine Baker from the USA: French Resistance Fighter, artist, philanthropist and all-around legend.
Tove Jansson from Finland: The mother of the Moomins and a brilliant artist and activist.

Agnodice from Greece: The first female gynecologist who showed the men in Athens how the job is actually done.

Leymah Gbowee from Liberia: A tireless activist who has been fighting against domestic violence. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.

Giorgina Reid from the USA: The woman who saved the Montauk Point Lighthouse.

Christine Jorgensen from the USA: The first person to become widely known in the States for having sex reassignment surgery. She became an actress and a legend for LGBTQ+ rights.

Wu Zetian from China: A legendary empress who put a stop to the ‘’rights’’ of the corrupted aristocracy and provided equality and justice to her people. Ferocious and stormy.

Temple Grandin from the USA: Animal whisperer and one of the first who drew attention to the various aspects of autism, free from taboos and prejudices.

Sonita Alizadeh from Afghanistan: A young woman who uses music as a medium to speak of the injustices that have been plaguing her homeland, to speak against being sold as a ‘’bride’’, against a society that lives in its own dirty bubble.
Cheryl Bridges from the USA: The woman who defied every stereotype in the world of athletics and became the first woman to finish a marathon in under 2h 50min.

Thérése Clerc from France: An activist for women’s rights and dignity in old age.

Betty Davis from the USA: An artist who wasn’t afraid to honour sexuality and liberation.

Nellie Bly from the USA: An investigative journalist, war correspondent, explorer, etc. A pioneer in her field.

The Shaggs from the USA: Reluctant rock artists and extremely brave girls.

Katia Krafft from France: Volcanologist, explorer, scientist.

Jesselyn Radack from the USA: The lawyer who exposed Bush and his sequence of terrible lies following 9/11

Hedy Lamarr from Austria: Inventor, multi-linguist, fighter against fascism, legendary actress.

Naziq Al- Abid from Syria: An activist born in a privileged family that never forgot her roots. She fought against the Ottomans and the French conquerors. She campaigned for women’s right to vote and the publication of feminist authors.

Frances Glessner Lee from the USA: Her miniatures changed Forensic Science forever.

Mae Jemison from the USA: The first black woman in space. Defying racial prejudices, she collected degrees and changed the perceptions towards environmental studies.

Peggy Guggenheim from the USA: The patron goddess of Modern Art.

It just doesn’t get any better than that! show less

I'm sure it's partially due to having a really tough week, but I got so emotional reading this book. There were several points throughout reading this today that I got choked up...I was so overwhelmed by the successes of these women, the obstacles they faced, their brains, their panache, their feistiness. I really enjoyed Exquisite Corpse and California Dreamin', and after this, I am so solidly in Camp Bagieu, I need to track down all her work even if I can barely read it because it was never translated from the original French.

To be sure, these are broad portraits of complex women, but I dare anyone to read this and walk away without having their curiosity burning hot. I seriously want to read biographies of every woman featured here show more now. The way she presents them gives you just enough information to get hooked. This is exactly what I wanted Ann Shen's [b: Bad Girls Throughout History: 100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World|28645694|Bad Girls Throughout History 100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World|Ann Shen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1490070383s/28645694.jpg|48832506] to be, but never got. This is an incredibly inclusive representation--old and young, the gamut of professions, LGBTQ, ancient history and more recent...you name it. Bagieu, even in these short bios, provided new information about the women I already was familiar with, and introduced me to many more that I may have never heard of otherwise. That list of 30 more women at the end better mean she'll be publishing a Part 2. I have a strong feeling I'll be buying this when it comes out in March.

Many thanks to First Second and Net Galley for the advanced copy of this wonderful collection. show less

This was just a wonderful collection of mini biographies in comic form. This book is just delightful, informative, interesting, funny, inspiring, and absolutely worth getting your hands on.

It's full of short biographical comics of 29 women both in history and present day who weren't satisfied to behave like others thought they should. Some of the women were familiar to me but most were not. All of the stories were fascinating and well portrayed by the author/artist.

I loved that it was such a variety of women from different time periods, cultures, and locations. Some of these women made their mark as young women and others much later in their lives. My favorite was about Cheryl Bridges who was a pioneering female runner. I loved how it show more casually mentioned her daughter Shalane without even mentioning Shalane's last name (Flanagan as in Olympic medalist and NYC Marathon winner).

The artwork is wonderful and I loved that the author included her own biography at the end. show less

In this graphic novel, Bagieu writes about the lives of a little over 29 women. One of the things I really appreciated about this book was that the women chosen weren't the usual ones - I knew of a few of them, like Margaret Hamilton, Temple Grandin, and Josephine Baker, but quite a few of them were new to me.

If there was any sort of organization to this volume, I didn't see it, but thankfully that didn't turn out to be an issue. For the most part, I loved this graphic novel, which provided enough info about each of the women to give me an idea of whether I might want to look up more about them. You could tell that Bagieu was glossing over certain bits and/or playing certain aspects up (I'm pretty sure that was The IT Crowd's Moss show more making a guest appearance in Jesselyn Radack's section) - there's only so much detail you can include in a 291-page graphic novel about this many women - but I generally enjoyed her story-telling style. The chapter on Sonita Alizadeh prompted me to look up one of her music videos. Also, the miniature lover in me needs to see if I can find more stuff about Frances Glessner Lee and her crime scene "nutshell studies."

The one chapter that felt out of place was the one devoted to The Shaggs. Their father forced them to perform and record an album, despite the fact that they knew they weren't very good and none of them wanted to. Their father had so much control over their lives that they didn't have friends, and none of them were truly free until he finally died. When their music suddenly got attention again, it wasn't because they wanted it to - only one of the sisters had any interest in trying to continue her musical career.

Except for that one odd chapter, this was an extremely enjoyable and informative work, enough that I plan to seek out more of Bagieu's stuff.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less