Sheilas: Badass Women of Australian History
Author(s): Eliza Reilly
An entertaining romp through Australian history that celebrates the badass sheroes we were never taught about in school and who deserve to be printed on our money, goddamn it! It's been said that 'well-behaved women seldom make history', but the handful of white boys who wrote our history books conveniently left most of them out. Whoops! To rectify this situation, Eliza Reilly is setting out to revive the forgotten stories of the badass Sheilas of Australian history. Chain yourself to pub counters with the determined Merle Thornton, fight for Indigenous rights alongside Faith Bandler, and lure forlorn sailors with swimmer-slash-mermaid Annette Kellerman. Deceive cranky soldiers with bushranger Mary Ann Bugg, infiltrate Nazi strongholds on the back of Nancy Wake's bike - and much, much more. Cracking with satirical wit and whole-hearted admiration, Sheilas is a cheeky, funny, inspirational celebration of the tough-titted ladies who hiked up their petticoats and fly-kicked down the doors of opportunity for modern Australia. Praise for Sheilas 'A welcome and witty contribution towards redressing the balance - a must-read.' - Noni Hazlehurst 'If Kathy Lette and Monty Python had a love child, that freak would be Eliza Reilly. Lush, loose and liberated from academic orthodoxy, Reilly has the labia majoras to ask the simple but earth-quaking question: what were the women doing? As it happens: Plenty! Sheilas is a glorious romp through the Australian history you didn't learn at school. Funny and fearless, this is the book you'll want your daughters to read and your sons to worship.' - Clare Wright
Product Information
Once a blokey, patronising way of referring to a woman or girl, ‘‘ sheila’ ’ has been gleefully reclaimed by comedian and writer Eliza Reilly to describe women throughout our history who have refused to play nice. But going their own way came at a price, as all the women featured in this book discovered. Despite her robberies and heists, Indigenous bushranger Mary-Ann Bugg was sidelined as Captain Thunderbolt’s ‘‘ paramour’’ , even after she heroically busted him out of the notorious Cockatoo Island jail. Then there’s Rosaleen Norton, artist and witch, whose sexually confronting work was destroyed by order of the Crown. Deborah Lawrie was told she couldn’t be a commercial pilot because her periods would make her ‘‘ act strangely’ ’ but she took on Reg Ansett and won. Australian history has never been so much fun and patriarchy never looked so dumb.
The Age 11 March 2022
General Fields
- :
- : Pan Macmillan Australia
- : Macmillan Australia
- : 0.3
- : 01 February 2022
- : books
Special Fields
- : 305.420994
- : English
- : Hardback
- : Eliza Reilly