Happy International Women's Day

It is International Women's Day today and news outlets have all sorts of article about it. The Huddersfield Daily Examiner has deservedly included Mary Taylor on a list of 'Overlooked Huddersfield women who broke rules and conventions to shape history'.

Mary Taylor (1817 - 1893)
Feminist icon Mary Taylor, the 19th century friend of Charlotte Brontë who lived at Red House in Gomersal.
Strictly speaking, Mary Taylor was not originally from Huddersfield, but from Gomersal. However, none of the women featured in this story played by the rules, so neither are we.
Mary was born into a humble yet well-educated family and went to Roe Head School in Mirfield, where she met lifelong friend Charlotte Brontë. Charlotte would later go on to draw inspiration from Mary for the character Rose Yorke in her novel Shirley. Tragedy struck Mary's life aged just 23 when her father died. This would be the point where most women would be resigned to finding a man to marry in order to be able to keep a roof over their heads, but Mary wasn't most women. Instead, she took herself off travelling around Europe teaching young men in order to earn some dollar, then moved to New Zealand. Charlotte Brontë sent Mary £10 to buy a cow, and from this she built up her own business alongside her cousin Ellen. Despite Ellen's tragic death from tuberculosis in 1851, Mary continued to make a success of the drapery business, returning to Yorkshire a financially-secure independent woman.
Later, aged 60, Mary led a party of five women on an expedition up Mont Blanc, with the group writing and publishing an account of their ten-week adventure. Because in the words of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Ain't No Mountain High Enough. (Susie Beever)

She famously (and privately) accused her friend Charlotte Brontë of being 'a coward & a traitor' after reading some extracts from Shirley.

Mundo Obrero (Spain) recommends 'Jaen' Eyre (this won't be the last misspelling you'll see today) as a novel for the day.

‘Jaen Eyre’,
Charlotte Brontë
Traducción de Carmen Martín Gaite.
(Alba Editorial, 2016)
“Nadie puede calcular cuántas rebeliones, dejando aparte las políticas, fermentan entre el amasijo de seres vivos que pueblan la tierra. Se da por supuesto que las mujeres son más tranquilas en general, pero ellas sienten lo mismo que los hombres; necesitan ejercitar y poner a prueba sus facultades, en un campo de acción tan preciso para ellas como para sus hermanos. No pueden soportar represiones demasiado severas ni un estancamiento absoluto, igual que les pasa a ellos.” Al habla a través de los siglos Jane Eyre, de quien apenas habría nada que añadir, institutriz de la hija del señor Rochester, mujer inteligente e independiente con principios y finales de capítulos no necesariamente felices. Antes de firmar como Charlotte Brontë y perpetuar el apellido de las hermanas más reeditadas, esta novela sobre la educación sentimental de la protagonista y de su época que contiene, en palabras de Adrienne Rich, el primer manifiesto feminista integrado en una ficción, optó por presentarse en su portada con un seudónimo de corte masculino que hoy podría sonar queer, Currer Bell. Corría el año 1847. (Natalia Carrero) (Translation)

A contributor to Bustle has compiled a list of '6 Black British Women I Saw Myself In Growing Up, Because Representation Is Important AF' because

Jane Eyre's Bertha Mason, "the mad woman in the attic" wasn't exactly how I wanted to be seen. (Lollie King)

Now to Love and Times of India include quotes by Charlotte Brontë on their lists of feminist quotes. The News (Pakistan) lists Jane Eyre among 'The 25 best books by women'. SoloLibri (Italy) recommends giving it as a present today. GQ (Spain) discusses why it will never go out of style.

Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka) misunderstands Charlotte Brontë and misspells Jane Eyre.

Do rights come in groups? We shouldn’t have ‘MEN’S’ rights, WOMEN’S rights? Or does it come as individuals, and it would be behaviour that would matter, not what person fits in to what group. ‘I am neither a man nor a woman but an author’- says Charlotte Bronte –[Author of ‘Jane Ayer’]  (K.K.S. Perera)

Literary Hub discusses 'the archetypes of the captivity narrative' and lists some books connected to the subject, including

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
A horror story of race, gender, and class, this reimagining of the madwoman in the attic (of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre) takes place well before the events of Jane Eyre. More than just the backstory of Mr. Rochester’s first wife, the novel tells the story of who she was before she became the madwoman. By the novel’s end, the reader understands she is not a madwoman but a sane woman driven out of her mind. (Aimee Parkison)

Stylist has an article on how reading can keep you sane (which is true).

It’s that moment when you sink into the seat on the train home from a stressful day at work, relieved to lose yourself in a Kate Atkinson bestseller for 20 minutes. It’s easing yourself under your duvet at bedtime, prising open Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith, desperate to discover Sue Trinder’s fate. It’s those two minutes snatched with Jane Eyre while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil. (Christina Quaine)

À voir à lire (France) recommends a gothic kind of comic: Dans la forêt des lilas by Nathalie Ferlut and Tamia Baudouin.

Dans un splendide écrin qui rappelle des gravures romantiques, les influences de Keats et Brontë, sans oublier l’incontournable Caroll semblent avoir donné vie à Faith. Entre fille et femme, tragédie et comédie, cette héroïne qui voudrait tout fuir matériellement, est condamnée à errer dans l’irréel, jusqu’au plus profond de son être. (Baptiste Lépine) (Translation)

The Mancunion reviews the film The Runaways, screened at the 5th Manchester Film Festival .

The Runaways tells the story of three siblings from Whitby who are on the run with two donkeys. Firstly, it’s about time someone immortalised Whitby properly, and there’s some talented directing here to do it. Hazy Yorkshire fields, jet-black harbour at night, heathery swathes of moor, the gleaming cobbles of Whitby streets. There’s also a fantastically Gothic tone that pays homage, intentionally or not, to Yorkshire’s own bards. The children’s alcoholic mother I found genuinely unsettling, almost Brontë-esque, not an easy feat considering such a well-trod role. Blythe, the ex-con uncle pursuing the children, limps around the streets like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, straight out of Full Sutton. (Izzy Sharp)

On Metrosource, 'A Gay Man Explains Why He’d Rather Talk to Customers than His Family'.

My mother, an avid reader, began building a library for me at the age of five or so. This largely centered on stories about orphans. Perhaps this was because I was adopted. Maybe she wanted to be glad I was spared the life of David Copperfield, Oliver Twist or Jane Eyre. Of course, my favorite of them was Patrick Dennis. Who wouldn’t want Auntie Mame as their gay-child fantasy mother? (Sebastian Fortino)

Atlas Obscura has an article on Ponden Hall being for sale. Traveler (Spain) has an article on pseudonyms.