Today’s History is my column pulling current events and relating them to items that have happened 400 years ago.
Here we are, getting ready for the Oppenheimer/Barbie double-feature we all could use as a balm from all of the crap going on in the world.
Recently, I heard about the comments by Piers Morgan where he is angry that the new Barbie movie does not revolve around Ken. Many people have come out in response about the fact that it’s a child’s toy and one that was made to be an icon of allowing women to be anything they want.
There were a few takes in particular that pointed out that the new movie is one where the male characters are not important. They are plot points.
It is exhausting to put energy into silly statements like Morgan’s—in 2023 no less. Still, something about it all intrigued me.
For the past several years, my research has focused on a woman known to be the first female professional writer in Spain, Ana Caro. She was obviously living in a period where women’s rights were completely tied to the men they were related or married to.
In 1600s Spain, being a writer meant you were a public figure. And for a woman to be a public figure, well, you are then that thing that rhymes with “shmomcubine.” By inhabiting the role of writer, Ana placed herself in the role of a woman who will never be marriage material. Much of her work was burned after her death, but what survives are two secular plays.
The plays focus on women protagonists.
In each play, a woman is in a conundrum (usually having to do with marriage or revenge) and relies on another woman-friend for guidance. The men come onstage, working as less-important characters that move the narrative along. When it comes to action, it is about the lead woman character, taking charge. The men, they are the ones receiving the action. In the end, there is the same resolution we have come to expect in plays—that of everyone pairing off so easily.
I’ve read both plays. They are interesting and engaging. Stories of love, revenge, people pretending to be people they aren’t. In getting to find these plays now, I think of how it’s taken centuries for her work to resurface. Her writing has only been a subject of scholarship for the past few decades, and even then, I never saw her plays being produced. Obviously, things are changing, but what fascinates me about takes like Morgan’s is that a woman-centered story has been around for a long time.
I do not wish to give more energy on the words a man like him has said. In many ways, I believe it is said more to simply incite anger, rather than making an actual point. But what I wish to do is counter with the history that we know little about, the history we did not receive in schools. Sometimes I wonder what our lives would be like had we gotten to act out scenes from Ana Caro’s plays rather than another iteration of Shakespeare.
So I share here, hoping this information piques your interest, that perhaps you go on your own quest to learn more about forgotten women in history.
Over and out.
Thanks for diving below the surface of the fizzy pink fanfare over Barbie to retrieve and reveal such an important point to ponder. Indeed, what if marginalized voices of all kinds were given equal visibility in culture?
Love your article--and hands down I’m voting for Ana Caro, all the way--though, Barbie / Oppenheimer make a very Interesting pair!