I love stories like these. A lot of tales of oddballs getting tired of "normal" activism and striking out to solve the problem themselves end in martyrdom when their plans fail and the law gets them and their memories get used more for their inspirational/dramatic cultural value rather than as an example of true success. Not Jenny and the rest of Jane though, they provided medical help to over ten thousand people in a time and place where few others did.
I’m confused by the chronology in the first few paragraphs. She got pregnant and then gave birth and then found out she was eight weeks pregnant when the doctor tried to have her tube tied? How would they sterilize her while pregnant? These are two different pregnancies?
I think I figured it out, but some tips to make things clearer
“After she gave birth, she wasn’t expected to live for very much longer, a few years at most; she would have to undergo regular chemotherapy, which would cause severe disabilities in any fetus.”
Should say “future fetuses.” Make clear that this is not talking about the one she was carrying while diagnosed.
“Doctors still refused to sterilize her, saying that she was too young to know if she would want to get pregnant in the future.”
Putting “again” after “get pregnant” would clarify, after “after giving birth” after “sterilize her.”
Doesn't seem weird or eccentric to me. She obviously had to have very good social skills to run an entire clandestine network, especially with significant health challenges doing it. I guess her *views* were weird by the standards of the time (though not now), but I think she falls more under the 'activist' archetype, and they usually have to be at least somewhat neurotypical to get stuff done, which she did.
You want weird feminists, check out Shulamith Firestone. Radical feminist, proto-transhumanist, and came to a bad end due to poor mental health.
People in the Weird People of History series may be a varying level of actually Weird. One might call it "rarely discussed and interesting" but that's longer.
I think checking yourself into a psych ward qualifies you for some level of eccentricity. The story is told in a way that makes it clear that her mental condition was circumstantial rather than some inherent weirdness, but I think if you met Jenny at her most reclusive and explosively irritatable and heard about her workaholism and the rumors of hoarding power without knowing her background, she would come off as pretty eccentric
I love stories like these. A lot of tales of oddballs getting tired of "normal" activism and striking out to solve the problem themselves end in martyrdom when their plans fail and the law gets them and their memories get used more for their inspirational/dramatic cultural value rather than as an example of true success. Not Jenny and the rest of Jane though, they provided medical help to over ten thousand people in a time and place where few others did.
I’m confused by the chronology in the first few paragraphs. She got pregnant and then gave birth and then found out she was eight weeks pregnant when the doctor tried to have her tube tied? How would they sterilize her while pregnant? These are two different pregnancies?
I think I figured it out, but some tips to make things clearer
“After she gave birth, she wasn’t expected to live for very much longer, a few years at most; she would have to undergo regular chemotherapy, which would cause severe disabilities in any fetus.”
Should say “future fetuses.” Make clear that this is not talking about the one she was carrying while diagnosed.
“Doctors still refused to sterilize her, saying that she was too young to know if she would want to get pregnant in the future.”
Putting “again” after “get pregnant” would clarify, after “after giving birth” after “sterilize her.”
Doesn't seem weird or eccentric to me. She obviously had to have very good social skills to run an entire clandestine network, especially with significant health challenges doing it. I guess her *views* were weird by the standards of the time (though not now), but I think she falls more under the 'activist' archetype, and they usually have to be at least somewhat neurotypical to get stuff done, which she did.
You want weird feminists, check out Shulamith Firestone. Radical feminist, proto-transhumanist, and came to a bad end due to poor mental health.
People in the Weird People of History series may be a varying level of actually Weird. One might call it "rarely discussed and interesting" but that's longer.
I think checking yourself into a psych ward qualifies you for some level of eccentricity. The story is told in a way that makes it clear that her mental condition was circumstantial rather than some inherent weirdness, but I think if you met Jenny at her most reclusive and explosively irritatable and heard about her workaholism and the rumors of hoarding power without knowing her background, she would come off as pretty eccentric