Description: Nex Benedict 2008-2024 Stop Bullying! Stop the Anti-Trans Legislation! Trans & nonbinary youth deserve love & support, not harassment & violence
Why do you call us ladies?
The term ‘ladies’ itself has a history that illuminates how power, privilege, and oppression have functioned throughout American history. From early modern times through much of the twentieth century, the term ‘lady’ signified women with power and authority over others by virtue of their race, class, marriage, or ancestry. A lady was a queen or head of household who oversaw subjects, children, servants, and slaves. [1] As Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham notes, “Ladies were not merely women; they represented a c
Consider the story of Abigail Adams and her most famous quote. When Abigail Adams asked her husband John to “Remember the Ladies” as he drafted the Declaration of Independence, she was not advocating for the rights of American women who were predominantly poor, indentured, and enslaved. Rather, she called specifically for married women’s legal rights to property and protection from domestic abuse. [3] Abigail wrote, “I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than y