/b/ - Random

Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace (née Byron; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation, and created the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine. As a result, she is often regarded as the first to recognise the full potential of a "computing machine" and the first computer programmer.

>>2757 omg I loveee Ada! I share the same birthday as her and we're both programmers ehehehe

One of my favotite saints is St. Therese of Lisieux. In her autobiography Story of a Soul she wrote about how everyone can be a saint just by doing small things for others with love, even something as small as picking up a piece of string off the floor. Her writings are a huge inspiration to me.

>>2763 I just looked her up, adorable!

Not inspiring at all, but Elizabeth Bathory was surely interesting.

She drank virgin's blood to keep her youth. She attracted young ladies to her castle with a promise for them being her maids. Legend says she had a maze in her dungeon and she would trap her victims there before they died.

"She has been labelled by Guinness World Records as the most prolific female murderer,[3] though the precise number of her victims is debated. Báthory and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of young women between 1585 and 1609.[4] The highest number of victims cited during Báthory's trial was 650."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory

>>2771
I don't see any nasolabial folds, so…

OH BOY do I have a monster of a woman to tell you all about then. Pay close attention Miners, as you're about to learn about the real-life Cersei Lannister of Manchu China - Empress Dowager Cixi /慈禧太后; Cíxǐ Tàihòu, also known as The Dragon Empress, of then Manchuria (Northeastern China).

>it's the Winter of 1835, and a girl by the name of Yehenara has been born to a Beijing minor official
>Yehenara displayed a great intellect from a very young age, and with her aptitude for literacy, managed to learn how to both read and write - skills considered a great rarity amongst Chinese women of her time
>in 1849 Yehenara's father passes away, leaving her family in dire financial straits, and so it is decided that Yehenara shall be trained to enter into the Emperor's royal harem
>1851, a 16 year old Cíxǐ has been formally officiated to participate in the selection of the Emperor's harem
>amongst 60 candidates she is one of the few selected to stay, having ranked 6th, whereas the one to take the position of primary consort was a slightly younger, prettier girl by the name of Zhen - Yehenara's cousin
>the year is now 1854, and a 19 year old Yehenara has since become Empress Cíxǐ, with Zhen having become Empress Cí'ān (every girl within the Emperor's harem are given the title Empress and granted new imperial names), with both acting formally as imperial concubine to The Xianfeng Emperor (Xiánfēng Dì)
>in 1856 Cíxǐ gives birth to Xiánfēng Dì's only living male heir, The Tongzhi Emperor (Zǎichún)
>on August 22, 1861, Xiánfēng Dì dies aged 30
>with Zǎichún being only 5 years old at the time, and with Cí'ān having only succeeded in producing a daughter, Cíxǐ wastes no time in conspiring with court officials and imperial relatives to seize power
>just prior to his passing, Xiánfēng Dì summoned 8 of his most trusted regents (ministers) to his bedside, with whom he'd tasked with handling the political affairs of the empire and the guidance of his heir, Zǎichún, however the regents did not appreciate Cíxǐ's frequent attempts at interference in their political affairs
>Cíxǐ later convinced Cí'ān to share a co-regency together until Zǎichún came of age, however Cí'ān frequently bickered with the other regents and did not attend meetings, leaving Cíxǐ to step in and fill the power vacuum
>whilst most of the eight regents were temporarily indisposed attending to matters all across China and attending the lengthy funeral procession of the late Emperor, Cíxǐ took advantage of the situation and secretly returned to Beijing before the other regents, giving her time to accrue further political power within the court
>by the time the eight regents had returned to Beijing Cíxǐ had already assumed full control, and she ordered that they be put to trial for crimes against the Empire
>during the trials it was decided that the humiliation of the recent Second Opium War was to be placed firmly on the heads of the regents as a result of their ineptitude and political mismanagement
>to display her high moral standards, Cíxǐ ordered the execution of only three of the eight regents, one being beheaded, the other two being given white, silk cloth with which to hang themselves with
>this incident would later famously be come to known as the Xinyou Coup
>the year is 1861, and Cíxǐ decides that, with her now acting as head of state, the Empire was ripe for a bureaucratic overhaul
>she proceeds forth with a series of edicts, some of which resulted in the execution of hundreds of prominent officials who had in the past shown signs of dissent, so as to serve as an 'example' to others
>at this time civil war was raging throughout five provinces and twenty million people died during the early years of Cíxǐ's reign
>Cíxǐ initially relied on the advice of Prince Gong, half-brother of the late Emperor Xiánfēng, who indulged her, underestimating her intelligence and believing that she would be easy to manipulate
>one day, during an audience with her court, Cíxǐ claimed that Prince Gong had tried to attack her, and after having him seized by her court eunuchs and stripped of all honours and duties, she had him swear his alleigiance to her, bringing the most powerful man in all the Empire and bending him to her will in one fell swoop
>meanwhile her son, Zǎichún, had since come of age, and having grown up in the lap of luxury was described as being an "obstinate and dissolute young man who spent his evenings drinking and his nights whoring", which is ancient Chinese for "complete wanker"
>on the 12th January 1875, Zǎichún (Cíxǐ's son and heir to the Manchu Empire), by then an alcoholic, dies aged 19, as a combination of being riddled with various venereal diseases, leaving the court in a crisis of succession
>although Zǎichún had left no living heir, it was reported that his consort, Empress Xiaozheyi was pregnant with his child
>on the 27th March 1875, 2 months after the death of Zǎichún, Xiaozheyi, aged 20, is discovered dead under mysterious circumstances, although it is known that Cíxǐ ordered her food rationed after blaming her for the death of Zǎichún - many people credit Cíxǐ as having orchestrated her death so as to maintain power
(Fun fact: Cíxǐ likes poison. Like, a lot)
>Cíxǐ later designated that Zǎichún's three-year-old cousin, Zàitián, as heir to the throne, with him having been symbolically adopted as Xiánfēng Dì's son so as to render him eligible to succeed
>because there's nothing suspicious about allotting an easily manipulated 3-year old child as head of state wink wink nudge nudge
>although this decision actually violated the laws of ancestor-worship that were in place within China at the time, Cíxǐ didn’t give a fuck
>during this time Cí'ān had began to seriously butt heads with Cíxǐ and the extent by which she had assumed control
>on the 8th April 1881, whilst attending an imperial court session, Cí'ān suddenly became ill and was escorted to her private quarters, where she died within a few hours under super *~mysterious circumstances~*
>with this, Cíxǐ becomes the most powerful entity in all of China
>in 1887, Zàitián (now being known as Guāngxù Dì, or The Guangxu Emperor) turns 16 and officially gains the right to ascend to rule
>by this point Cíxǐ has become a famously shrewd political strategis and gained enough popularity within the court and surrounded herself with enough loyal advisors that she is able to essentially tell a pallid, sickly and weak Guāngxù Dì to completely fuck off
>this is all in the face of the fact that Qing imperial tradition dictated that women and princes were never to engage in politics, and that she had only been able to assume power in the first place on the technicality that the then true heir, Zǎichún, was too young to ascend
>although in the end Guāngxù Dì is awarded his imperial right to rule and Cíxǐ agrees to a retirement, this was in name only, and she continued to quietly pull the strings from behind the scenes
>Consort Zhēn (aka The Pearl Concubine), Guāngxù Dì's favourite consort (think Margaery Tyrell), had been urging Guāngxù Dì to be "strong and independent", and encouraged his attempts to introduce political and social reforms which rested in complete opposition to Cíxǐ's anachronistic state of rule
>in 1889, Guāngxù Dì, under the influence and support of Consort Zhēn, issued the Hundred Day's Reform, decrees ordering the construction of railroads, the modernisation of the military, a reform of the legal system, and a more liberal attitude towards foreign influence in the development of China
>Consort Zhēn slowly began inserting herself further into the politics of the court and interfering personally with Cíxǐ's previous edicts
>Cíxǐ however, remained silent on the matter
>due to the fact that the reforms has resulted in the deposement of hundreds of the Empire's officials, Cíxǐ's officials, Guāngxù Dì became widely unpopular within the court, just as Cíxǐ had anticipated, it was then that shestruck, sweeping back into the court with her entourage in tow
>Guāngxù Dì, reportedly so terrified by the sight of his aunt, threw himself to his knees before her and cried "I am unworthy to rule. Punish me, as I deserve."
>the Hundred Day's Reform had backfired, his policies and edicts reversed, and with Cíxǐ reassuming power, Guāngxù Dì was placed under household arrest and sentenced to reside on an island located within the centre of the Forbidden Palace's artificial lake, dubbed the Ocean Terrace
>from here he was completely isolated from the rest of the court unless called upon, and his servants were either put to death or banished
>it was shortly after discovered that Cíxǐ had been abusing her influence over Guāngxù Dì by interfering in regular procedures for civil appointments
>in November 1894, during the First Sino-Japanese War, the corruption became made public, which resulted in a series of embarrassing public scandals for the imperial court and its regency, specifically Empress Cíxǐ
>Consort Zhēn unwisely antagonised Cíxǐ over this embarrassment, and so Cíxǐ had Consort Zhēn placed under house arrest also
>Guāngxù Dì's duties following his unofficial abdication became rather limited, however due to him publicly retaining his position as head of state, Guāngxù Dì was kept informed of state affairs, reading them alongside Cíxǐ prior to court audiences, he was actually allocated to sitting on a stool to Cíxǐ's left hand, while Cíxǐ occupied the main throne
>in 1900, during the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance (a response to the Boxer Rebellion), the imperial court prepared to flee from the Forbidden City to Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province
>before departing Cíxǐ ordered Consort Zhēn to be released from house arrest and brought in front of her
>with Consort Zhēn before her, Cíxǐ exclaimed in full view of the court:
"I originally planned to bring you along with us, but you are so young, and so pretty, and are likely to be raped by the foreign soldiers along the way. I trust you know what you should do."
>Consort Zhēn, realising that this was a super subtle code for "McFucking kill yourself", begged the Empress Dowager to allow Guāngxù Dì and her to remain in Beijing so that they could negotiate with the foreign powers
>this final act of disobedience INFURIATES Cíxǐ, and being the merciless ho that she is, informs Consort Zhēn that she shall be allowed to remain in Beijing forever
>on the 15th August 1900, Consort Zhēn is thrown down a well located at the back of the Forbidden Palace at the hands of Cíxǐ's court eunuchs
>in 1902, Cíxǐ, passes an edict banning the archaic practice of lotus-feet, aka foot-binding (although the ban was shortly rescinded, this did lead to a formal ban under the PCR in 1912)
>see? She's not a complete asshole
>it is within the early 1900's that Cíxǐ comes to realise that she is growing too old to participate in the more direct aspects in the ruling of an empire, and so arrangements are made to allow Pǔyí, the 2 years and 10 months old nephew to Guāngxù Dì, to ascend her rule
>but it was all just a RUSE
>Cíxǐ deliberately chose Pǔyí to ascend her on account of his young age, so that she would have an opportunity to manipulate him and continue her rule from behind the scenes with Pǔyí as her child-puppet, just as she had done with Guāngxù Dì
>on 13th November 1908, Cíxǐ orders the poisoning of Guāngxù Dì
>on the 14th November 1908, Cíxǐ officiates the coronation of Pǔyí
>the same day Guāngxù Dì, Pǔyí's uncle is discovered dead at the age of 37 under mysterious (and it isn't until 2008, following forensic testing of his remains, it's discovered that his body contained 2000 times the amount of arsenic as a standard lethal dose)
>literally the next day on 15th November, 1908, aged 72, she fucking DIES of natural causes
>gg Cíxǐ, gg

SOMETIME LATER

>shit is going DOWN in China
>the monarchy is in a total state of collapse with a child less than 3 years of age as the head of state
>meanwhile the People's Republic of China's (PRC) power has begun to swell to new heights under the leadership of Mao, and have begun dismantling the 'old' China to make way for the 'new' China
>Pǔyí is later trialed and imprisoned as a war criminal for 10 years in a PCR and subject to what was then known as "remodeling" (although this guy isn't innocent, he willingly served as a puppet to the Empire of Japan during their invasion of Manchuria)
>Pǔyí, the last emperor of China, dies on the 17th October, aged 61, 1967, having the spent the remainder of his life as a street sweeper and peasant.

And that's how the Qing Dynasty, China's last imperial dynasty, came to a close following 300 years of rule. Although Pǔyí was technically China's final ruling Emperor, Cíxǐ is considered to be China's last true monarch, and also takes the seat of the longest reigning Empress in all of China's history, having reigned 47 years from the date of Xiánfēng Dì's death. What's interesting is that Empress Dowager Cixi actually ruled China during the same time that Queen Alexandrina Victoria reigned over Britain, which that for approx. a 50 year span most of the world was ruled by two women.

>>2771
You ever read what her punishment was once she was caught and convicted? Well since they couldn't execute her on account of her being royalty, they literally just bricked up the door to her quarters, save for a little hole for passing food through lmao

>>2771
>>2776
There's actually a really good book called "In Search of Dracula" that's half about her and half about Vlad the Impaler.
I think there may be a companion book that's more focused on her as well, but I haven't read it yet.
They're both on Amazon for a couple dollars IIRC.

>>2775
Oh I forgot to add, for anybody that has seen The Legend of Korra, the maniacal, despot Earth Queen Hou-Ting was based off of Empress Dowager Cíxǐ.
Although Cíxǐ was renowned for being a very clever, shrewd and calculating woman, she was also incredibly vain, adorning herself in priceless jewels, trowelling on layers of white face paint, and wearing her fingernails as long as her hand.

>>2775
This is awesome, I love you <3

Can you recommend any books/films/documentaries? I've watched the documentary and film about Puyi but have never found similar about her. (I wasn't super impressed with the Puyi film)

>>2778
Briefly got excited because I thought I remembered a headline about an empress-related show getting made but it was the other long-ruling empress:
darkhorizons . com / thrones-producer-plans-empress-series /

>>2771
holy shit she looks like a girl i know, maybe she is immortal lol

>>2779
Sadly I can't. There isn't a whole lot of media illustrating this era specifically because the PRC are still in control of China and so they place a lot of restrictions on how the rise of the PRC is portrayed in films, HOWEVER if you haven't already seen it, Farewell My Concubine is a 1993 film that depicts the fall of the Manchu Empire, the Cultural Revolution and life under early Mao, all from the perspective of two Beijing Opera performers.

The cinematography, lighting, colour grading and musical score are so ahead of their time in this film, and Leslie Cheung's perfomance as Dieyi is absolutely heartwrenching, you can really feel his despair through the screen. This is made even more poignant when you discover that Cheung actually committed suicide in 2003. But yeah, really recommend it, one of my favourite films.

>>2782
Ooh, I audibly gasped when I saw that image, it looks so beautiful! I'll definitely look for the film, thank you!
(I'm even going to save the gif!)

I understand what you mean about cultural control, I was honestly surprised the Puyi film/documentary were made. There was a series of two films about a character called Detective Dee but they were more in the era of the other empress mentioned above in >>2780 and I was surprised they got made as well, I guess the PRC are either loosening cultural control, or they've realized the profitability of historical-based media.

If you want, I'll post a couple of links of other stuff I really liked that was set in either time period. (Have you ever watched Curse of the Golden Flower?)

Here's the Detective Dee links: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_Dee_and_the_Mystery_of_the_Phantom_Flame

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Detective_Dee:_Rise_of_the_Sea_Dragon

>>2784
I've actually created an Asian cinema general thread over in /media/ if you'd like to continue discussing this and swap recommendations. Didn't want to keep diluting this thread with OT.

>>>/media/1202

>>2763

Oh! Growing up as a catholic I used to lover her teachings. She was always very humble and even though I am not religious anymore, it still stuck with me. <3

>>2775
This is SO Agrippina Minor and I love it.
There's no good way to sum Agrippina up quickly and the internet (and movies/docudramas) does a shithouse job of it but I learned all about her life in university and it blew my mind. She was Nero's mum and it's considered if she had been born a man that she would have been the greatest Roman emperor because she was so fucking smart.

She had this checklist of what she had to do to become an emperor.
At thirteen she was married to this fuckboy old man who died and she inherited his money (step 1, get the cash).
After her mother was tortured to death by the current emperor, he adopted her and her siblings (step 2, daughter of an emperor).
Then her horrible brother Caligula became emperor (step 3, sister of an emperor).
Then she got married off to another horrible fucker and let herself be pregnant at this time since she'd been sneakily taking "birth control" drugs since thirteen (step 5, have a son you can make an emperor)
Caligula went mad and fucking ripped a foetus out of one of his sister's stomachs because he was scared it would succeed him (it was his, gross.) and Agrippina got herself exiled kinda reading the mood (step 6, stay alive)
Upon Rome getting sick of Caligula and killing him, Agrippina's uncle, Claudius, took the throne (step 7, niece of an emperor).
Agrippina poisons her new, even richer husband (step 8, get more dollars)
She marries her gross uncle after accusing his girlfriend of black magic. (step 8, Empress, most powerful woman in Rome and wife of an emperor)
She gets Claudius to adopt her son, disown his own one, gets tutors to teach his son the wrong things so he's dumb as shit and eventually she kills Claudius when he was getting too fussy, (step 9, almost a god damn female emperor, priestess of the cult of the now deified Claudius).
Unfortunately her son Nero is a spoiled piece of shit because she raised him to be the worst most conniving prick in the universe so he starts having an affair with some peasant girl. Agrippina panics when she realizes what an uncontrollable narc he is and starts to back Claudius' poor dumb ass son as a back up emperor (lol). Then Nero poisons him ~whoops~
Nero kicks Agrippina out of the palace and strips her of all her titles.
He then had her exiled when his slimy advisers, which has once been hers, tell him to.
Then his advisors tell him when she gets exiled that her boat should be trapped so it sinks on the way there and it kills her.
Nero felt so bad that he chased fucking mystics all his life trying to get rid of her ghost haunting him.
I love her she was horrible. <3

>>2775
>>2817

Women like Agrippa and Cíxǐ would be GOAT save for the fact that they always inevitably end up raising spoiled, slovenly, immature little wankstains for sons.

Boudica. Or any northern european warrior who slayed their enemies (theres a few scandinavian/celtic women but they're buried in wikipedia somewhere and their names escape me)

Pity the cool shit isn't taught and is long forgotten ever since christianity teachings dominated europe and other continents.

>>2845
literally a statue of her on the thames
>Pity the cool shit isn't taught and is long forgotten ever since christianity teachings dominated europe and other continents

>>2817
>>2775
shit dude, i'm seriously intrigued by all these scheming types. how in the fucc do they learn all this strategy so well?

Elizabeth Bathory

>killed around 650 women
>aka The blood countess
>bathed with blood of virgins

>>4446
She's already posted further up the thread. Lurk moar.

>>4422 Same! Especially considering people drank wine/mead more than water back then??? Like HELLO??

Sipping from a cup of wine and scheming on some next level. Goals AF.

>>4454
Holy fuck. You couldn't have made it anymore obvious that you're a guy.

>>4455 I'm female and very confused as to how you came to that conclusion over me talking about interesting women potentially getting turnt 24/7 lmao

saged

>>2775
Cixi was an arrogant, stupid, incompetent woman. There are plenty of excellent female rulers: Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Isabella etc.

Cixi isn't one of them.

>>2784
Also the Detective Dee films are terrible! You shouldn't be recc'ing them to anyone.

Reposting about Johanna of Castile: Johanna is a tragic figure imo. Some think she had some sort of depressive disorder - she was an extremely smart, well educated woman (could speak/write in 5 or more languages). But she was obsessed with her unfaithful husband (Philip I). Even though he constantly cheated on her with her own ladies-in-waiting and other women of the court, she still adored him to the point of madness. It's said after he died she took his coffin around with her for a few weeks until he was finally buried.

That sort of love is scary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_of_Castile

>>4477 I get you're paranoid because of the raid from r9k but that kinda hurt my feelings jesus fuck.

Sorry for the way I talk.

>>4510
Eh, it was uncalled for. I think in any other instance I would have brushed past your posts without thinking much of it, but y'know. Sorry, anon. Here's a dog.

>>4514

lol Anon, why are you pretending to be me though? I was the one who wrote >>4477
Not that I don't agree with you because I would write something like that as well (I am indeed a bit paranoid so sorry >>4510 anon. But please try not to use the term "female" because is a bit dehumanizing and robots like to throw it around instead of woman), but that was a bit weird.

>>4542

Samefag to add: The dog is adorable, though.

>>4542
I was the one who posted >>4455 because I was thinking more or less the same thing you were. I just wanted to apologize with a nice dog because she said her feelings were a bit hurt.

>>4454
you know, not just that, but women were historically denied education and resources to the same extent as men, so while both may have received tutoring or something, women were usually kept to a few softer subjects not related to strategy, like religion. that's what makes the scheming types so impressive.

>4454
>4459
>4510
>>I'm female
>>hurt my feelings
>>sorry for the way I talk
pathetic attempt, embarrassed for people who took the bait unless >4514 is also you

>>4542
>>4553

Jesus fucking christ this is genuinely the way I talk and I don't see the issue with it at all. I am a woman, speaking in her regional dialect. Get fucked and stop derailing. Unless you're actually robots attempting to shit on what was a genuinely nice thread?? Like???

Anyway, I agree with >>4474 Elizabeth I was pretty awesome.

>Parliament refuse to grant funds until she marries
>basically tells them to piss off ala "I am already bound unto a husband which is the Kingdom of England."
>actively trolled her ministers to remind them she is queen and can do wtf she wants
>delivered on promises to fuck up the spanish after Philip was being a salty catholic

>>2774
Underrated comment, kekked audibly

>>4474
This.

Also, she did not try to outlaw foot binding. Many of the other facts you have are wrong as well.


FFS, I get being a strong female in this time period(and in general) was awesome, but if she were a man you'd find all this shit deplorable.

>>4474
Not sure about Catherine, she did some great things for Russia and let them to victory over the Turks and other notable enemies a few times, but her moral conduct was appalling, she used to have affairs with young officers from the military every year. Woman was pretty fucked up in that sense.

>>4474
>>4649
No respect for that bitch and her family and what they did to my country. I'd piss on her grave if I was next to it.

>>4907
t. xiaofenhong shitter.

>>4422
They're born like that.

>>4391
I was mostly referring to the viking women on wikipedia I read about. Boudica's pretty well known.

I think Christiane Felscherinow is a very interesting woman, though she's still alive and more of a person of recent history and popular culture.

She became famous in the 1970s for her autobiography, which was actually a series of interviews which were recorded and then made into a book with her permission. She is a German woman whose family moved to Berlin when she was a child, and she grew up in a poor working-class family with an abusive alcoholic piece of shit father who hit her and tried to drown her mother in the bathtub. To escape her home and find a place of belonging, she got caught up in the drug scene and started out with weed and partying until she eventually got hooked on heroin at the age of 14. At first, her boyfriend walked the streets for both of them turning tricks, but eventually it wasn't enough anymore and she became a prostitute herself while she was still a virgin. She tried to get clean multiple times, had stints in rehabs and was forced to move to a rural area to escape the drug scene in bigger cities, but never quite managed it. In her book and in interviews she was a very outspoken, eloquent, and empathetic person who kept falling into abusive relationships well into adulthood. She's more commonly known as Christiane F, her book is titled Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (we children from the Zoo station; the Zoo is a major train station in Berlin city which was a hotspot for drugs and prostitution in the 70s)
There is a movie as well, which completely fails to explain why she ended up that way and misrepresents her in my opinion.

She rose to fame after her book became a bestseller and went on press tours including to the USA, she was the one who made the song 99 Luftballons popular because it was on a cassette tape she handed over during a radio interview when the interviewer asked what music she likes.

She met David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Nena, Billy Idol and other celebrities, dated the singer of Einstürzende Neubauten, and was taken in by a wealthy family of publishers where she connected with writers like Loriot, Süskind and Dürrenmatt.

A few years ago she came out with a second autobiography that told of her late teens and adult life, she moved to Greece and lived in a hollowed-out tree on a beach for a while, had more abusive relationships, hepatitis, a child that was taken away from her but whom she has a good relationship with now. She spoke of her organs slowly shutting down and how everyone is surprised to see that she managed to stay alive for so long. It ends on a hopeful note because she adores her son and believes he was the reason she got better, but she also suffers from paranoid delusions and explained how her apartment is bugged and searched routinely. She has a big fluffy dog she loves a lot and is on methadone to this day, having to go through another current drug hotspot every single day to go to the clinic where it's administered.

She's toted around as a red flag to teach youth about muh harmful gateway drugs, but she is a very intelligent and gentle woman who got severely messed up. She avoids the spotlight and only rarely agrees to an interview, and only after vetting the person requesting to talk to her intensely. In some semi-recent TV interviews you can tell how badly her brain has suffered and how she's having a hard time staying on track of her thoughts.
I've always liked her and empathized with her, she did a lot to educate the world on the rampant drug and prostitution scene and gave very intimate insight. One abusive boyfriend scammed her out of her entire savings that she had from her book profits and interviews, but luckily the publishers still pay her a monthly royalty fee that she lives off.

It's a sad but inspiring real world story of a woman who came from trash and lived through trash, addiction and prostitution and still somehow managed to keep going and even managed questionable fame, worldwide negative attention and notoriety gracefully.

>>5115
Wow this touched my little heart. I want to read her books now.

>>5115
I love her, I read her books in my teens and although she looked really cool for my young eyes her take still kept me away from actual bad dangerous shit. I didn't know what happened to her after all that do thanks for this post!

I love this thread and I would like to recommend the series 'Shelved Dolls' to anyone who also is interested in badass historical women. My personal favorite is the article about Julie D'Aubergny, who went grave-robbing and also set a nunnery on fire in order to escape with her lesbian nun lover.

if that doesn't lure you in, i do not know what will.

>>5223
>>5197
Thanks for reading, for some reason her story is very close to my heart. Here's an interview from 2013, Vice unfortunately has the most awkward and clumsy translations. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7b7ved/christiane-felscherinow-interview

I'm looking for PDFs of her books and will link them here when I find them. I'm not sure how well a translation will hold up due to all the 70s slang which is very different from today's use of German slang - nowadays slang is mostly Americanized words when back then you'd be hard-pressed to find English terms in casual conversation, but I'm interested in seeing how it translates.

As someone who spends a lot of time in Berlin, it's eerie to me to pass the locations mentioned and shown via black and white photography in the books.

When I was a teenager I thought that Mata Hari was intriguing, but I find myself more interested in Catherine the Great and Dorothea Dix.

Also, at the risk of pissing somebody off I'll just say this: I have never understood the hype around Marie Antoinette.

Beauvoir is always worth reading.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Simone-de-Beauvoir

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/paris/articles/10-books-by-simone-de-beauvoir-you-should-read/

>Got them drunk and had them all killed by her soldiers.
>attached sulfur to pigeons and sparrows and used them to ignite their city and kill most of them.
Based.

>>2756
Wu Zetian, Tomyris, Bloody Mary, Elizabeth Tudor, Dido, Cleopatra.

>>4907
Ireland deserved it

Sigelgaita is kind of cool i guess.

Frida Kahlo

>Gets cheated on by husband so she cheats on him with the women he cheated on her with

Absolutely queen shit

>>225320
No it's not queen shit, cheating with a woman doesn't make a man feel hurt or remotely cucked, you have to be taking dick and gargling balls.

>>225328

Shit, it said he didn't care about her sleeping with other women, only other men so you right actually. God damn lmao

>>225320
>>225335
lol, she sounds like a complete beta

>>225337

Frida was far from it. Retard.

>>225343
she literally fell for her husband's coomer plan she is not only a beta but just kinda slow

>>225430
Queen

>talked a scrote into killing himself
She did what we all wanted to do at some point. She was just brave enough to follow through with it.

>>225430
based

>>225438
she looks strange, is she british?

>>225457
No? Her name is Michelle Carter and she's American.

Wu Zetian (Wu Zhao) - the concubine who
became only ever female emperor of China
Background:
>born to a normal family in china
>father taught her history and politics, which was unheard of for a woman at that time
>became an concubine at 14 for the then emperor

Story:
>she gets close to the emperor’s son, who she charms with her wit and intellect
>emperor dies and she’s forced to become a un and shave her head, like all concubines after the death of an emperor
>emperor’s son, now ruler, calls her back to the palace
>the empress & other concubines get jealous of wu
>wu has a daughter with the new emperor dies who dies within weeks. she accuses the empress and the one other concubine of witchcraft
>emperor sides with wu and banishes them
>wu marries emperor and becomes empress. she gets the emperor to fire any advisor who starts to question her and her affect on the emperor. she has 2 sons with him
>emperor dies
>1st son rules for a while, mysteriously dies
>2nd son rules under house arrest, while wu makes the critical decisions. wu makes him quit.
>wu crowns herself empress of China
>she goes back for blood and kills the empress and concubine
>kills anyone who opposes her
>has a successful reign (15 years) and brought prosperity to her country

Some fun notes:
Wu is said to have killed her newborn daughter, as well as her first son. She additionally kept a secret police and spies. She had harems (concubines) of men, including twins. She was criticized by men for doing what male emperors have always done.

>>225328
Agreed, men don't feel hurt by the same things women do. He'd probably be turned only it.
>you have to be taking dick and gargling balls
I disagree, you would just be labelled a thot, instead get with a man who reflects all of his insecurities aka someone with a higher salary.

>>225648
>emperor dies and she’s forced to become a un and shave her head, like all concubines after the death of an emperor
nun*

>>225592
why not make a post about her instead of pointing out the lack of a post

>>225179
Honestly, I don't know much about the resentment between Britain and Ireland, but it must be pretty strong if it still exists to this day. I've seen lots of English people say that the Irish "deserved" their potato famine. Now, I am more curious about the history of female English figures. Thank you.

Queen Nanny
>Born in West Africa (maybe Ghana) in the late 17th century, not much is known about her early life or how she came to Jamaica in the 1700s
>Was part of a group called the Maroons who were formerly enslaved Africans that freed themselves from slavery
>Two Maroon groups existed: Windward and Leeward Maroons, and Queen Nanny was leader of the Windward Maroons
>With the Windward Maroons, she led a guerrilla war against the Bongs in Jamaica
>The Windward Maroons defeat the Brits
>According to legend, Queen Nanny had supernatural powers, could stop bullets between her legs, and her powers contributed to the victory of the Maroons
>Britbongs are forced to sign a peace treaty with Queen Nanny and the Maroons
>The Maroons receive state-sanctioned freedom, Queen Nanny and her followers get 500 acres of land, fighting ends

>>2771
Well, if "definitely not inspiring" choices like that are valid:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Greenlee
>Because necrophilia was not illegal in California at the time, Greenlee was only accused of stealing the hearse and interfering with a funeral, for which she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $255 fine and spend 11 days in jail.[10]
>"Today Greenlee, who is also a poet, tours North American with her writing and speaks to groups about necrophilia and sexual liberation."
She was supposedly one of the most prolific necrophiles documented, though that might have more to do with her admitting openly to her body count. In an interview she once said that she would have used many more but the AIDS scare at the time was what held her back, since young men in their 20s with intact faces were the only ones attractive enough to get her attention but those same were the ones who had died of AIDS.

>>227978
This is supposed to be a photo of her from the time of her arrest.
>According to Esoterra, a leading extreme culture and horror magazine of the 90's, Sally Jessy Raphael taped an interview with Karen Greenlee but refused to air it because Greenlee refused to show repentance for her actions.

>>225438
honestly this is so real.

>>225430
This one is fake.

>>226870
Never happened

Queen Christina of Sweden

>She was the Queen of Sweden from 1632 until her abdication in 1654.

>She was very interested in books and manuscripts, studied languages, philosophy, mathematics etc…

>Before her father left for Germany to champion Protestantism during the Thirty Years' War, he ensured that his daughter was the rightful heir to the throne if he did not return and gave orders that Christina be raised as a prince.

>She took the throne for good in 1644, after turning 18, and she changed several rules on the use of currency, advocated for peace in the Thirty Years' Conflict until she got tired of it later, abdicated the throne, converted to Catholicism and went to Rome

>She befriended the philosopher René Descartes

>She didn't want to get married and in fact she never did.

>She slept three to four hours a night and was mostly occupied with her studies. She forgot to comb her hair and sometimes wore men's clothes.

>She had affairs with women, the most famous being Ebba Larsdotter Sparre.

>She is one of the few women buried in the Vatican.

Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta, pseudonym of Dionísia Gonçalves Pinto, was a Brazilian educator, writer and poet. She was the first in feminist education in Brazil, with a leading role in literature, journalism and social movements. Defender of abolitionist, republican and mainly feminist ideals, innovative positions at the time, she influenced the Brazilian educational practice, breaking the limits of the social place destined to women. Able to establish a dialogue between European ideas and the Brazilian context in which she lived, she dedicated works and teachings on the female condition and was considered a pioneer of feminism in Brazil, in addition to denouncing injustices against slaves and Brazilian indigenous people.

>>235089
>She had affairs with women, the most famous being Ebba Larsdotter Sparre.
There's a movie about their affair called The Girl King (2015). It's pretty good.

>>233966
I'm not a photoshop pro but the Karen haircut also looked put on

Very little is known about Kate Warne prior to her working for Allan Pinkerton, except that she was born in Erin, Chemung County, New York and was a widow by age 23. Pinkerton, in his book The Spy of the Rebellion (1883), described her as:

[a] commanding person, with clear cut, expressive features … a slender, brown-haired woman, graceful in her movements and self-possessed. Her features, although not what could be called handsome [beautiful], were decidedly of an intellectual cast … her face was honest, which would cause one in distress instinctly [sic] to select her as a confidante.[2]

Warne walked into the Pinkerton Detective Agency in response to an advertisement in a local newspaper. According to Pinkerton company records:

[he] was surprised to learn Kate was not looking for clerical work, but was actually answering an advertisement for detectives he had placed in a Chicago newspaper. At the time, such a concept was almost unheard of. Pinkerton said "It is not the custom to employ women detectives!" Kate argued her point of view eloquently – pointing out that women could be "most useful in worming out secrets in many places which would be impossible for a male detective." A Woman would be able to befriend the wives and girlfriends of suspected criminals and gain their confidence. Men become braggarts when they are around women who encourage them to boast. Kate also noted, Women have an eye for detail and are excellent observers.

>>227978
I really like the very vaguely inspired movie

>>2771
That is literally a portrait of Gracia Mendes Nasi, also known as Doña Gracia or La Señora, only reversed!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracia_Mendes_Nasi