A Bibliography
During my research I plan to understand my mother’s relationship with feminism using historical media, books, timelines, and art. The use of historical media and it’s origins will give context to family archives and newsletters about a woman who inspired my mother. These family archives have given me a way to see my relatives’ relationship with women in the family. One book I have chosen for my bibliography offers numerous paintings gathered by art historians that represent Irish women artists from the time my ancestors came over from Ireland up until the 1980's. Other books include Irish and women’s history and writings. The timelines present me with a setting of my mother’s life at a certain period in time. The art, most importantly, gives me a way to connect with my mother on a deeper level. The art sources include movies and music that I believe my mother related to in the past. All these sources will lead me down my mother’s past and will inform me of what I could discover about her. I hope to see her journey from a rocky and tough childhood, to a happy and peaceful adulthood.Irish Women Artists: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day.
Murphy, Patrick T., Jenni Rogers, and Wanda Ryan-Smolin. 1987.
I thought for a long time of where my bibliography and research should start. My fingers tapped on the different titles that pertained to topics on Irish feminism. I wanted something that connected me to my mom and our family’s past.
When I came upon the book, I felt excited. In her younger years, my mother would have called herself an artist. Her interest in art impressioned me from a young age. The impression bloomed into more than a mere interest. During college, I decided to study Art History based on my mother’s influence. Art binds us together in the family. It is our thing in common. It is our bond.
After fluttering through these pages, I felt an eerie sense of belonging.
When I was seven, my mother put her art degree to use and taught me how to draw. I gathered up all my colored pencils, brushes, and watercolor paint sets. The counter top gleamed with my first subject. A row of pearls wrapped around a vase of flowers which varied in life expectancy. My mother presented me with a scene in a very similar fashion to the painting above by Purser.
The painter’s obsession with flowers can mean many things. The symbols range from fertile wombs to hot jealous hearts. However, a Rose specifically symbolizes St. Mary’s love for God. God meaning her divine father, or her divine and chosen son, Jesus.
Unlike the painting above, which may symbolize a wavering youth or hope, my mother always chose Roses. Roses flooded our garden. The paintings throughout our house had roses. She harvested every kind. She had Knock-out roses, Disney roses, Eden roses, and even Centifolia roses. Heck, even her middle name is Rose.
That is just how my mother’s experience in feminism developed. Her painting at birth started alongside her Irish female caretakers, who instilled bitterness about their losses and abandonments. Their petals drooped, their leaves turned brown, and their stems bruised. Eventually, however, my mother’s experience with feminism turned from the Irish habit of blame and decay. She fixed some brushstrokes, lowered her easel, and bloomed the bouquet. Roses budded from her motherhood and the love she had to offer to the world. I hope the rest of the bibliography can show you her backwards life-cycle from death to life.
“Irish in America.”
Goldstein, Margaret J. Lerner Publications, 2004.
Margeret J. Goldstein explains a synopsis of Irish history and the Irish people’s effect on our American culture today. She explains the first settlers of the “Emerald Island”, the legends of St. Patrick and Brenden, the political religious movements between Protestants and Catholics, and the potato famine. These events in Irish history have impacted the culture of the major Eastern Cities in the United States where Irish people immigrated to, especially New York, Boston, and the Appalachian Mountains. My family for example, started in New Jersey after entering Ellis Island, New York and then ventured into the Georgian Appalachian Mountains.
The Irish history is rich. Specifically, the Irish Catholic history explains a lot about the culture in my family.
King Henry the Eighth declared himself King of Ireland in 1541. The Irish people, mostly poor farmers, resented the new monarchy. During Queen Elizabeth’s reign, she criminalized Catholic practices and executed Catholic leaders. She also withheld Irish land and gave it to English Protestants. With all thier land and farming money gone, the Irish fell deep into poverty and hunger. In the mid-1600s Irish Catholics even lost their right to vote and attend school.
In the 1800’s the Irish Catholic immigrants had almost no education because of the culture of persecution Ireland. When they immigrated to the U.S, the stereotype of an uneducated and boisterous Irish man stuck. The label made it extremely hard for these immigrants to live in the place of the free.
This reading helped me understand better why my family has such a deep-rooted connection with Catholicism. I do not think it is easy for people to hold onto what others are trying so hard to take from them. I am so proud of my heritage and their perseverance. The Irish are known to be stubborn We refuse to give in. According to this history book, the Irish Catholics are a people of survival. This attitude of perseverance has definitely been passed down through my family.
“The Irish Women’s History Reader.”
Hayes, Alan, and Diane Urquhart. Routledge, 2001.
“While they have differed over time and place, feminism has always grown from women’s perception that the sex roles prescribed by their own society conflicted with their knowledge of themselves and their development of autonomous persons.” — Mary Cullen
My great grandma, Catherine Delaney, escaped from the Irish famine in the late 1890’s to early 1900’s. That is what my mother says anyway. However, records have shown that my grandma was born in my mother’s birthplace of Chatham County, New Jersey. While I have no proof that says my grandmother was born in Ireland, I was always told she was Irish. She had an accent, spoke gaelic, and came over during the last wave of Irish immigrants escaping the potato famine. Many reasons explain why an Irish immigrant, especially a single woman, would need to lie about her birth place. First of all, my grandmother’s had an illegal immigrant status. Rumor has it that she jumped off the immigrant boat because she knew she couldn’t pay enough to get in legally. Also, Irish people in general were a publicly disliked minority in the United States. After her heartfelt immigration to the United States, her motherhood of eight children by herself, and determined survival, I consider her the first feminist in my family line.
Therefore, I wanted to see what could have influenced her during her lifetime. Within, The Irish Women’s History Reader, Hayes and Urquhart chose many historically significant articles to represent notable female strides. In essence, it is an accumulated Irish Women’s History book.
According to Mary O’Dowd, during the time of my grandmother’s life women in Ireland attacked feminist issues through art and poetry. Since they were generally uneducated women, they had to fight their cause with what they had, their words and their creations.
I believe that this expression of feminism has passed down through the generations of my family. This discovery enamoured me. My grandmother eloquently wrote letters frequently. My mother found expression through jewelry making. My aunt Sandy has made a life through photography. My aunt Glenda obtains a job in comparative literature. My sister studies architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology. and I am currently getting a degree in Art History. How interesting is it that an Irish culture of women still has effect on the culture of my family today?
“Maker — The Buzza Co and Buzza Cardozo.”
Eclectic Salvage.
The Buzza Cardoza Card Company was known at it’s time for it’s poster-like cards. Poster art during the early 1900’s grew in popularity due to growing tensions around the world. A lot of posters of the time offer a propagandist message, many of which speaking about war, nationalism, imperialism, and white supremacy. Propaganda at the time my grandmother came from Ireland opposed all foreigners, including the “brute” Irish.
I find it so ironic that my grandfather seemed to have been attracted to this particular card for my grandmother. It was created by the same company. Except the offensive content, it mimics the style of propagandist art that his mother may have seen twenty to thirty years earlier.
Phipps Family Archives.
Blairsville, Georgia. Private Collection. 1956
Delaney Phipps, my great-grandmother, did indeed need “special faith”. Her husband Edward Phipps left her with eight kids. Women felt public shame if their husbands left them; whether it was their choice or not.
Tony Phipps, my grandfather, must have realized what strength his mom had put forth into her children’s happiness. In all their poverty, he went out of his way to get Delaney an elaborate and Christian-themed card.
Later in life my grandfather evolved into a horrid drunk. He spent his nights passed out on the pavement singing “Johnny Boy”, crying about his mother. All the while, his daughters got as far away as they could. His youngest moved out at the age of 16, trying to escape the mental abuse of my grandfather. She went to live with my mother Debora, Tony’s oldest daughter.
My grandpa always had women sacrificing for him. My grandmother ran from famine and into a anti-irish society to save her kids from hunger. As a young man he said thank you to his mother and sent her cards with mustard seeds. But later, his daughters were taking care of him. And they had to feel their own faith.
“Sociology of Deviant Behavior.”
Clinard, Marshall, and Robert Meier. Learning Inc., 2008.
According to Clinard and Meier, alcoholism is only an American-Irish trait. Immigrants from Ireland that moved to other countries had low populations of people who became alcoholics. However, in America generations of Irish men were labeled as boisterous drunks. Why is this?
Sociology of Deviant Behavior claims that the exaggerated use of gender roles in Ireland and America caused young men and women to form their own social groups apart from each other. Older Irish men would initiate young men only if they partook in excessive drinking. Most of these young men became alcoholics in order to become accepted by their fellow Irish men.
I always had a dislike for my grandfather. He was a horrid drunk that ruined his own life and hurt the life of others. But after reading this article, I felt kind of bad for him. Just like his wife, mother, and daughters, he was imprinted by the harm of gender roles. Just like any human, my grandfather searched for acceptance. This research helped me understand how my mother could still only see the good in her father whom she loved very much.
“Ireland’s Women.”
Donovan, Katie, A. Jeffares, and Brenden Kennelly. W Norton and Company, 1994.
Page 56. A Homesick Garden, O’Brien
From the large expanse of readings in Ireland’s Women, I found an especially peculiar excerpt by the author Kate Cruise O’Brien. O’Brien writes through the eyes of a young girl in her feminist book, “A Homesick Garden”. I analyzed this passage, searching for the evidence of feminism deemed significant enough to be used in this compilation of feminist writings. The issues that concern gender in Ireland are presented in one piece in direct and indirect forms.
Antonia’s mother expresses harshness towards her daughter in the beginning when a boy stands in their presence. The writer dances around the subject of sexual abuse referring to boys, “interfering with her saddle” and the girl coming home “with bruises on her knees” inflicted by bullying boys. Further the author reveals a tenseness about Antonia’s mother when a boy stands in their presence.
The character of the mother strikes me the most. Like my own Irish mother, Antonia’s mother shows a clear presence in a room. She gives orders to child that is not her own, demands immediate answers, and calms down only when the situation has been explained to her in strenuous detail.
When Antonia’s mother and mine became our mothers, they became demanding feminists, doing what they needed to for their daughters. This article showed me the style in which Irish mothers are perceived to handle things. I could not agree more with the rendering of the mother. I wonder if my great grandmother had the same kind of personality.
The Joan Baez Web Pages
Joanbaez.com. The Joan Baez Web Pages.
And before I’d be a slave
I’d be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free
Joan Baez cover of original “Oh Freedom” by Aaron Neville. 1963.
Joan Baez had many titles: an activist, a singer, an artist. But to my mom she was a symbol. Her songs resonated with revolution for blacks, soldiers, and women. Surely, the lyrics to Joan Baez’s songs inspired my mom as an artist. Art to my mother, no matter what form, could always say more than words.
When Debra went to Kent state she was quite the “go-getter”. She was part of the fencing team, took classes in interpretive dance, and even held the title of class president. When she had any time she enjoyed dancing to her records with friends. Her favorite had the title, “Diamonds and Rust” printed across the top. Joan Baez, a long favorite of my mother, wrote it about her late love affair with Bob Dylan. It was just one single song, but it made her think of boys from her past.
In 1977, Joan Baez visited Kent State University to protest the construction of a gymnasium over a spot where four students were gunned down in 1970. My mother says she barely remembers where or how it happened, but somehow she mustered the courage to ask the grammy nominee if she needed somewhere to stay.
“She liked my ranch dressing,” my mom smiles as she relives the past. I’ve had the ranch dressing. It really is enough to impress a celebrity.
I wonder if the night spent with Joan had really made an impression on my mom. Or maybe my mom made an impression on her. Either way, I like to think about what the two activists talked about into the late hours of the night. I wonder what art came from the experience.
Forrest Gump
Zemeckis, Robert. Paramount Pictures, 1994.
In my opinion, Forrest Gump stands as the best movie ever created. The costumes breathe the times they represent. The serious and the comical dance in a harmonious balance. The movie twists with the rich history of our nation. The film leaves the viewer wondering about the accidental philosophies that rule our universe.
In the movie a young man struggles with his mental capabilities as he shapes the destiny of our country. He participates in the Vietnam War, becomes a billionaire, and even snitches on President Nixon at The Watergate Hotel.
But the movies pop because of the characters. I have always thought of my father as a Forest-like character. He has all the attributes of fun, sweet, and sacrificing. However, I feel like Jenny’s character was modeled after my mom. Whenever the movie is on, my mom pretends to be busy and excuses herself to another room.
“Dear God, make me a bird. So I could fly far. Far far away from here.” Jenny Curran from Forrest Gump.
My mother, like Jenny, had a mentally abusive and alcoholic father. The abused childhood leaked into both their adult-hoods. The two became lost. They became wanderers. They tried to find answers to questions they did not know how to ask. Both characters had jobs as waitresses, jumped in strangers cars to go to large protests, and never could quite get over their father’s abuse. Both refused what was good for them; they didn’t feel they deserved it.
Years pass before the two women’s heartaches started to sooth with peace. However, their pain halts when they realize they are not defined by their abusers. Women prove themselves by their love and devotion to others and for themselves.
For Jenny the story stops there. However, my mother still has a few more scenes left.
A Leader in Good Time
Schindler, Karon. “A Leader in Good Time,” Emory Medicine. 1994.
Cardiac Catheterization.
Clinic Staff Print. Mayo Clinic. 2016.
My mother had an advisor during Emory Medical School named Dorothy Binsfield. I always imagined Dorothy Brinsfield as a grumpy old women covered in a cloud of cigarette smoke. She told my mom as she entered medical school, “I’ll help you apply for the scholarship, but people at Emory never get it,” “Becoming a doctor is a lot for someone who already has a kid,” and near my mother’s senior year, “Are you crazy? Don’t take your husbands name. You will be divorced, and your M.D will forever have his name on it”.
Debora Rose always spoke about how much she loved this woman. “Why?”, I asked myself in confusion. She sounded awful.
It was not until I researched this amazing woman that I realized all she had done for the world. Around 1933 to 1934, Dottie told everyone she wanted to be a doctor. They all laughed at the first grade girl. She faced many challenges with her gender and wanting the title of doctor. Dorothy’s father chimed in, saying he wanted her to go to art school. Her stubborn heart refused to be anything else other than a doctor. Emory University told her “A pretty girl like you will want to get married and have children.”
They refused to give her admission until she was 21.
Later Dr. Dorothy E. Brinsfield became the Dean of Students at Emory University. But that was not all. In 1975 she performed the first cardiac catheterization at Egleston Children’s Hospital. Cardiac Catheterizations help doctors identify what is wrong with someone’s heart with ease. It is a safer alternative to analyze children’s hearts.
Here is an article to fully explain the process.
Debora did get the full-ride scholarship, graduated on time with a child, and took my father’s name with no complications. However, despite all of Dottie’s opinions, mom says she always went above and beyond for her. Because there is one true thing of Dr. Brinsfield, she lived a life of helping and loving others. Despite where people came from, Dottie was always there to make sure thier dreams came true. This applied to the children she cared for and her students. This attitude reminds me of my mother. With all her banter on why I shouldn’t do something, I always know she will sacrifice everything to make sure my aspirations are possible.
Emory University.
Timeline — School of Medicine. Emory University, 2016.
If you ask my mother, “Why did you go to Medical School?”, she will reply, “Because I had nothing better to do.”
My mom signed up at Emory Medical School in 1986 as a full time mother. As the youngest, I have been shielded from the reasons for the annulment between my mother and Shannon’s father. Nonetheless, she was raising a child alone while in Medical School. I believe her motherhood dedicated to her choice of becoming an O.B.G.Y.N and family practice doctor.
However, my mothers choice might have had other modes of inspiration. In 1986 Emory introduced the first female chair of a department, Dr. Luella Klein. Her department, specifically, was O.B.G.Y.N. Dr. Klein obtained numerous awards during her career.
My mother had close contact with her, since she was the chair of the O.B.G.Y.N department. I would like to dig deeper and ask my mother if this trailblazing female doctor made any difference in her time at Emory Medical School.
Women in Medicine: Are we “there” yet?
Freedman, Jessica. Medscape Log In. 2010.
“Episiotomy, Once ‘A Little Snip’ Childbirth Routine, Curbed By New Guidelines.”
Pearson, Catherine. Huffington Post. 2012.
“The Use of Episiotomy in Obstetrical Care: A Systematic Review: Summary.”
Viswanathan, M.S. National Library of Medicine, 2005.
“They used to think that episiotomies made the birth easier. It just made it quicker for the doctor.” -Debora Quigley.
In the 1980’s when Debora Quigley was in medical school, episiotomies were performed in 60 percent of vaginal births (Huffington Post). Her male resident doctors told her and her fellow student something along the lines of “taking a snip is fine if the baby is taking too long.” One time a male resident informed her when he wanted to go home, to just cut the perineum to quicken up the birth. She disagreed wholeheartedly.
At the time only 11.6 percent of doctors were female (Medscape). They didn’t think too much into what kind of problems episiotomies would have on the women that received them. In a study performed in 2005, the complications associated with episiotomies include fourth degree tears, sexual dysfunction, and pelvic floor disfunction (Viswanathan).
The research study in episiotomies above taught me a lot about what my mom saw in her early days of obstetrical care. I think my mother stood as a brave pioneer in obstetrics by standing up for her female patients against her male residents. My mother only performed episiotomies when an emergency happened. She believes as a result that her patients were healthier and happier after their deliveries. The article above by Viswanathan backs her claims, declaring that there are “no benefits from casual episiotomies”.
“Oprah Winfrey.”
A&E Networks. biography.com. 2017.
Oprah Winfrey had a troubled adolescence, stained with abuse and frequent movements to different cities. But her past did not what define her by any means.
Most of us know her as a billionaire T.V show host. Others know her as an influential black woman. Some know of her as a philanthropist and peacemaker.
Oprah has made a career of activism for blacks, women, and children. She got the title of Best Supporting Actress in 1985 for her role in the Color Purple. She owned her own talk show, owned her own network, and was the founder for many philanthropy projects. In her lifetime, she has shown special interest in the rights of children. In 1994 she proposed a bill to congress pertaining to children’s rights.
On Sunday morning, my mother always had the O.W.N network on. She normally watched Oprah interview religious gurus. Oprah interviewed buddhists, catholics, and protestants. Oprah herself has claimed that God gave her peace when she was growing up. Although she identifies as a christian, she does seem extremely interested in Buddhist theories of detachment and meditation. As I grew up, I watched these same theories get more and more attractive for my mom. I want to use Oprah Winfrey’s experience of coming from bad beginnings to finding peace in her life, to help me understand my mother’s journey more. Maybe my mother feels that she can connect with Oprah so much because of the way she found peace through religion and giving back to others.
