Bustles & Broadswords: Recent Episodes
Claire Mead
A podcast about women with swords throughout history, art and culture via a queer and feminist lens. May contain: heroic women, bad women, pirates, duellists, warrior queens, gender non-conformity and lesbianism.
@bustleswordpod on Twitter!
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of women fencers being allowed to compete in the Olympic Games let's delve into the podcast archives and talk about a lesbian fencer who didn't take part - but still made history in a range of ways: Toupie Lowther.
Featuring women's fencing trousers, all-women ambulance squads, a kitten mascot and 1920s lesbian dramaaaaa.
Transcript and show notes available here!
For our first podcast interview, we talk to Abey Bradbury (writer and cast member) and Sam Kearney-Edwardes (playing Julie) from JULIE: The Musical (Le Gasp! and Croft & Dye Productions) about their show about chaotic bisexual opera singer duellist (and previous podcast subject) Julie d'Aubigny aka La Maupin! JULIE: The Musical is on till 30th June at The Other Palace, London. Listen to the end for a discount code!
This episode, it's a Chevalière and Chevalier-heavy episode as we explore the life of trans soldier, spy and bringer of 18th century courtly chaos the Chevalière d'Eon, featuring Black duellist, composer and abolionist Chevalier de Saint Georges!
Expect intrigue in no less than THREE different European countries, capitalism-destroying gender feelings, too much wine, unexpected convents, musical prodigies, lost operas, accountancy nerds and REVOLUTION.
[Transcript and sources page on its way, experiencing a few tech difficulties - will be up soon!]
Follow the podcast at @bustleswordpod! Credits: Written, narrated and produced by Claire Mead - follow her at @carmineclaire
This episode, it's another delve in the podcast pre-reboot archives. This time one from Summer 2021, all about a legendary rider who did countless duel shows on horseback against men with an unbeatable track record. Expect ambiguously queer sportswomen, absolutely devastating public challenges in the local newspaper and jaguar print hot pants. Also, Muchacho the horse. Access the episode transcript and show notes here! Season 1 of Bustles and Broadswords will update weekly throughout June/July 2022. Tune in every week for a new episode! Follow the podcast at @bustleswordpod! Credits: Written, narrated and produced by Claire Mead - follow her at @carmineclaire Music is Captivated By Her by Cody Martin.
This episode, we have a bit of a change of pace. Our warrior lady this week was a swordfighter but she's a lot more known for her high-stakes wrestling. The stakes? Her hand in marriage. Expect a primer on Mongolian warfare techniques, Marco Polo for some reason, problematic operas, iconic actresses turned queer icons and enough horses to appease the most demanding of horse girls.
Access the episode transcript and show notes here
Season 1 of Bustles and Broadswords will update weekly throughout June/July 2022. Tune in every week for a new episode!
Follow the podcast at @bustleswordpod!
Credits:
Written, narrated and produced by Claire Mead - follow her at @carmineclaire
Music is Captivated By Her by Cody Martin.
This episode, I bring you back in time...okay back to the pre-reboot podcast archives with this May 2020 episode but also to 17th century France...where we join bisexual opera singer and duellist Julie d'Aubigny, aka La Maupin, for a chaotic journey throughout France leading us to the main stage of the theatre, more than a few pub duels and convent arson.
To access the episode transcript and show notes: click here
Season 1 of Bustles and Broadswords will update weekly throughout June/July 2022. Tune in every week for a new episode! Send your Qs and sword lady stories to bustlesandbroadswords@gmail.com and follow the podcast at @bustleswordpod!
Credits:
Written, narrated and produced by Claire Mead - follow her at @carmineclaire
Music is Captivated By Her by Cody Martin.
This episode, we continue our pun-filled adventure of Princess Pauline von Metternich taking flowers too seriously and get to the meat and potatoes...THE DUEL. But not just that. What happens after it, what is its influence, a bit of a topless duel plot twist (and some debunking), and a current-day reimagining via The Language of Flowers (2021)!
Access the episode transcript and show notes here!
Season 1 of Bustles and Broadswords will update weekly throughout June/July 2022. Tune in every week for a new episode!
Follow the podcast at @bustleswordpod!
Credits:
Written, narrated and produced by Claire Mead - follow her at @carmineclaire
Music is Captivated By Her by Cody Martin and King's Feast by Wicked Cinema.
It's a first episode! And we're starting (very) strong and ~scandalous~ with a duel that has remained legendary...the duel between a Princess and Countess at the end of the 19th century that was allegedly fought...topless?! As we follow the story of how exactly Princess Pauline von Metternich ended up in this situation (or not), we encounter queer vibes, fashion, ridiculous duels, operas, and an alarming amount of plot-relevant flowers.
Access the episode transcript and show notes here!
Season 1 of Bustles and Broadswords will update weekly throughout June/July 2022. Tune in every week for a new episode!
Follow the podcast at @bustleswordpod!
Credits:
Written, narrated and produced by Claire Mead - follow her at @carmineclaire
Music is Captivated By Her by Cody Martin.
Welcome, sword lady lovers...to Bustles and Broadswords! Tune in to find out what it's all about and for a teaser about Season 1...around Performance! (jazz hands with swords) (don't try this at home)
First episode out this June, follow on Twitter at @bustleswordpod to be the first to know when it's live!
This week, we cover a gender non-conforming lesbian who was a fencer, a tennis player, WWI ambulance driving unit leader AND a key player in a 20s lesbian book scandal...the unpredictable Toupie Lowther.
Show notes!
Images:
Toupie Lowther in breeches in The Sketch, 1900
Toupie in a tennis outfit, c. 1900, Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.
Late 19th/early 20th century postcard of a woman fencing with the caption "just you try and break up with her" in French (and great pictures in this French blog post in general)
Members of the Hackett-Lowther unit including posing with the kitten mascot, French Army's Photography Department
The Hackett-Lowther unit working on ambulances, Le Monde Illustré No. 3168, September 7, 1918.
Lady Una Troubridge left and author Radclyffe Hall with their dachshunds at Crufts dog show, 1923, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas
Romaine Brooks, La France Croisée, 1914, Smithsonian American Art Museum (and not "La Croisée" as stated in the podcast)
Sources & more reading:
Diana Souhami, The Trials of Radclyffe Hall - a must-read for anyone who wants to find out more about Hall and the book trial. And the rest of her books are just as fantastic re: historical lesbians.
J. Halberstam, Female Masculinity.
Katrina Rolley, Cutting a Dash: The Dress of Radclyffe Hall and Una Troubridge
Laura Doan, Passing Fashions: Reading Female Masculinities in the 1920s
Fencing for Ladies 1901 newspaper article
Imperial War Museums Toupie Lowther timeline
The Times August 5, 1919 - Englishwomen with the French army
Medal card of Lowther, Toupie Corps: French Red Cross Rank: Driver, National Archives
Lady fencers – transcript of an article in the Harmsworth magazine, issue July 1899
Nathalie Barney, Quelques Portraits-Sonnets de Femmes
Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness - Not my fave lesbian novel but great to get the historical context for many lesbians at the time.
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This week, we cover the swashbuckling Californian adventures of Ella Hattan, aka La Jaguarina - flamboyant 19th century California dueller extraordinaire.
Show notes!
Sources & more reading:
Colonel Thomas Monstery, and the Training of Jaguarina, America’s Champion Swordswoman
La Jaguarina!, Houghton Library Blog
The Jaguarina-Wiedermann Battle, Journal of Manly Arts, 2002 (the irony)
Women's History Spotlight: Jaguarina and Colonel Monstery
Jaguarina at Pacific Beach
World Renown Champion Amazon: Jaquarina
Los Angeles Herald, 1890-1893, October, 1892
Godey's magazine (1896), HathiTrust Digital Library
Indianapolis Journal, December 1897
Images (also accessible via @bustleswordpod)
Horseback fencing here and here
Fight uniform
More fanciful version of it
THAT fencing picture
Jaguar outfit
Further context:
Mara Laura Keire, For Business and Pleasure: Red-Light Districts and the Regulation of Vice in the United States, 1890–1933 for more context on the Ladies' Alimony's Club lithograph kept at Library of Congress. As mentioned, this lithograph also shows examples of racist and antisemitic caricatures - corresponding to the racism of American theatre. This article from National Black Theatre is a snapshot overview of the history of Black theatre in the US.
This week, we cover Amanirenas, warrior queen of the Kingdom of Kush who faced the Roman Empire and got aHEAD.
This week, we cover the unique Julie d'Aubigny, also known as La Maupin...an opera singing and duelling bisexual badass from 17th century France!
Welcome to Episode 0 of Bustles & Broadswords, a podcast about women with swords throughout history, art and culture!