Like most human beings, she was a bit this and a bit that. She used her social connections to try to bully newspaper editors and publishers into refusing to publish gossip about her -- which is laudable if the material is slander, but uses the same mechanism that was used to suppress valid social and political criticisms in other situations. And it's hard not to come to the conclusion that she had one or more marriage-like arrangements with women, which makes vehement protests that she not "one of THOSE women" come off more than a little classist, given the stereotype of the time that only "mannish" working-class women actually had sex with other women, while well-bred upper class women like her merely had very very intense friendships.
Don't get me wrong, she does sound like a fascinating individual, and one who managed to carve out a space for herself against the odds in several aspects of life. But not an unproblematic person.
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Date: 2014-10-20 05:46 pm (UTC)Don't get me wrong, she does sound like a fascinating individual, and one who managed to carve out a space for herself against the odds in several aspects of life. But not an unproblematic person.