Vivien Morgan

The talk answers why young women dressed as men to fight as soldiers in the 17th to 20th centuries? Hundreds of known women cross-dressers were in Britain, Europe and the Americas, yet they have been erased from social and military history. Fascinating women’s stories: of how they were fearless, ‘tomboys’, early feminists and full of ‘pluck and spunk’. For them ‘patriotism had no sex’, determined to fight for their country. What did society think? Why was cross-dressing illegal and punishable by death? Were some lesbian or transsexual? What happened to them after discovery while dying on the battlefield or wounded? Medals, money and fame came. The media were fascinated, their stories published and songs about their exploits. They were the ‘reality stars’ of their day. Their legacy? As Hilary Mantel says’ their story is our story’, to be included in re-telling history and inspiring and informing new generations.

The talk starts at the year 1989 when 3 things happened to change our world. The first consumer Hi-8 video camera was produced by Sony; the Berlin Wall fell heralding the end for the formerly closed Communist countries and news coverage expanded to bring us film as these momentous events occurred.. How did we see for the first time and hear the stories of the Communist countries? The small domestic video camera- easy to hide and easy for journalists use allowed for undercover reporting. I was a pioneer videojournalist in those exciting days. Since 1989, the democratisation of news, with film and video taken by us, citizen journalists, has changed our view of the world. Allowing for political action, influencing, commenting and contributing to social debate. All a result of video cameras and now mobile phones. It was indeed a revolution, as important as the advent of the internet, bringing us world change.

The talk describes those men and women sailing under the skull and crossbones flag. Buccaneers, privateers, profiteers and pirates, with Blackbeard amongst the most famous and feared. They lurked in ‘safe haven’ ports primarily in the West and East Indies during the 17th and 18th centuries. Their targets were ships as they returned to Europe laden with spices, silks and sugar, having first offloaded their cargoes of slaves for the plantations. Mary Read and Anne Bonny(two cross-dressing women pirates) sailed with the famous Black Jack Calico. Why did sailors and others turn to piracy? Were they criminals, robbers and murderers- or just desperate to make a living even unlawfully? They have been glamourised and woven into legendary stories from Peter Pan to the films ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’- as well as Gilbert&Sullivan’s operetta ‘the Pirates of Penzance. Today pirates still exist, boarding ships to hold crews and cargo for ransom.