Piratinnen

by Ulrike Klausmann, Marion Meinzerin

Piratinnen hat es zu allen Zeiten gegeben: EIissa, die legendäre Gründerin Karthagos; die Japanerin Tschiao Kuo-Fu Jen, die im 7. Jahrhundert v. Chr. die Schiffe von Frauenhändlern angriff; Wikingerinnen, die den Atlantik unsicher machten; die Freundinnen Anne Bonny und Mary Read, deren Überfälle im 18. Jahrhundert die internationale Handelsschifffahrt in Atem hielten. Bis ins 20. Jahrhundert lassen sich auf fast allen Meeren die Spuren der Seeräuberinnen verfolgen.

Genres: History, Pirates, Nonfiction, Historical, Research, Womens

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Nina ( picturetalk321 ) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pointless book. The only reason it gets 3 stars is because I like the pictures on the cover and because the last two chapters are quite entertaining. I had great hopes because this is published by a feminist publisher with the militant name of Women's Offensive but the feminism is of a kind popular among some circles in the 1980s (book published 1992) which combines a New Age admiration of goddesses and strong mythical women with a language of monolithic oppression of women through the ages. One source in the Bibliography is a book on tarot: why? This one adds to the mix a complete disregard for scholarly fact-checking. Some of the sources cited are novels. The chapter on Bartholomew Roberts states up front that it is not known if Roberts was a woman but there was no evidence against it; the chapter then proceeds to use the pronoun 'she' throughout. So the 'we don't know' morphs seamlessly into 'Roberts was a woman'. This kind of egregious fact-invention is rife throughout. In addition, there is much padding: recipes (sort of fun) and endless trite factoids about women in past cultures -- women who had nothing to do with piracy -- or simply superficial clichés about various time periods, with no link to women or to piracy. Very frustrating, as underneath it all bubbles the actual real exciting story of piracy. One chapter is a conversation between the two authors, just chatting with no research whatsoever about Störtebeker's putative wife and looking at various ye olde houses and towers on the Frisian coast, with some info about the Hanse and Freibeutertum sprinkled in and a lot of personal opinions. Another chapter describes a woman who had a picnic with some people off the Chinese coast who later turned out to be (possibly?) pirates. Often, no dates are given.

The global reach is promising. This and the focus on women is what made me buy this book. But the book does not deliver on its promise.

I'm using this for the 'true crime' rubric of the Reading Women Challenge 2018. I hate true crime and tried valiantly to read some but as piracy is crime, and some of this book is based, sort of, on true events, I'm ticking that rubric off.

[Fred Langridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Authors: Ulrike Klausmann, Marion Meinzerin, Gabriel Kuhn

Actually a medium-sized book about women pirates and a short book about
pirates and anarchy, bound as one volume.

The anarchy one is a surface skim of pirate politics, which is a shame. Its
intention is to inspire modern anarchists.

The women pirates book has a little spark of research and is fuelled with a
steady stream of wishful thinking. Where there isn't absolutely firm proof
that a particular pirate was a man, they presume that they were a woman,
and so on - which is fine as long as the reader wasn't hoping for a
reliable academic text.

Overall, not one I'd recommend, really, but not completely awful as a quick
holiday read.

[Flo · Rating 4 out of 5]

when i grow up, i will be a lady pirate. this book is giving me lots of good ideas on how to gather my booty.

[Kate Raven · Rating 2 out of 5]

just got from the library to satisfy my curiosity about how many women pirates were queer

[Michelle Nelson]

I haven't had a chance to read this one yet.

[Hope · Rating 2 out of 5]

The information about historical women pirates was interesting, but the book seemed to have a heavily lesbian bias.

[Roxie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a really cool theme and I'll buy into few few points they make but on the whole it's terribly under researched and mostly just false.

[Davey]

Awesomely quirky.