Blog: Reclaim Her Name
12/08/2020
I hate to admit it but I’m a sucker for all the cutesy merch that’s generally created nowadays around a movement. Whether it’s feminism, veganism or literature I’m constantly having to stop myself from being wooed into buying some tokenistic symbol that apparently represents my belief system. I’m not even a vegan, still milling around with vegetarianism at the moment, but I genuinely considered upping my game when I saw an adorable, sustainably made t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase ‘Run on Plant Power’. Yes, I’m embarrassed. No, I didn’t buy it. I rarely do actually buy any of this stuff but I do spend a weirdly long time gazing at Etsy shops.
In my weird online window shopping adventures I also come across a lot of what I find dull but that others obviously adore. Particularly in the field of feminism there are just loads of options out there cashing in on people similar to, but worse than, me - stretching from independent Etsy artists to massive corporations. From clothes that demand the smashing of the patriarchy to vast collections of pin badges and iron on patches that I can’t imagine will have a long life once the next up-to-date item comes along, even I can’t quite get what these purchases are actually adding to any cause (unless they’re raising money).
All this yammering on is to just say that, to my delight, today Baileys and The Women’s Prize have unveiled a collaboration that is both something I immediately wanted to buy but also feels like an incredible, proactive and meaningful piece of work. So, you know, no guilt! They’ve taken a number of great novels that have been written by women under a male pen name and republished new editions in a collection called Reclaim Her Name. Each book now has the author’s actual name on the front cover. Isn’t that amazing! It’s something that looks like real work and thought have gone into it which has resulted in a gorgeous, giftable (currently only ebooks but hopefully printed soon) item that makes a real change in the history of publishing and literature and highlights these fantastic female authors who didn’t feel able to publish their writing as themselves.
UPDATE:
17/08/2020
I read this article in The Guardian which somewhat took away from my excitement. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/15/baileys-reclaim-her-name-wrong-black-abolitionist-frances-rollin-whipper-martin-r-delany
