That’s right. Way back in the early 1900s, when women were protesting for the right to vote, there was a four-foot eleven-inch woman teaching the Suffragettes how to defend themselves. Make way for Edith Margaret Garrud.
Image Courtesy Mary Evans Picture Library via the BBC
Image Courtesy Islington Local History Center via BBC.
Show Notes:
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34425615
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmeline_Pankhurst
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jujutsu
Welcome to Brain Junk. I’m Trace Kerr and I’m Amy Barton and this is a Brain Storm
AB: Jiu Jitsu Suffragettes is what I want to talk about today.
TK: Okay. You mentioned this to me and I typed it into the list of things to talk about and I am very intrigued.
AB: Yes. So first a couple of little background jiu jitsu as a martial art. Are you familiar? Is that one that you’re familiar with?
TK: Vaguely. Okay. Let’s just assume no, I know nothing.
AB: Some of them are straight on. I’m going to try to hit you as much as I can. I’m taking you down. Jujitsu is about neutralizing an enemy with pins, joint locks and throws and they develop around using the attackers energy against themselves. So I imagine there’s a lot of, they’re coming at you, you sidestep and give them a nice shove.
TK: Oh, okay. Kinda like Judo, which Chaz has a lot of experience with and it’s kind of annoying because you come at a person and they just suddenly, yeah, they’re like, you’re moving. I’ll just step aside and you’ll just keep moving. And then you’ll eat pavement.
AB: Yup. And then they chop you on the back of the neck and knock a few teeth out. It’s over. Which is a really good style for someone who is not as strong as their opponent.
TK: Yes, exactly.
AB: And the opponents, um, are the police and the law enforcement of the early 1900s, because let’s go back and talk about suffragettes and Emmeline. Pankhurst. So the suffragettes originated in the early 19 hundreds with the fight to gain the right to vote and some equality and Emmeline Pankhurst was big in that initially and really developed that. So the suffrage movement really began in October of 1903 and grew from there. And it was not a please, sir, can we vote? See, my perspective is the Mary Poppins sister suffragette song. That’s kind of my view. So like ladies wearing banners and hitting cops with parasols, but it really wasn’t like that.
TK: I forgot about that song. You said it and then I could hear them singing.
AB: Ah, you need a minute pause. Go find the song and know that it wasn’t exactly like that. Um, women quickly in the suffragette movement became frustrated at the lack of movement and felt like, we need to do more. We need to do more than passively say, please can we vote? And so it became an active, we’re going to picket and protest. And so then law enforcement responded cause they’re like, well, we’re not into this and you can’t do this here in the public square. So they would arrest them and they would break the rallies up. And in the midst of this, Emmeline Pankhurst was trying to be out there and have her voice heard. But law enforcement’s goal is to not make that happen. And so she eventually developed and gathered around her a body guard of people. And that’s where Edith Garrett comes in. Edith Garret was four 4′ 11″.
TK: What?
AB: She’s a petite little lady. So think Judy Garland Kristin Chenoweth or Sandi Toksvig from the great British baking show. Super tiny people, real little lady. And she met her husband and married William Garrett. And he was a physical cu...
