BRAZEN: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked The World







What is Brazen?
Brazen by Penelope Bagieu, is a collection of short biographies encompassing the lives of powerful women and their careers, as well as their fight against social injustice and fight for social change. This book highlights powerful women who aren’t inherently famous or known for their academic or sociopolitical activism, and how each woman had a hand in changing the world for the better-whether it be by stopping coastal erosion in Montauk, Long Island, or being the first openly transitioned woman in America, to being a spy during WWII against the Nazi’s. 

Why did I choose this text?
I chose this text because it offers a different perspective on history and those that influence it. In graphic novel form, it provides a really cool way to learn about such an interesting facet of world history and the whistle blower and “world-saving” effects that these women had throughout history- from the first woman OBGYN in Ancient Greece, to the first black, female astronaut and everything in between. With this format and this topic, it also provided a fun way to engage in topics that students wouldn’t normally learn about, or even think about doing a report or project about. 

What teaching ideas came from this text?
The first thing that came to mind was doing a wax museum, paired with an essay. I’d have my students use this book, and a variety of others in graphic novel format, choose a subject that is mentioned and go more in-depth with their research, and eventually become them for a day to teach others about their significant person. I’ve also wanted to do different versions- so one unit be on activism, another be on environmentalists, and another of influential people within a certain time period (ex: the 50’s-60’s, Aubrey Hepburn’s humanitarian efforts with UNICEF), and etc. I think it’s not only a great way to learn about “obscure” people in history, but a great way to show how they’re all connected as well by using a piece of literature.

What challenges and issues could come up?
Obviously, this is a very feminist and female-oriented book, s I could see parents and boys in the class not appreciating us focusing on this kind of text, or thinking I’m encouraging my male students to dress up as a woman for a grade. I would pair this text with another similar to it, in terms of graphic novels, and make sure it was about men that influenced the world for the better- JFK, Martin Luther King Jr., Van Gough etc. I also wouldn’t force boys to choose men and girls to choose women, they can choose whoever they want, but the options are there for both genders so that no one would feel forced to be one gender if they didn’t wish to. 


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