Where have all the Thirzas gone?

There’s another row on book Twitter that I don’t understand. This one is between Baroness Nicholson, Damian Barr, the Booker Prize, Asda and a lot of angry people. She said she thought that Asda shouldn’t have the statement “love has no age” on its literature because there clearly is an age of consent for sex (not love), Asda agreed, trans people got upset because the literature was about promoting LGBTQ rights, they called her a homophobic bigot (which she probably is - voting record confirms against gay marriage and publicly doesn’t want to share a bathroom with people who have a penis), Damian Barr (who is a lovely gentle writer and gay) commented and said that she shouldn’t be on the board of the Booker Prize because her views are outdated  and despite the fact she’s only there because her husband’s money founded the prize they agreed.

The anger divided along two lines.  People had to choose.  They were either for or against Emma Nicholson.  I use her first name on purpose. It's easier to hate a baroness than an Emma.  It's easier to hate a nameless middle-aged woman with outdated views than it is to hate someone with the same name as many people who disagree with her.  It was the same with JK Rowling. You had to decide which side you were on.  You might have loved the books but you don't have to have any empathy for a JK.

Pick a side.  Make sure it's the right one.  Don't delay now.  If you don't condemn everything about the person on the wrong side then you will be immediately tainted.  Careful now. Make your choice.  You can be modern and progressive or old and past it.  Which is it to be?  Hurry up.  Quick, quick.  No, you can't think about it.  If you do then you'll be on the wrong side.  Agree with some aspects but not others? Don't be ridiculous. It's a simple choice; black or white. This isn't 50 Shades of Grey. 

It is ridiculous, isn't it?  The world needs people with all sorts of views.  You don't have to agree with them but dissenting voices can help to make your own stronger.

I worry that there is a trend towards silencing (or trying to silence) the voices of older women.  It's like someone has a checklist of who can be listened to and older women are at the bottom of the list.  The value of post-menopausal women is less in society.

I have been looking at the court records for our town from 1898 and it is clear that women's voices have always been there but just not reported on.  Women were there, often being measured and calming.  They were the victims of theft and assault.  They owned business and fell foul of the same laws as men did, such as the weights and measures act.  They also were prosecuted for things that men got away with, such as employing men to work without a licence. 

One woman I have been quite obsessed with is Thirza Finch.  She took the headmaster of the National School in London Road to court for thrashing her son, Ebenezer.  He was caned for throwing a stone after school, which hit his teacher on the skirt. She was also, later, prosecuted for having faulty scales in her baker's shop. 

When I tell people about this work, they all comment on how names like Ebenezer and Adolphus have gone out of fashion.  We all know why.  History documents awful men.  I do wonder, though, what happened to the Thirzas.

Maybe someone called Thirza said something that young women disagreed with.  She could have suggested that women shouldn't get the vote, or she could have been responsible for suggesting that her husband oppose the married women's property act. 

If you google Thirza, then you find in the Urban dictionary that she might have been a Victorian Karen. 

Old lady names go out of fashion because no one wants to be an old lady but they usually come back.  Betty, Rose and Poppy are names I never thought would be fashionable again, just as you can't imagine a world of Susans, Julies and Karens and maybe they will all be back or maybe Karen will be permanently benched with Thirza.