Women Clad in the Shroud of History

Women Clad in the Shroud of History

I must confess, stories about women with strong unbendable will, yet with heart so soft and very sharp mind amuse me. This was what probably led me to choose to watch Iron Lady few days ago after I saw it on a list as one of the Oscar winning movies of recent. It won the best make up award which also got my attention being a make up artist myself. So there I was after downloading the heavy files on the internet to watch the great life of Margaret Thatcher. I had barely gone half way in the movie when I stopped to attend to other issues. That same day I heard the news: Margaret Thatcher was dead.

I was just beginning to admire the role played by Meryl Streep as Thatcher in the Iron Lady. In a rather unusual coincidence, that day, I chose to watch a movie based on a real life character who now happened to die (“real life death”) on that day. It got me wondering.

Someone said man in his purest state in Adam could not say NO to a woman (Eve). Man in his wisest state should learn to resist woman (and not be like Solomon) and man in his strongest state in Samson should be smart enough to refrain and identify unfeign love in Delilah. Women, I must say are creations of God with essential qualities designed in them to fulfill specific purpose. Such purpose is what intrigued and compelled me to watch the Iron Lady. It was what drove me to read Barbara Taylor Bradford series Woman of substance, Hold the Dream and To Be the Best. I did not bother touching the rest of the novels Somehow, the author’s style began to bore me to my bones or perhaps my taste changed from reading about the fancy formidable female (Emma Hart) who built an empire, gave it to Paula her grand daughter who was trapped as portrayed by the author in a bland marriage. She was to “Hold the Dream” of the Woman of Substance, Emma Hart.

Perhaps my taste changed to reading about the dangerously attractive women who stood by men who made history in the negative, Eva Braun, Hitler’s girl friend who befriended the Nazi Dictator till death actually did them part through poison when they both committed suicide because the allies had invaded Germany. I doubted if she ever dissuaded the man at any point, discouraging him from exterminating the Jews.

In a wandering appetite from fancy fortune favoured female like Ema Hart my taste changed to reading about the femme fatale like Mata Hari…who during the First World War loved to befriend men in uniform. A strip teaser and seductive dancer, Mata Hari like Delilah lured military men in France not only to her bed but to give her state secrets which she sold to the Germans. She paid for it with her life, her innocence, a thing of question till date.

Women like Jezebel are amazing to me. How she sold herself to evil is beyond fascination. A princess who brought foreign gods to her “matrimonial homeland” just like the Italian born queen Catherine de Médicis who came from Florence with many maids and sophisticated Italian cooking utensils and delicacies, changing the cooking culture of French like we know today. Jezebel came with hordes, flocks of flying fang bearing fallen creatures that were unseen (evil spirits), demon gods who men worshipped by sleeping with prostitutes in the evil temple and women danced erotically on phallic like poles. Such was the evil brought by Jezebel. One of those women who made men fall in history.

Thatcher will be remembered not only as a tough politician who changed history herself but as a woman who treaded boldly on tepid water where men swarm with ease. The noble blood in her was not her confidence. She had a strong will beneath that soul that made her to be referred to as the “Iron lady”.

Teju duru is a freelance journalist and make up artist based in the old city of Ibadan.