Parren

(29 March 1887) 57There are no traces in Parren's description of Bouboulina of the Rousseauian judgement that the '... only ennobling role for women in the nation, besides being the complement of their husbands, was to suppress their personal feelings in order to teach their children the virtues of patriotism' (Kitromilides, 1983: 42).

Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity 2008

The muddle of the Great War also unleashed the problems inherent in Parren's 'Just War/Reluctant Warrior' paradigm, not least because current events cast grave doubts on the so-called natural affinity of women with peace.

Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity 2008

This essentialism was evident in Parren's narrative also but was constructed as compatible with the celebration of armed-female patriotic defiance in the context of wars she considered to be just, such as the Greek Revolution.

Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity 2008

In her recollection of the warm reception in the aftermath of her speech, Parren noted with pride, that while '...

Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity 2008

(16 July 1889) 54On the front cover of this edition, Parren relates to her readers the excitement and joy of having attended the Congress and confessed the awe which her sophisticated foreign audience inspired.

Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity 2008

Parren and her colleagues believed that gender antagonism and male domination determined the interpretation and construction of these stories.

Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity 2008

In 1887, Kallirhoe Parren founded the feminist weekly The Ladies 'Newspaper (Efimeris ton Kyrion) in Athens, as a vehicle for the creative expression of educated women who were also united by the commitment to the advancement of Greek women's social and cultural status.

Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity 2008

The 'masculine heroism' of Bouboulina was celebrated alongside the image of the Republican Mother, whom Parren clearly admired, and likened to the '... lion-hearted Spartan women who cast off unfit children and disowned husbands who cowered from war'.

Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity 2008

The historical contributions of women fighters were deployed extensively by Parren as early as the newspaper's fourth issue (two years before the International Congress), to create a canon of female patriotic heroism in the service of contemporary feminist goals.

Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity 2008

Parren conveyed that the power of this images and this history dissolved any feelings of cultural inadequacy she may have harboured before such a 'learned and distinguished audience'.

Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity 2008