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Women Who Fly: Goddesses, Witches, Mystics, and other Airborne Females
From the beautiful apsaras of Hindu myth to the swan maidens of European fairy tales, tales of flying women--some carried by wings, others by rainbows, floating scarves, or flying horses--reveal both fascination with and ambivalence about female power and sexuality. In Women Who Fly, Serinity Young examines the motif of the flying woman as it appears in a wide variety of cultures and historical periods, expressed in legends, myths, rituals, sacred narratives, and artistic productions. She introduces a wide range of such figures, including supernatural women like the Valkyries of Norse legend, who transport men to immortality; winged deities like the Greek goddesses Iris and Nike; figures of terror like the Furies, witches, and succubi, airborne Christian mystics, and wayward women like Lilith and Morgan le Fay. Looking beyond the supernatural, Young examines the extraordinary mythology surrounding twentieth-century female aviators like Amelia Earhart and Hanna Reitsch.
Throughout, the book Young traces the inextricable link between female power and sexuality and the male desire to control it. This is most vividly portrayed in the twelfth-century Niebelungenlied, in which the proud warrior-queen Brunnhilde loses her great physical strength when she is tricked into giving up her virginity. Centuries earlier the theme is seen in Euripides' play Medea, in which the title character--enraged by her husband's intention to marry a younger woman--uses her divine powers in revenge, wreaking chaos and destruction around her. It is a theme that remains tangible even in the twentieth-century exploits of the comic book character Wonder Woman who, Young argues, retains her physical strength only because her love for fellow aviator Steve Trevor goes unrequited.
The first book to systematically chronicle the figure of the flying woman in myth, literature, art, and pop culture, Women Who Fly is an exciting, fresh look at the ways in which women have both influenced and been understood by society and religious traditions around the world.
Throughout, the book Young traces the inextricable link between female power and sexuality and the male desire to control it. This is most vividly portrayed in the twelfth-century Niebelungenlied, in which the proud warrior-queen Brunnhilde loses her great physical strength when she is tricked into giving up her virginity. Centuries earlier the theme is seen in Euripides' play Medea, in which the title character--enraged by her husband's intention to marry a younger woman--uses her divine powers in revenge, wreaking chaos and destruction around her. It is a theme that remains tangible even in the twentieth-century exploits of the comic book character Wonder Woman who, Young argues, retains her physical strength only because her love for fellow aviator Steve Trevor goes unrequited.
The first book to systematically chronicle the figure of the flying woman in myth, literature, art, and pop culture, Women Who Fly is an exciting, fresh look at the ways in which women have both influenced and been understood by society and religious traditions around the world.
392 pages, Hardcover
Published February 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
April 18, 2020
This book is pretty much what it’s title says it is: a study of Women Who Fly. The subtitle qualifies it a bit, Goddesses, Witches, Mystics, and Other Airborne Females. Serinity Young approaches the topic from a religious studies angle, for the most part. She begins by noting the early bird-faced female figurines that suggest birds, and discusses many different kinds of flying females in world religions and mythologies. She also delves into folklore. The women who fly, she notes, often represent freedom from captivity, transcendence, sexuality, and death. These are generally religious themes, so there’s no surprise about these themes.
Ranging from swan goddesses to Valkyries to fairies to the dakini and yogini and apsaras figures of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism, she ranges far across the globe and throughout the span of human history. She discusses angels, succubi, and witches. She treats actual human women with reputations for levitation as well, a saint or two and even some regular mystics. The tradition of flying women is remarkably widespread. And, of course, it relates to the issue of patriarchalism.
If women are seeking freedom, that freedom is from men. Male oppression is a large part of women’s experience. This becomes particularly clear in her final chapter on women pilots. These include Wonder Woman as well as actual aviators such as Amelia Earhart and astronauts. These women, to this day, have to fight against male feelings of ownership of the skies. The book doesn’t go too deeply into any one subject, striving for breadth as opposed to depth, but it is a great introduction to an overlooked aspect of the somewhat universal desire of people to fly, and how religions have made the connection with the females who do. For more, please see Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
Ranging from swan goddesses to Valkyries to fairies to the dakini and yogini and apsaras figures of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism, she ranges far across the globe and throughout the span of human history. She discusses angels, succubi, and witches. She treats actual human women with reputations for levitation as well, a saint or two and even some regular mystics. The tradition of flying women is remarkably widespread. And, of course, it relates to the issue of patriarchalism.
If women are seeking freedom, that freedom is from men. Male oppression is a large part of women’s experience. This becomes particularly clear in her final chapter on women pilots. These include Wonder Woman as well as actual aviators such as Amelia Earhart and astronauts. These women, to this day, have to fight against male feelings of ownership of the skies. The book doesn’t go too deeply into any one subject, striving for breadth as opposed to depth, but it is a great introduction to an overlooked aspect of the somewhat universal desire of people to fly, and how religions have made the connection with the females who do. For more, please see Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
April 11, 2020
An astonishing study of an age old amalgam regarding women and flight. Truly remarkable is this in depth academic dive into the symbolic and psychological mechanism of mythical flight, organic wing, and modern aviation. Carefully crafted and well written. Weaving together stories of antiquity, historical truths, and modern day grievances; constructing a tapestry image of an age old truth. No matter how clear the image is for some, many still only see a pixelated mosaic of unrelated patchwork.
September 6, 2021
I felt like many of this book’s Campbellian claims for some version of a monomyth (read: unified theme) were thrown in without much expounding to make me truly believe there’s a strong thread there. There’s definitely a thread — a theme of flight. But I don’t think it means they’re woven together. They’re just similar threads — one here and one there — and it’s the book itself tying them together. A lot of times you have to take Young at her word or look at her endnotes to connect the dots yourself to work out the claims she mentions in passing. I’m not saying she doesn’t do a good job at explaining things, but she isn’t always clear. For example she states this passage with an endnote, rather than detailing how they’re interpreted as male:
“The angel who drives Adam and Eve out of paradise, the one with whom Jacob wrestles, and those that appear to Hagar, Daniel, Abraham, the Virgin Mary, the women at Jesus’s tomb, anand Muhammad are all male.[2]”
She states a lot of things as fact without a proper lead-in. She does eventually explain this passage with examples after a tangent or two, but up until that point you have to take her at her word until she arrives there and you’re just better off having looked at the endnote. This isn’t the best example of that, but hopefully you get the idea. You can guess what she is getting at until she makes a full circle, but all the while you have to suspend your skepticism. She makes her arguments out of order, making her chain of thought hard to follow. But that keeps you on your toes. The topic is never boring, even if you have to do a lot of the work.
This work seems like a conglomeration of her musings and observations of patterns — ideas she is justifying by fitting into her frame. What also stood out is her highlighting of stories that don’t fit the pattern she’s selling; she also talks about men who fly. Of course you can’t talk about women without contrasting them to men, but the titular subject(s) are otherwise misleading for the broad area this book covers. It’s broad because so many higher beings can fly regardless of their association with wings or flight to the point that it feels like she arbitrarily chose the beings she put into the book, possibly overlooking some and shoving in others. She even talks about Amelia Earhart, so flying mortals are under this umbrella. Like I said, arbitrary.
Here’s some interesting passages from the book:
Read the rest of my review here: https://blackandwhitepandaduh.wordpre...
“The angel who drives Adam and Eve out of paradise, the one with whom Jacob wrestles, and those that appear to Hagar, Daniel, Abraham, the Virgin Mary, the women at Jesus’s tomb, anand Muhammad are all male.[2]”
She states a lot of things as fact without a proper lead-in. She does eventually explain this passage with examples after a tangent or two, but up until that point you have to take her at her word until she arrives there and you’re just better off having looked at the endnote. This isn’t the best example of that, but hopefully you get the idea. You can guess what she is getting at until she makes a full circle, but all the while you have to suspend your skepticism. She makes her arguments out of order, making her chain of thought hard to follow. But that keeps you on your toes. The topic is never boring, even if you have to do a lot of the work.
This work seems like a conglomeration of her musings and observations of patterns — ideas she is justifying by fitting into her frame. What also stood out is her highlighting of stories that don’t fit the pattern she’s selling; she also talks about men who fly. Of course you can’t talk about women without contrasting them to men, but the titular subject(s) are otherwise misleading for the broad area this book covers. It’s broad because so many higher beings can fly regardless of their association with wings or flight to the point that it feels like she arbitrarily chose the beings she put into the book, possibly overlooking some and shoving in others. She even talks about Amelia Earhart, so flying mortals are under this umbrella. Like I said, arbitrary.
Here’s some interesting passages from the book:
Read the rest of my review here: https://blackandwhitepandaduh.wordpre...
July 1, 2018
This book was densely jammed with all sorts of great history and info. It read like a really dull textbook despite the fun subject matter. The ending was the most clear thing in the whole work so start there and dive into specifics as needed. Because of the scope of the information covered (both in terms of time period and geography) many of the scholars that were pointed out were not readily known and were not identified beyond just a first and last name making it even more difficult to care about their take on the matter at hand.
May 14, 2018
This is a really fascinating book. If you are interested in women in mythology, theology, or folklore, definitely pick this up.
May 15, 2025
Too many statements/theories given without evidence or explanation; too many inconvenient facts ignored or dismissed because they don't mesh with the author's view; zero explanation of who all these experts being quoted are or why we should care about their opinions; alternate explanations and theories never considered even when they make more sense with the evidence; and I still can't believe the author lumped Siberian, South American, and Australian Aboriginal shamanism together like they’re all the same thing! After acknowledging that they're all only called shamanism because white anthropologists were unforgivably lazy and racist!
Just plain embarassing.
Just plain embarassing.
March 15, 2023
It‘s an impressive concept though at times the writing was borderline pedantic. I’d give this a 3-3.5 I love the concept but the way the author constantly went back and referenced her own previous or upcoming chapters was a bit much.
Also HUGE disappointment to come across the “r” word flippantly used in reference to a saint. Appalling. My one hope (not that it would be an excuse at all) was that this was written much longer ago than I thought it was and *maybe* the author hadn’t known it’s an absolutely unacceptable word to use. No such luck, it was written in 2018.
Also HUGE disappointment to come across the “r” word flippantly used in reference to a saint. Appalling. My one hope (not that it would be an excuse at all) was that this was written much longer ago than I thought it was and *maybe* the author hadn’t known it’s an absolutely unacceptable word to use. No such luck, it was written in 2018.
September 8, 2020
A collection of surface information, half of which I knew, some was new, some I forgot the second I turned the page.
This can be a start to a long list of reads, if anyone wants to expand their knowledge on the subject.
This can be a start to a long list of reads, if anyone wants to expand their knowledge on the subject.
November 5, 2024
*Book Club September Pick*
The idea of tracing back the history of aerial women, both symbolically and actually) is really cool, especially as you start to see patterns emerging across cultures and timelines. As Serenity Young states, flying women are “surprisingly central to understanding similarities between various religious imaginations,” and “raise important questions about what exactly constitutes the heroic female traditionally in myth, folklore, and literature,” all of which reflect a given society’s values (namely, here, that “social order depends on women conforming to male ideals of female behaviour,” p. 153).
Young shows how women being (obviously) associated with fertility led to being associated with death, immortality, and then heaven/the sky, which resulted in the appearance of many winged women in stories and art. What eventually followed was a diminishment, containment, or outright defeat of these winged women across all religions and cultures. Young poses an interesting question about this: Do these stories stem from men’s insecurities or women’s fantasies?
However, despite how interesting the topic is, Young’s writing is way too textbookish. The first 227 pages is just summary after summary of religious teachings/stories involving flying women and minimal analysis. It is also very repetitive. For example, Young mentions how the Egyptian goddess Isis revived Osiris four times: on pages 7, 29, 30, and 31!
I wanted more historical context and discussion of the societal pressures behind the reasoning for why women were/are portrayed/pigeonholed this way, instead of just a ton of examples. The twenty —Just twenty!— pages about real flying women (e.g. Amelia Earhart and Valentina Tereshkova) touches on why they were restricted from piloting a little more (like the negative perception of menstruation and wanting to free up jobs for male soldiers returning home from war), but it still felt insufficient (As with Young’s coverage of Wonder Women’s change in depiction between the 1940s and 1950s [after the death of her creator, Charles Moulton, in 1947]).
I’d probably give the subject itself 4-5 stars, but the writing was not engaging at all and warrants a 1-star. That’s a 2.75 average, but I’m going to round down just because it was excruciating boring, and it really shouldn’t have been.
The idea of tracing back the history of aerial women, both symbolically and actually) is really cool, especially as you start to see patterns emerging across cultures and timelines. As Serenity Young states, flying women are “surprisingly central to understanding similarities between various religious imaginations,” and “raise important questions about what exactly constitutes the heroic female traditionally in myth, folklore, and literature,” all of which reflect a given society’s values (namely, here, that “social order depends on women conforming to male ideals of female behaviour,” p. 153).
Young shows how women being (obviously) associated with fertility led to being associated with death, immortality, and then heaven/the sky, which resulted in the appearance of many winged women in stories and art. What eventually followed was a diminishment, containment, or outright defeat of these winged women across all religions and cultures. Young poses an interesting question about this: Do these stories stem from men’s insecurities or women’s fantasies?
However, despite how interesting the topic is, Young’s writing is way too textbookish. The first 227 pages is just summary after summary of religious teachings/stories involving flying women and minimal analysis. It is also very repetitive. For example, Young mentions how the Egyptian goddess Isis revived Osiris four times: on pages 7, 29, 30, and 31!
I wanted more historical context and discussion of the societal pressures behind the reasoning for why women were/are portrayed/pigeonholed this way, instead of just a ton of examples. The twenty —Just twenty!— pages about real flying women (e.g. Amelia Earhart and Valentina Tereshkova) touches on why they were restricted from piloting a little more (like the negative perception of menstruation and wanting to free up jobs for male soldiers returning home from war), but it still felt insufficient (As with Young’s coverage of Wonder Women’s change in depiction between the 1940s and 1950s [after the death of her creator, Charles Moulton, in 1947]).
I’d probably give the subject itself 4-5 stars, but the writing was not engaging at all and warrants a 1-star. That’s a 2.75 average, but I’m going to round down just because it was excruciating boring, and it really shouldn’t have been.
June 8, 2020
Found this incredibly boring due to endless summaries of myths that never seemed to go anywhere or lead to any interesting insights, analysis, or thoughtful conclusions; a lot of times, she just retold the story and added no commentary. If I wanted to read the Nibelungenlied again, then I would read the Nibelungenlied again... I don't need it repackaged in a boring summary. This book should've gone on my "Did not finish" shelf, but I forced myself through to the end. Do not recommend.
April 23, 2018
This book deserves at least ten stars.
August 17, 2023
Flying about throughout the world in the skies overlooking the ground, someone in the air can see everything from the Americas all the way to the far east. This book does precisely that albeit from a valid feminist perspective. With the coming of religions like Christianity, Judaism, Islam, early Pagan religions, Taoism and Buddhism have all reduced the once prominent role of women to the sidelines. Ousted from power they were subjugated, dominated and used as accessories for men. A travel through the mythologies one finds that certain women were able to escape the prison of patriarchy.
Women like the European swan maiden are shapeshifter par excellent and take the form of whatever they want. These women chose to be swans. Most of the stories go that a man abducts a swan maiden and forces her to marry him. In some tales she finds her swan suit and manages to escape leaving behind her children and husband. Sometimes it is a willing marriage but the man must honor certain conditions like never hit the wife, yell at her etc. in these tales the man usually breaks the prohibition. These tales represent the feminine being subjugated by male power.
In the Western World during modern times, we have Emelia Earhart, Wonder Woman and Hannah Reiche. Their stories are indicative of the patriarchy attitude for women. During the war years when there was a shortage of pilots women were allowed flying jobs for the time being. They were not allowed to fly when menstruating. If there were problems during a flight, if the pilot was a man it was blamed on mechanical failures. If the pilot was a woman it was blamed on her incompetence. Once the war was done the women were dismissed an never allowed to fly again. That is until the 1970’s and a limited but growing basis.
Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the world, in fact the first person. Her plane went down and she was never found. She did not live a conventional life. She was seldom with her husband and did not have children. Hannah Reach was a German who loved Germany during World War 2 . She was a fighter pilot and learned how to use gliders when the Germans were not allowed to have an air force. She later became part of the Luftwaft. Wonder Woman flew an invisible jet.
Other Flying women in Europe were more fairy like and magical. The Valkyries of the Norse arrived after a battle to escort dead warriors to the realm of Valhalla. Sometimes they are mates to loyal warriors. Women used to be powerful warriors and leaders. Now they are reduced to being rewards for brave male warriors. The women who stood outside the fold are often most degraded by the patriarchy. Women who were independent, mate freely with who they want or who have ability beyond man were shunned and persecuted. One group of the women was the Witches. Know one really know if there were even any of these do called witches. They were said to fly to sabbat by putting on an ointment and riding a broom to the sabbath where in they would cavort with the devil . Later it was learned that they would make an ointment and fall asleep inn their beds and astral travel. Further on it was realized that they were hallucinating. The gist behind this was to target old, widowed and disagreeable women.
There are further myths of flying women that run throughout the far east and India. If women can ever equal men it is not because they are mortal women but they have to be supernatural. Many time they do not meet with good . The Patriachy hates strong women.
Women like the European swan maiden are shapeshifter par excellent and take the form of whatever they want. These women chose to be swans. Most of the stories go that a man abducts a swan maiden and forces her to marry him. In some tales she finds her swan suit and manages to escape leaving behind her children and husband. Sometimes it is a willing marriage but the man must honor certain conditions like never hit the wife, yell at her etc. in these tales the man usually breaks the prohibition. These tales represent the feminine being subjugated by male power.
In the Western World during modern times, we have Emelia Earhart, Wonder Woman and Hannah Reiche. Their stories are indicative of the patriarchy attitude for women. During the war years when there was a shortage of pilots women were allowed flying jobs for the time being. They were not allowed to fly when menstruating. If there were problems during a flight, if the pilot was a man it was blamed on mechanical failures. If the pilot was a woman it was blamed on her incompetence. Once the war was done the women were dismissed an never allowed to fly again. That is until the 1970’s and a limited but growing basis.
Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the world, in fact the first person. Her plane went down and she was never found. She did not live a conventional life. She was seldom with her husband and did not have children. Hannah Reach was a German who loved Germany during World War 2 . She was a fighter pilot and learned how to use gliders when the Germans were not allowed to have an air force. She later became part of the Luftwaft. Wonder Woman flew an invisible jet.
Other Flying women in Europe were more fairy like and magical. The Valkyries of the Norse arrived after a battle to escort dead warriors to the realm of Valhalla. Sometimes they are mates to loyal warriors. Women used to be powerful warriors and leaders. Now they are reduced to being rewards for brave male warriors. The women who stood outside the fold are often most degraded by the patriarchy. Women who were independent, mate freely with who they want or who have ability beyond man were shunned and persecuted. One group of the women was the Witches. Know one really know if there were even any of these do called witches. They were said to fly to sabbat by putting on an ointment and riding a broom to the sabbath where in they would cavort with the devil . Later it was learned that they would make an ointment and fall asleep inn their beds and astral travel. Further on it was realized that they were hallucinating. The gist behind this was to target old, widowed and disagreeable women.
There are further myths of flying women that run throughout the far east and India. If women can ever equal men it is not because they are mortal women but they have to be supernatural. Many time they do not meet with good . The Patriachy hates strong women.
October 19, 2024
wings (or the ability to move through the air naturally) are what humans do not have and always kinda wanted...and that's why mythological versions of (both men and) women were imagined to achieve this impossible, as a transposition of an ideal. in relation to villains (like witches), flight becomes almost a weapon (the creature even flies, the thing man can't do, fear it more), to inspire a bigger threat. the last thing to mention would be that sometimes it was not the fantasy of flight which inspired humans to give a creature wings, but it was a logical assumption, based on what the creature is supposed to represent, do, or the place it inhabits (it lives high up in the mountain cliffs - it must fly to get there; it comes from the sky/heavens - it flies somehow or has wings; it's a fairy - like nature's many almost invisible insects, it has wings; it can reach any room in any house, even on a top floor - it has wings or levitates spirit-like; it's supposed to represent the merge of all elements in one creature, fire, water, air, earth - air can be represented by flight or having the wings of a bird; it's supposed to represent another creature which already has wings or flies somehow - she's like an angel/divine, she also has wings, she's the protector of dragons/swans/something, she also has wings, she's like other special creatures which have wings already, she also has wings; etc).
the book provides a lot of information, but i felt it also veered a lot from these three very simple ideas behind monsters and enhanced people which have the power of flight. additionally, it also just explains various mythological ideas a bit too much beyond any relevant point to the theme of the book, and, in relation to some of the creatures, some things also seemed a bit misinterpreted at times.
still, the book appears to be the result of a lot of work, which is why i tried not to tax it too much.
the title is not really a good fit based on the content, the book evolves to be less and less about flight as it progresses, more here and there.
the book provides a lot of information, but i felt it also veered a lot from these three very simple ideas behind monsters and enhanced people which have the power of flight. additionally, it also just explains various mythological ideas a bit too much beyond any relevant point to the theme of the book, and, in relation to some of the creatures, some things also seemed a bit misinterpreted at times.
still, the book appears to be the result of a lot of work, which is why i tried not to tax it too much.
the title is not really a good fit based on the content, the book evolves to be less and less about flight as it progresses, more here and there.
August 3, 2021
Appreciated the way this book is organized - the sections cover types of aerial women, rather than a timeline history - and the foreword introduces us to what flying means in terms of transendance and immanence. Dr. Young shows us women who soar, and then shows us that flying women needed to be brought back to the ground to maintain societal and religious ideologies. Read in one book, the journey from goddesses with bird heads and wings - commanding, free, powerful - to goddesses springing from the heads of male gods, who can only fly first with winged sandals supplied from the Guy God footwear store, to Wonder Woman with her plane. Note that the plane is invisible. Still don't get why that's an important feature, except that maybe Marsden didn't want to piss of the men by giving Diana Prince the power of unaided flight.
When read in one book, the global storytelling is also striking. Goddesses, lesser goddesses, minions and administrative assistants become the beings that seduce men at night. While they sleep. Because it couldn't possibly be anything else that forces a man to stray from his religious, societal, familial obligations. She made me do it! In every culture, there are those trickstery night raiders.
For those who enjoy a monstrous-feminine nonfiction account of the myths and legends of women with power, an idea of the breadth of women influence in ancient history, and the depths to which humanity will sink to capture and control the monstrous-feminine, this is an excellent source. While chockablock with facts and timeframes, the writing is accessible and free of evaluation about what the facts might mean. This happened, and continues to happen. We have the power to make up our minds, even while grounded.
When read in one book, the global storytelling is also striking. Goddesses, lesser goddesses, minions and administrative assistants become the beings that seduce men at night. While they sleep. Because it couldn't possibly be anything else that forces a man to stray from his religious, societal, familial obligations. She made me do it! In every culture, there are those trickstery night raiders.
For those who enjoy a monstrous-feminine nonfiction account of the myths and legends of women with power, an idea of the breadth of women influence in ancient history, and the depths to which humanity will sink to capture and control the monstrous-feminine, this is an excellent source. While chockablock with facts and timeframes, the writing is accessible and free of evaluation about what the facts might mean. This happened, and continues to happen. We have the power to make up our minds, even while grounded.
January 29, 2020
This book reminded me of papers I wrote my freshman year of college, before I really knew how to organize my information or develop a proper thesis statement. The author has a thread she follows (women who fly, how women and men may see these stories differently, women's power being used for the benefit of men) but it's all so broad and monomyth-y and I didn't think Young tied everything together. The book being so broad causes problems: you naturally start thinking of all the flying women she didn't include (no Mórrígan?), and nothing gets discussed in much detail. There are also many little factual mistakes, likely made because, again, the book is so broad that the author can't be an expert on every culture she discusses. I mainly noticed mistakes involving Japan and Buddhism because that's what I know, but it made me wonder if there were others. Young also ends up often straying from "flying women" into women/mythological women who were identified with birds or who wrote about birds/air or lived in high places instead of women/mythological women who were actually said to have flown. Overall if you're interested in this topic I'd recommend getting this book from the library, skimming the parts you're interested in, then looking at the footnotes and bibliography to get more in depth into specifics.
March 31, 2020
While this book is an interesting survey of flying women in various cultures, mythologies and religions, I remain unconvinced of her own conclusions.
This books feels both too broad and yet not wide enough- with much focus on certain areas and little to no focus on others. Figures like The Morrigan are not discussed in detail and when she is mentioned it is not accurate. Figures like Baba Yaga are never mentioned at all. I feel some ommisions are due to the figures not quite fitting with her overall conclusions which she attempts to drive at the reader over and over again with far too much repitition.
Some sections were of more interest than others and therefore some sections just dragged on for me. In one area where I was quite interested to see where she would go - fairies- she was ultimately disappointing not only with some inaccuracies but also with her lack of depth and understanding of fairy lore which is much more complex than her conclusion allows for.
Overall I can see that she had a notion particularly regarding Swan Maidens and Valkyries and sexuality, sex and misogyny and female freedom but that the notion does not stand strong in the face of figures she left out and even amongst some of the figures she mentions.
This books feels both too broad and yet not wide enough- with much focus on certain areas and little to no focus on others. Figures like The Morrigan are not discussed in detail and when she is mentioned it is not accurate. Figures like Baba Yaga are never mentioned at all. I feel some ommisions are due to the figures not quite fitting with her overall conclusions which she attempts to drive at the reader over and over again with far too much repitition.
Some sections were of more interest than others and therefore some sections just dragged on for me. In one area where I was quite interested to see where she would go - fairies- she was ultimately disappointing not only with some inaccuracies but also with her lack of depth and understanding of fairy lore which is much more complex than her conclusion allows for.
Overall I can see that she had a notion particularly regarding Swan Maidens and Valkyries and sexuality, sex and misogyny and female freedom but that the notion does not stand strong in the face of figures she left out and even amongst some of the figures she mentions.
July 7, 2018
A very fascinating read! As we speak I am poring over the sources to expand my interest in the various interesting elements found in this book. Although, I see she used source about the Yoruba culture I had rather she had delved more into cultures, other than near Middle East and Europe. I think there is more of a wealth of diverse history and mythical elements if she had used examples from the less obvious tropes of Europe, etc. As well as focusing some more on the black female aviators. Otherwise a worth while read that I recommend strongly.
March 15, 2021
A lot of history and myth stories gathered together. The writing style is a bit textbooky, but she has pulled together fun information.
" Most extraordinarily, the swan can take flight from water by rising up and skimming the surface with its webbed feet while flapping its wings vigorously until it is airborne. When swans land on the ground their mobility is limited and they are vulnerable - a feature that easily fed into tales about captured swan maidens." pg 73
" Most extraordinarily, the swan can take flight from water by rising up and skimming the surface with its webbed feet while flapping its wings vigorously until it is airborne. When swans land on the ground their mobility is limited and they are vulnerable - a feature that easily fed into tales about captured swan maidens." pg 73
March 13, 2023
This book explains a lot. I never thought about how the depictions of women in stories talk about how they must be tamed which never works out well. Men being the writers of these stories have controlled the narrative of witches nymphs and other female creatures of myth to explain why a woman would ever want to be anything other than subservient to men. The depiction of women fighting patriarchy has been going on for centuries.
March 17, 2023
As a little girl who was OBSESSED with fairies, I really enjoyed this deep dive into myths and legends about women who can fly and real historical women who did fly. It reminded me how much I love folklore about women and girls. It is a well written book that's engaging and details stories from cultures, religions, and myths from around the world.
July 29, 2018
Interesting topic, but focus is occasionally lost in text. Has many repetitions. Concept might have been more detailed as a topic in matriarchate transformation. Real aviators, Middle age stories do not connect to Isis or Athena of Minos.
May 19, 2020
I enjoyed this book very much and I think that anyone who is interested in swan maidens or bird shamans would enjoy it too. It's inspired me to read more about Taoist mysticism, which is something I haven't studied for 20 years.
April 24, 2018
While I enjoyed reading the book, I found that the author was too quick to move away from the positive beginning and more interested in focusing on the negative aspects of Women Who Fly.
October 10, 2022
Really good and informative, with an extensive bibliography (half the book is citing sources!)
November 14, 2022
I heard about this book on NPR forever ago, and wanted to wait until spooky season to read it. It's so interesting!
January 17, 2024
Very interesting book and I really enjoyed it. It is very academic though and was a push to get through.
March 1, 2024
Excellent reference book with thoughtful notations and storytelling throughout the way! Will be going back to this in the future.
April 12, 2024
academia of women in myth is my niche favorite
April 22, 2024
Interesting and insightful. Especially as the varied history and what flight meant was so complex. Very enjoyable.
April 28, 2024
A wide ranging and really interesting read. From ancient myth to Amelia Earhart there's likely a topic or two contained within that will pique your interest.
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