Earlier this month was National Sisters Day, which got me thinking about famous sibling duos. I thought it would be fun to share a list of the most famous of these sister pairings, but to be fair, there are so many famous pairs of sisters out there that it would be impossible to list them all. That’s why I’ve decided to leave out most of the contemporary examples you’re probably already familiar with, like Paris and Nikki Hilton and Venus and Serena Williams. I’ve also left out all of the popular sister singing groups from the last hundred years because there are so darn many of them between the Pointer Sisters, The Andrews Sisters and the gals from Heart. That being said, here are some sisters who impacted history.
The Graeae
These not-so-attractive ladies are probably some of the earliest examples of famous sister groups, even if they aren’t exactly real. The Graeae were three ancient goddesses from Greek mythology who shared one eye and one tooth amongst the group. While they were actually archaic goddesses, when they interacted with humans, they usually took the form of old witches. Perseus stole the eye of the witches when they were passing it amongst themselves and used it to force the Graeae to tell him where the three objects he needed to kill Medusa were hidden. Thus, the Graeae were instrumental in the killing of Medusa, who was one of their sisters. Even if these siblings aren’t real, the story has been so long-lasting that it’s hard to imagine it not having any impact on European history to some extent. Source
The Trung Sisters
Around the same time that tales of Jesus were starting to be spread through the Middle East, two Vietnamese sisters were kicking butt, leading a revolt against the Chinese oppression of their country. It all started when Trung Trac fell in love and married a man named Thi Sach. The Chinese rulers of Vietnam were making assimilation into their way of life mandatory and when Thi Sach took a stand against the repression of his culture, he was executed. His death was supposed to be a warning against all those who would consider rebelling, but instead it spurred his wife and sister-in-law, Trung Nhi, to take up his cause and fight against the Chinese. The two sisters were raised learning martial arts and studying the art of warfare, so when it was time to start a rebellion, they were ready. In 39 AD, the two women repelled a small Chinese unit from their village and started to assemble a large army of rebels –mostly women according to popular legends. Within a few months, they already had taken back over 60 citadels from the Chinese and had liberated the kingdom of Nam Viet. The two were named as queens of their free country and they were able to keep the territory free from the Chinese for over two years.
The Trung’s victory was short-lived though. It wasn’t long before the Chinese amassed a massive army and decimated the women’s forces. One legend claims the Chinese were able to win the battle by fighting naked, embarrassing the female warriors so they willingly left the battlefield. Another story says that a pregnant woman on the front lines, Phung Thi Chinh, gave birth to her baby, scooped it up in one arm and continued to fight with the sword in her other hand. Despite their most valiant efforts, the female fighters were outnumbered. To protect their honor and avoid capture by the Chinese, the Trung sisters committed suicide by drowning themselves in the Hat River. Their remaining fighters carried on the battle until they were killed or until they killed themselves. While much of the story is more legend than truth, the Trung sisters are still highly revered in Vietnam as heroes of the first resistance movement in their independence from China. There is even a holiday honoring the day they committed suicide and temples throughout the country are dedicated to their memory. Source
The Grimke Sisters
The Grimke Sisters were some of the first women to publicly act in American social reform movements. While many revolutionaries were raised by progressive parents who taught them to question the way things are, Angelina and Sarah Grimke were the opposite. Their father, the chief judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina was a strong proponent both of slavery and of the subordination of women. The girls were raised on a massive plantation, where they saw the worst parts of slavery on a regular basis. When Sarah was only five, she tried to run away so she could escape somewhere without slavery. She later taught her personal slave to read although this was against the law at the time. Sarah was a bright girl who studied constantly and wanted to become a lawyer. Unfortunately, when her parents learned that she wanted to attend college, they forbade her to study any more. Since she could no longer continue her education, Sarah begged to become godmother to her youngest sister Angelina. From that point on, the two were extremely close. The two started working for the abolition movement in 1835 and soon learned just how powerless women were when it came to politics. Angelina caused a scandal when she wrote her first abolitionist work, as it urged southern women to reject slavery because it allowed their husbands the opportunity to cheat on them with their black slaves. Discussing such a sensitive subject in such a brazen manner was considered outrageous at the time. As if that weren’t enough, the pair urged racial acceptance, not just the banning of slavery –something even many abolitionists were against. Every letter they wrote and every speech they gave was fought by criticisms, but the sisters stood strong. They pressed on and eventually, they became the first women to address the Massachusetts state legislature in 1838. Their appearance caused a scandal, but inspired a number of young women to follow them. Eventually, they attracted thousands of women in New England to join the abolitionist movement and thousands of men and women would travel from miles around to see the girls give public speeches. In 1838, Angelina got married to abolitionist and women’s rights supporter Theodore Weld. While the couple initially planned for Angelina to stay active in politics, when she delivered a baby, she found herself too busy to be a public speaker any more. Sarah moved in with the couple and also chose to retire from the public sphere. While they no longer spoke publicly on the matter, the girls continued to write and edit abolitionist newspapers and pamphlets. At one point, the girls started a boarding school and many abolitionists sent their children there to learn about politics and slavery without the racial prejudices of other schools at the time. After the Civil War, the Grimke girls learned that their deceased brother had three mixed-race sons with one of his slaves. The girls took in the oldest two of the children and provided them with education and support. After years of support for the abolitionist and feminist movements, the girls lived long enough to see the slaves freed and to see the 15th Amendment passed. At almost 80 years old, Sarah and her sister were able to vote for the first time in 1870. Source
The Podgorski Sisters
You can change the world in a number of ways and while Stefania and Helena Podgorska may have only saved the lives of 13 individuals, they are still heroes who could very likely inspire other groups of brave rebels. The girl’s father died in 1938, so Stefania had to start working in a grocery store owned by a Jewish family called the Diamants when she was only 15. It wasn’t long before Poland was invaded by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and the town of Przemysl was right at the dividing line between the two nations. The Germans took the girl’s mother and their brother to a forced labor camp to support the Third Reich, leaving a 16 year-old Stefania to care for her 6 year-old little sister. They also took the Diamants to a newly-formed ghetto. Stefania took a job as a machine-tool operator and paid rent for the apartment where she and Helena lived. In 1942, the Germans began to liquidate the Przemsyl ghetto, sending the Jewish residents to concentration camps. Fortunately, two sons of the Diamants escaped from the train that was scheduled to take them to the Belzec extermination camp and made their way to the Podgorska’s home. While the two girls were scared, they knew they had to help, so they let the boys stay in the attic. The older boy, Max, asked Stefania if he could bring his family to stay in the attic and she said yes. Because the attic was too small for so many people, Stefania soon rented a detached cottage with a larger attic. She and Helena moved in first and the rest of the family and their friends followed. Soon there were 13 people living in the girl’s attic. Unsurprisingly, the young girls quickly ran out of money to feed and house all of their visitors, so the girls began knitting sweaters and Stefania took orders for them from everyone she knew. She would even trade clothes for food when she couldn’t get enough money together. The family lived next to an SS officer for a long time, but everyone worked hard to stay quiet and not alert suspicion. Even so, the girls were terrified and shocked when a German officer knocked on their door one day and ordered them to vacate their home in the next two hours. Their fugitive tenants begged them to run away, but Stefania refused and the officer soon returned, informing the girls that he changed his mind and would be taking a home on the other side of the house. A few months later, the Soviet Army took over Przemysl and the Jewish attic-dwellers were free. Stefania married one of the Diamant’s sons and emigrated to the US. Helena remained in Poland, married and eventually became a physician. In 1979, the two were flown to Jerusalem and honored as the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for their heroism during the war. Source As I said in the beginning, I did decide to leave out most of the contemporary famous sisters and any music acts, so if you’d like to take this time to talk about your favorite famous female siblings, go right ahead. Also, if you have any fun anecdotes involving your sisters, feel free to share them here.
Comments (4)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirabal_sisters
BlueSue, you have an issue with black women drinking Riesling? Seriously? How is preference for German wine related to race? It's unfortunate you witnessed fights, but you were not "bitten by dogs" for 6 years. It's notes like fussing about wine choices that reveals your racism.
As people have noted, lots of different types of people are rude customers- old people, young people, rich people, poor people, city people, farm people, large groups, single diners. What do we learn from this? NO particular characteristic is associated with being a poor customer, so if you want to earn tips, treat EVERYONE well! You're in the service industry, that's your job! If you think you're seeing a 'pattern', you're not, because your own experience disproves it!
I love to dine out, and I've had every kind of server imaginable. Guess what- the ones who offer me nicer service get a larger tip.
So I'd like to see this particular restaurant study redone, and this time, measure the number of times each ethnicity is overly aggressive or overly demanding of the wait staff. Only by measuring the behavior of black people could we accurately verify if the response to that behavior is due to unfair stereotyping or is due to the actual "bad" behavior of black people.
I'm also thinking of another study, where black school kids were punished more harshly for the same offense. I mentioned that study to several teachers and they all said the same thing: that black kids behave badly at more frequent rates than any other demographic, which is the reason teachers crack down on them faster. Again, the assumption is that black kids behave just like any other demographic, when this information has not been verified.
But if this wasn't a business setting... things would be a lot different.
Anyway, as for the article, very interesting but would like it to be done in a different area with a larger black waiter ratio just to see if they also have the same opinion.
Anywho... I know if all waiters think like this, they're extremely disappointed when they serve my family's table (inlaws that is). They are the cheapest bunch of white folk out there. Not demanding or rude or anything, but they sure don't tip well at all even for excellent service.
We've come so far.
BASED ON MY OWN OBSERVATIONS, black people are very difficult to wait on. They are demanding. They like a lot of ranch dressing. They order $40 steaks well done and complain about the cooking time. They drink very sweet drinks, including wine. Every black woman I've waited on in my current restaurant who ordered wine, ordered a riesling.
At the seafood place, you would not believe the treatment I got from black folks. It was humiliating, and detailing it here would never be believed and would offend (even more) outrageously. Just think of every awful thing that could be done or said to those who serve and it happened to me by black folks. They fight each other. We had to call the cops every weekend for fights. Not only among the men! They walk out on checks. I had three black people give me REALLY BAD counterfeit money. The black people who patronized that place were on a lower economic scale than the place I'm at now. ("Um, $28 on this card, $16 on this card, and $23 on this card...will that cover it?")
No, this does not happen with patrons of other races. I've never had to call the cops for a fight amongst white folks, Asian folks.
Last night I had a single black lady in my section. I did more work for her than I did for any other ten people that night. Came in 10 minutes to close, wanted dinner AND dessert (even though kitchen closed at 11pm Sunday night) -- not just any dessert....a chocolate souffle. Kitchen staff had to stay late to make it, because she didn't want it arriving too early. When her food arrived, she sent me on literally ten trips to fetch things -- water, no, I need no ice. I need a lemon. I need chili pepper flakes. I would like the wine list. No, I will have a Bailey's coffee. At 10 minutes before the kitchen closed, I had 6 other tables who were getting neglected because this one lady couldn't give me her demands either 1.) prior to receiving her food, or 2.) all at once.
The tipping rates for these folks HAS gotten better. At the cheap seafood place, it was $5, no matter if the bill was $100 or $50. A lot of times, zero.
I consciously try to not give inferior service to black people when they come to my section. But if you had been bitten by dogs for 6 years, you would be afraid of dogs. Waiter behavior is based on customer behavior.
I actually think, though, that this is a cultural thing, not really a race thing. Urban black folks tip differently in their own culture.
There are two really great black ladies who come in my current restaurant maybe once every two weeks. They drink excellent wine, dress beautifully, and are the sweetest ladies on the planet. They tip great. They live in a predominantly white area...draw your own conclusions. My point is though, that if they were treated badly on their initial trip to my restaurant, they wouldn't have returned again and again. So even though black folks have "bitten" me in the past, we try to get over it and treat the next folks nicely even though the odds are greater that I will get the same treatment I've gotten from the vast majority of blacks in the past. MY past. THIS IS ALL MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
If a majority of the servers percieve this to be true there is probably some merit to it.
I love Neatorama precisely because it doesn't do politically hot issues. Why would you want to mess up that?
The underlying fact that pretty much everyone is self-absorbed and only concerned about #1 is the one consistent cause of all these problems.
The waiters' behavior is justified by the statistical data. It's like an insurance actuator determining that a 25-year old male driver is at higher risk of being in an accident than a 25-year old female driver. From their perspective it's not prejudice, it's just good business sense.
The waiters can fall-back on the same excuse insurance companies (and pretty much everyone else uses) and who can fault them for it? Economics determine morality.
I posted this because I found it interesting. There's no requirement to like every single post on Neatorama, or even to read every single one.
Sad to see you go, though Fae.
Ask yourself what you can offer the internet that isn't offered by others? EVERYBODY AND THEIR DOG has an opinion blog. Why do you feel the need to bring that into Neatorama? Doing so offers nothing new and is making Neatorama just another wannabe issues site.
What you COULD have done instead is focus exclusively on "Neat" stuff. Kinda like your name implies. THAT would bring something new and different. A site where one can kick back and get away from all the troubles of the world. Sadly, you disagree. But hey, it's your site, do what you want to with it.
And it's my time to do what I want to with it. This will be my last time visiting Neatorama.
Bye