by Sarah aka “G”

Guess who’s back with another mini-history lesson! That’s right, moi. Bet y’all thought you read the last of me tackling history with Lady Godiva, but no. Professor G has been re-awoken, because I think it’s important for us to pay homage to our roots. Especially those that opened the doors for us gals.

Now, without further adieu, it’s time to shed some light on history’s first female leader and one of, if not the most controversial figure in Ancient Egyptian history. Any guess? Any? Any? Bueller? Bueller? I’ll give you a few seconds to think about that…Did you think of anyone? Well, the answer is Hatshepsut (good luck with that one),  fondly (sometimes) referred to as the very first drag king.

Hatshepsut was the granddaughter of Ahmose I, first king of the 18th dynasty and although her father was pharaoh, experts suggest that her mother was in sole possession of royal blood. Anyways, Hatshepsut’s daddy, Tuthmosis I had a surviving son, Thuthmosis II from one of his lesser wives (DOG!). This is boring, but bear with me.  So, Thuthmosis II and Hatshepsut were married off to each other, yeah gross, I know and totally illegal these days, but they apparently thought nothing of it. Next comes Daddy Thuthmosis I dying and leaving his throne to sickly Tuthmosis II who reigned for an estimated two to three years before sailing over The Nile to meet Osiris (god of the underworld). Like his daddy, Thuthmosis II also seemed to have problems with leaving  a male heir from his queen, he couldn’t. Instead, he left the throne to his baby boy Tuthmosis III, given to him by, you guessed it, one of his other wives. True to ancient customs, if the heir was too young to rule by himself, the Queen was appointed his regent and they ruled together and here’s where it gets good.

Hatshepsut was quite the ambitious woman (go Hatshepsut!) and wasn’t content just being her step-son’s regent. After-all, she was the true-blue royal, right? Royal blood ran through her veins and she was just as capable as any male of running an ever-flourishing country. That meant one thing, shaking the gender roles up and having herself crowned pharaoh. Yeah, pharaoh, a traditionally male role. They didn’t even have a term for female ruler back then (queen meant main wife of the pharaoh), it just was not done, but she did it. Oh boy, did she ever do it.

The title of pharaoh was passed down from father-to-son, as religious belief dictated that a female could not properly carry the kingly duties out, this was a massive hurdle for Hatshepsut to leap over, because if religion dictated something, society went with it. So once her husband went bye, bye, no she didn’t kill him, she made it known and by known, I mean carved in temples, that she was her father’s favorite and he had hand-picked her to rule. She also ditched her title of King’s Wife in favor of God’s wife of Amun and even went so far as to say that her mother got it on with Amun-Ra and made her. Crazy, crazy, but if it was chiseled in stone, it was true back then. After that, she moved to the drag king part. Our gal Hatshepsut had herself depicted in traditional pharaoh attire, complete with the freaky beard. Although I doubt she actually grew the beard…Hopefully…

Everybody’s favorite drag king wasn’t just able to overcome gender roles to become pharaoh, she was  also one heck of a pioneer. In her 20-year reign, she accomplished more than most male pharaohs. She achieved great architectural feats, such as the creation of two of the largest obelisks at The Temple of Karnak and her complex funeral temple at Deir-el-Bahri, which was a massive architectural feat back in the day. She was also able to get up close and personal with her chief architect, if you know what I mean. Something else a male pharaoh surely never did.Well…You never know…Not to mention, Hatshepsut also led expeditions to the land on Punt and brought back rare spices, ivory, animals, gold and aromatic trees that were highly coveted by Egyptians. It was the start of her leading the 18th dynasty  into a time of great prosperity. You know all of that wealth King Tut was buried with? Probably wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for her and that was A LOT of gold.

Eventually, Hatshepsut met her untimely demise via an abscess tooth. Who’d have thunk it? This powerful woman who was able to overcome numerous obstacles and accomplish the things she did was taken out by a bad, little tooth. Ironic, is it not? But there you have it,the pioneer of female empowerment. What do you think?

Word Out!

G

About “G”

Waaaazzzuuup?! Y’all already know my name(s) so I’ll just skip that part and move on. I’m the token Canadian girl, but not-so-token these days, because there is actually several Canadians around! Isn’t it amazing? It’s definitely amazing. Hmm… I’m also pretty accident prone and by ‘pretty accident prone’, I mean dangerously accident prone. It’s quite bad, but apparently entertaining at the same time. I’m a complete and utter history nerd, a big Canucks fan, a roller coaster junkie and I have a slight addiction to Snuggle fabric softener and I’m rambling; so I shall bid you all adieu.