Introduction
Chapter 1 - Earth, Sky and Supernatural Women
PART I - Supernatural Women
Chapter 2 - Winged Goddesses of Sexuality, Death and
Immortality
Chapter 3 - The Fall of the Valkyries
Chapter 4 - Swan Maidens: Captivity and Sexuality
Chapter 5 - Angels and Fairies: Male Flight and Contrary
Females
Chapter 6 - Apsaras: Enabling Male Immortality - Part 1
Chapter 7 - Yoginis and Dakinis: Enabling Male Immortality - Part
2
PART II - Human Women
Chapter 8 - Witches and Succubi: Male Sexual Fantasies
Chapter 9 - Women Shamans: Fluctuations in Female Spiritual
Power
Chapter 10 - Flying Mystics - Part I - West
Chapter 11 - Flying Mystics, or the Exceptional Woman - Part II -
East
Chapter 12 - The Aviatrix: Nationalism, Women and Heroism
Conclusion
The Exceptional Woman
Women and War
Serinity Young is a research associate in the Department of Anthropology at New York's American Museum of Natural History. She is also Adjunct Assistant Professor of Classical, Middle Eastern, and Asian Languages and Cultures at Queens College.
"Young's cross-cultural, multi-period, multidisciplinary and
comparative approach to the evidence for flying women successfully
introduces disciplinary specialists to examples of the concept of
airborne women within cultures or time periods that they probably
would not usually investigate. It is also suitable for a general
readership. The many examples of flying women examined in this book
persuasively demonstrate that the trope of the aerial female, in
various
manifestations, is shared across religions and through time." --
Caroline Tully, University of Melbourne, Reading Religion
"The strength of Women Who Fly is its broad sweep. Young consults
sources that span multiple disciplinesâ[The book] is a good
background resource for women's stud-ies projects, literary
interpretations, and for an overview of historical representations
of women who fly. Students and general readers will find it a
baseline for deeper dives into religious and cultural symbols of
women." -- Nancy Lusignan Schultz, Nova Religio
"[Young's] method is encyclopaedic, [ ... ], and in Women Who Fly
she has marshalled a wonderful gallery of flyers - a kind of
panangelium - from cultures far and wide." --Marina Warner, London
Review of Books
"Women Who Fly covers an enormous span of material, from ancient
Indian goddesses and Valkyries to Wonder Woman and the very few
women astronauts. But it reads like an adventure story, hundreds of
individual adventures all seamlessly united by Serinity Young's
extraordinary wide vision of the history of folklore and mythology.
An inspiring and fascinating book."--Wendy Doniger, author of The
Ring of Truth: and Other Myths of Sex and Jewelry
"From Sanskrit myth to the Wonder Woman comics, from Dante's guide
in Paradise (the winged Beatrice) to Freud's interpretation of
dreams of flying, Young masterfully weaves together a global
history of women fleeing-by flying-the constraints of patriarchy.
Young's superb writing guides the reader through the worlds of
flying souls, counter heroes, witches, and Amelia Earhart. Young's
unique choice of subject matter, religious studies background, and
feminist
insight give us much to contemplate, as the characters described
soar off the page to enlighten us in this incredibly innovative
history of ideas."--Walter Penrose, Jr., author of Postcolonial
Amazons:
Female Masculinity and Courage in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit
Literature
"Ranging widely through myth, religion, and iconography, this story
of 'sky-going females' highlights supernatural and human women who
chafed at being bound by earthly constraints. Placed against this
sweeping backdrop, the aspirations of modern aviators such as
Amelia Earhart and Sally Ride are part of an ongoing power struggle
between the sexes over who gets to fly, literally and
symbolically." --Susan Ware, author of Still Missing: Amelia
Earhart and the
Search for Modern Feminism
"[A] powerful and thought-provoking book... Highly recommended for
readers of women's studies, gender studies, and mythology and
comparative religion." --Library Journal
"... this provocative but convincing book certainly belongs on, or
at least near, the shelf containing some of the most intellectually
exhilarating books I know." --Michael Dirda, he Washington Post
"This is in many ways a joy of a book - certainly an unusual joy
for an academic feminist book. Without ever resorting to the
tedious or impenetrable jargon [...] it delivers a hard-hitting
historical analysis in plain, but glowing English ... Every chapter
of this book is an eye-opener..." --Lynn Pickett, Magonia Review of
Books
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