#georgemallory

GEORGE MALLORY

18 June 1886 - 8/9 June 1924

MOUNT EVEREST

            George Mallory was an experienced English mountaineer who had climbed Mount Everest numerous times before his death.  

            Mallory was born in Mobberley, Cheshire, England and was in college when his teacher recruited him for an excursion in the Alps, where he became passionate about climbing. He served in the British Army during World War I; afterwards in 1922 he took part in an expedition on Mount Everest the world’s highest mountain.

            On the 1924 expedition to Mount Everest he partnered up with the inexperienced Andrew Irvine. The men made two unsuccessful attempts to the summit and decided to attempt it one more time before the heavy snowfall was due. On 6 June, they made camp and departed on 8 June for the summit and its unknown if they ever did reach the summit.

The pair was last seen alive 800 vertical feet (240 metres) from the summit.

            In 1933, their ice axe was discovered and in 1992 their oxygen cylinder was found. Mallory’s body was discovered lying face down in 1999 (there are photographs on Google Images). It is believed he died in an accident. Mallory’s body has now gone missing. Irvine’s body was never found.

On May 1, 1999, an expedition across Mount Everest located the frozen remains of legendary mountaineer George Mallory, who succumbed to the infamous mountain 75 years earlier. The elements left him sun-bleached and mummified, which lead to his own reality show, Real Househusband of Mount Everest.

cont’d: there are so many prominent figures (many whose stories have been obscured by broader narratives) throughout the 1860s onwards, and then of course the feminist movements that predate social revolutionary movements were hardly 100% demure posh upper class polite discussions 24/7 so it’s just sort of baffling to think they wouldn’t be involved. Women sparked the Russian Revolution in 1917, and it wasn’t like Russia was so enlightened in gender equality compared to 1840s France! smh

Thank you! Yeah, there are some people. Not so much here on Tumblr maybe, but like YouTube etc. The one example that immediately comes to mind is the Nostalgia Chick’s review of the stage musical where she goes “why are there chicks at the epic battle?”

Also I think it’s just the narrative we’ve been taught, you know? Women didn’t fight, women didn’t get involved in battles, unless they were Exceptional Women. Even if there were demonstrably women around it’s often explained away somehow. This is something I learned to believe too already as a kid which is why, even though I know now that it’s not true, I’m still surprised (positively but still) when I see mentions of women in battles from the past.

There’s just such a strong tendency in historical accounts to focus on the men and downplay the influence of women. Charles Jeanne does this too! There’s a blatant difference between his letters and the trial testimonies when it comes to mentioning women. And the letters were meant to be published. It’s a very deliberate choice what he put in those accounts. He talks so proudly and lovingly about his fellow men and the young boys but he doesn’t seem as interested in glorifying the women on his side.

And yes! Those are excellent points about the later revolutionary movements. And I actually didn’t even know that about women starting the Russian Revolution! I’m sure the people here who are more knowledgeable about the French Revolution could probably point out a lot more women in that era too (I mean everybody should have heard of the women’s march at least).

And I’ve found a lot of mentions of women in Napoleon’s army, serving more or less openly. (Probably the most open case being Marie-Thérèse Figueur who joined the revolutionary army as a woman, without disguising her gender. The others pretended to be men, at least at first or at least superficially.) And aside from fighters, I don’t think it’s all that new to have women as nurses and other support crew. I know it was a thing by the time of the Crimean war at least.

Of course that’s for actual armies; popular uprisings specifically were much more open to women… for obvious reasons.

Oh and as I think someone mentioned in tags, all of this often goes for people of colour too. That’s been talked about before too of course.

(even tho by the point of publication it’s essentially “what if maybe sometimes we considered the possibility that maybe the american revolution is potentially a little bit teensy propagandized and our perceptions of insurrectionists are potentially a TEENSY BIT inherently racist and classist and sexist just maybe” and other historians are always still like “YOU RADICALIST APOLOGIST COMMIE SHIT JUMPING ON THE REVISIONIST BANDWAGON” tho that’s /maybe/ changing a little tiny bit… i hope) -done