“Fight Taught Right”: Edith Garrud and the Art of Suffrajitsu in Old Baggage and Enola Holmes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.202511192Keywords:
suffragette, Edith Garrud, Old Baggage, Enola Holmes, feminist self-defence.Abstract
This article explores the revival and representation of Edith Garrud, the art of suffrajitsu and the jujitsuffragettes in Lissa Evans’s novel Old Baggage (2018) and Harry Bradbeer’s Enola Holmes films (2020, 2022). These works revisit the figure of this jujitsu instructor and her fellow suffragette trainees to respond to certain misrepresentations of these women in both historical and contemporary narratives and depictions of the suffragette movement. By resorting to the figure of Garrud and her self-defence lessons for suffragettes, the novel and films vindicate the contributions of these women to feminism. The works not only shed light on jujitsu’s usefulness and relevance for women’s own protection, but also on the potential of this martial art to empower women and subvert gender stereotypes. Old Baggage and Enola Holmes offer more accurate and faithful versions of the jujitsuffragettes and their trainer than those offered by detractors of women’s suffrage during the period, thus restoring and commemorating the contribution of these women to first-wave feminism.
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Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
Grant numbers FFI2016-75130P;PID2021-122249NB-I00
