Cultural Pioneers

The figures found here are from diverse backgrounds and represent challenges to prevailing standards of style and behavior specific to one or the other gender. The pre-contemporary figures included here such as Beatrice Lillie, Calamity Jane and George Sand would not be considered non-conformist by today's standards, but, at the height of their popularity, challenged and broke down, many prevailing conventions of their time. These and the other figures collected here challenged authority not merely to attract attention to themselves (for these figures see the Spectacle of Confusion category), but to voice artistic or other ideas which found expression in their music, writing and other pursuits.