Perhaps it is best to say that when presenting one's self, you should put your best foot forward. On the battlefield, Mary Seacole became an angel for many men. It was in her presentation of herself to the crown that she has garnered some attention from royalty and now she shares a place in the minds of many as a healer for the sake of healing. She truly was a strong and courageous woman. Why is it then, that Mary Seacole does not have her name burned into the collective mind of students everywhere? Why is it that Florence Nightengale holds all of the nursing cards? I believe because she had the upper hand when the war was over, and her story was not as pedestrian. Not to say that anything about Mrs. Seacole was pedestrian, but she was a more human figure. You cannot think of Seacole without thinking of her mixed heritage, sleeping on boat docks, and possibly about having an illegitimate child. For the purposes of being a wholly rounded person, I applaud her for living a life of both merit and strife. It is when you speak of Florence--she and I are on a first name basis--that less is conjured up.
Florence in my mind is a white woman draped in white, who rides side-saddle to the frontlines and tends to wounded men with surgical cleanliness. That's it. I know nothing more about the woman, despite being on a first name basis. I do not like to show my ignorance often, but I think that is what draws me to my thoughts about the differences between the two. In order to give herself authority to speak on the subject of war, Mrs. Seacole had to promote herself. It was in promoting herself that her story is revealed. The Many Adventures uses the word diarrhea more times than I would care to count. Mary Seacole is now associated with diarrhea. Great. It is that that endures her however, she creates a closeness with her patients that I could not imagine Florence creating. That motherly touch, the sexless nurse in the mud pulling a bullet out of your leg with what she could carry on horseback, that makes her different.
It is in presentation that doing dioramas about nurses in wars tends to lean toward the white woman. Not out of sheer, bleeding edge racism, but because it is easier to portray someone that has a storied history about her. Especially if that history wasn't written by her. If Mrs. Seacole had not produced her work, would we be speaking about her today? Her life is truly a triumph of grit and skill, but how many other great women have existed without the ability to promote themselves? I guess Mrs. Seacole is complicated, so complicated that a diorama wouldn't do her justice. Rich white women, however, are easy.
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