00:10:10.020Um, and then I'm sure there's, there's actors with, you know, limb difference that, you
00:10:15.800know, maybe they don't have, you know, arms, but they have legs.
00:10:18.680You have to CGI, you know, something, but I, I so often see CGI used to create, you
00:10:25.760know, a shrunken Hugh Grant in Wonka or something that I'm just kind of like, I'm pretty sure you
00:10:30.940could find a disabled actress that fits a couple of the criteria. Yeah. And then you CGI for the0.95
00:10:36.160rest, uh, because you do it for all these other asinine things that we don't need.
00:10:40.180No, exactly. So that's, so Sarah Biffin, what a story. I think as we go through,
00:10:46.180like we can imagine the good version and, and, or the bad version of how would they have made
00:10:50.600this into a movie because part of the story actually is sort of like an anti-trigger warning
00:10:56.580like she thrives this is not a story of like a disabled person and like oh all these horrible0.88
00:11:01.780things it's like she kicks ass and like does well for herself this is not like she certainly has0.65
00:11:08.640challenges but so I feel like first of all for a movie it's like we need to put some more0.86
00:11:13.560she's doing too well she's too capable yeah so I think that they'd want to change that as well
00:11:20.480So I'm going to begin this with. So later in her life, she wrote sort of a personal, like an artist statement, like explaining who she is in her life story. So as much as possible, I'd like to use some of her words. Although I will say she wrote this artist statement, hoping to get some more patrons to finance her art career. So she's being as persuasive as she can. So it's not, but who is ever objective when writing a biography?
00:11:41.880But she starts it off with, I was born on the 25th of October, 1784 at East Quantex Head
00:11:47.300near Bridgewater and Somerset Shure without hands or arms.
00:11:51.440I mean, that's, that's getting right to the point of it.
00:23:39.740but she meets this guy who is listed in various censuses as an artist called Emmanuel Dukes.
00:23:47.160So sometimes people are like, oh, he's a showman. He's sort of like a, what's the greatest showman
00:23:52.400guy? Oh, PT Barnum. People imagine he's like a PT Barnum type, but he seems to be like somewhere
00:23:57.420not quite there. Like he does seem to be an artist mostly, but he, so he kind of teaches
00:24:02.840her and introduces her to how to do art. And he's the one who is like, I think that you could make
00:24:08.580money practicing art and people come watch you do it because what we were just talking about
00:24:14.160that would be fascinating to people so this is a way that you can maybe finance what you want to
00:24:19.020be doing and get your name out there and become a bit better known because the sort of art that
00:24:23.220she decides to do is miniatures painting so these are just little tiny little tiny paintings and it
00:24:30.280was in a pre-photography era this is a way that if you like this is my person who I love this is my
00:24:36.300child. This is my dog. Like, and you want to have a little picture to take around with you. Like you
00:24:39.880hire, you commission an artist to draw a little tiny version of that person or like they see a
00:24:44.980big painting and turn it into a tiny version. So, and this is miniature painting. I've talked
00:24:49.640about some other women artists. It was more like French revolution era, but that's not that so long
00:24:53.740ago from her. And this is a sort of art that women often did because it took up a lot less space in1.00
00:25:02.360the home, it was a lot less expensive than doing like giant canvases and huge tubes of paint. Like1.00
00:25:08.360women would do like pastels or they would do miniatures because it's kind of like an art0.98
00:25:13.080that you can do in the corner of your house while you're raising your children or whatever. So it's,0.90
00:25:17.300so she's like, I want to do this art form that is like, I already know acceptable for like a woman1.00
00:25:22.760to be doing. And then this mentor, her like art teacher is like, okay, well let's just put you on
00:25:29.080the festival carnival circuit. And so this is where she signed some sort of contract with him
00:25:35.560that lasts for the next 15 years. And while she was under the contract, she would always only say
00:25:42.000like, oh, this is so great. He's helping me out so much. And she lived with him and his family.
00:25:45.400She traveled with them and she would live with them and they weren't traveling. And she said,
00:25:48.580they took such good care of me. And then once she was done the contract, she was just kind of like,
00:25:52.820it wasn't the best. But while she's under contract, she can't say anything against him.
00:25:57.800Yeah. And I mean, I think that's definitely something, the level of control that able people have had historically. Again, this is no different than somebody like John Merrick, you know, the elephant man and his relationship with Frederick Treves, the doctor.
00:26:15.020You know, a lot of the transition from the 1800s to the 1900s often saw disabled people transition from being owned or controlled in some way by carnival people to being owned and controlled by either hospitals, institutions or doctors.
00:26:31.700So when the medical community takes an interest in disability and spectacle is taken off the streets and into the medical settings, these kind of medical sideshows, which were essentially attempts to show medical issues with people and educate the public.
00:26:49.660Like when the entertainment portion pivots to an edgy edutainment, you know, the control changes.
00:26:59.060And if anything, doctors ended up having even more control because they were experts, right?
00:27:04.260They were the ones that were going to be able to tell people how, whether these people could live.0.97
00:27:08.000So it becomes a far more dangerous and confining setting and the rise of institutionalizing of disabled people expands.0.78
00:27:16.020So, you know, it's definitely good that she was able to get out of it because in a couple of years, a lot of people were just not able to do that once medicine and science becomes the end goal.
00:27:29.560Well, and that's also that just making me think about, so in my book, Rebel of the Regency, available now, I talk, I did some research in that because the main person I talked about in that, Caroline of Brunswick, has various medical chronic concerns.
00:27:43.880And her husband does too. And so I was reading about kind of what the treatments were. And so I was talking with my friend who actually, she is like a professor in history of science. And I was just like, explain to me what was going on with medicine circa 1820.
00:27:58.880and it was this we're in like a leeches era we're in like uh there's the four humors blood
00:28:04.720lighting is the cure for everything like no germ theory no one knows about washing hands so that's
00:28:10.640where sarah biffin is beginning her life and her journey but towards the end of her life like mid
00:28:15.8001800s is where suddenly it's like science medicine doctors hospitals like so i can see
00:28:20.540like that's where the pivot happened once medicine kind of took over yeah i mean merrick
00:28:26.360that gets the term, gets the name, the elephant man, because Frederick Treves, you know, jokingly
00:28:31.540is like, well, his mother saw an elephant when she was pregnant and, you know, it scared her
00:28:36.240into, to all of that. And I, you know, it's people assume that eugenics plays such a big part
00:28:43.220in the Victorian, you know, transition, um, with disability. And I mean, eugenics is always part0.98
00:28:50.160of it. But at the same time, you know, Sarah Biffin is really at this beginning of the 1840s
00:28:58.540Dickensian revolution of disability that people do not talk about enough about how Charles Dickens
00:29:04.120fuck things up for every disabled person from time immemorial. Um, that's, we're going to get0.98
00:29:09.940there, but, but yeah, I mean, I think there's a real revolution brewing. Yeah. Charles Dickens is
00:29:16.300like stealthily the villain of this story he is the moriarty the the doctor no he's the everything
00:29:24.460well wait and so this could be in the movie we could have like her and charles dickens
00:29:29.020i think yes yes you get like you get like jeremy irons to play charles dickens uh or something
00:29:38.420like yeah you bring in like colin firth or somebody just oh i i support this too yes
00:29:44.560yeah so i think this is this is how we're going to get this off the ground you have to have some
00:29:48.640sort of famous man be in this movie right well you're gonna have to add like a love interest or
00:29:54.080a dude you need a dude like an able dude that's going to save her uh so we're gonna have to
00:29:59.560create like a guy that is like i support her and i'm not smothering but she's also being exploited
00:30:06.980like so we're gonna have to like completely craft another character we absolutely are because that's0.96
00:30:12.360the thing, like listeners, like she figures this shit out herself by herself basically. Um, so to0.94
00:30:18.360make a movie, you'd have to have someone saving her, but in fact she saved herself. So she's, um,
00:30:22.940so just the, the sorts of like fairs that she's exhibiting in. Um, and this is sort of, I was
00:30:29.140trying to think like how to compare it to, because when I think of a fair, like here in the town
00:30:33.040where I live, it's kind of like, well, here's like, you know, there's the fairground rides and
00:30:36.680here's like the games you can play. And then, you know, some washed up country music star is
00:30:41.280going to do a concert and it's kind of like and hot dogs but the fairies we're talking about1.00
00:30:45.700the closest thing i can think is almost like a disney situation where there's kind of competing1.00
00:30:52.560except it's all different independent contractors it's like competing tents and you have to pay to
00:30:57.460get into each tent and each tent offers claims it's going to be like the most mind-blowing
00:31:01.440experience you've ever seen and one of them is maybe a mind reader and one of them is like
00:31:05.680trapeze artists or whatever and sarah biffin is one of these but you have to pay to go in to see
00:31:10.720her. So they have to explain like, here's what you're going to see. Like you're going to go in
00:31:13.940this tent and go watch a woman drinking a cup of tea. You're going to watch a disabled woman drink1.00
00:31:20.040coffee. Uh, nice work. If you can get it, I would love to just like hang out in a tent all day at1.00
00:31:27.980a farmer's market or something and eat cheesecake and have people pay to see me do it. Yeah. So
00:31:34.780what she's doing is like, this is her, like our career. Like she's cause she's with this guy,
00:31:39.960David Dukes or Emmanuel, Emmanuel Dukes is who she's with. And he is like, he's teaching her
00:31:46.140like various art techniques and stuff. And so she's practicing her painting. So people would
00:31:49.820pay to go into this tent. And what you're going to see is this like 20 year old woman. She's going1.00
00:31:53.880to write with a pen. She's going to cut out fabric and sew clothes with a needle. She's going to do1.00
00:32:00.680some painting. So she's just like doing what her kind of hobbies are anyway. And people are paying
00:32:05.700to go in and then you would also get when you went in when you like she would write your name
00:32:11.060on a piece of paper and give it to you so that was you're like oh my god i have this piece of0.91
00:32:13.960paper and it was written by a woman with no hands like this is your souvenir but she was like became
00:32:18.640a very popular attraction and it's interesting to me that as she was doing that she was also
00:32:24.980exhibiting her show so this is something that the people who put together this current day
00:32:29.300exhibition they sort of track so even simultaneously like she's going from town to
00:32:33.820town doing these fairs but then she would also find a place to rent in the town and be like hey
00:32:38.300here's my exhibition of my art so she's like she's hustling she's a millennial freelancer before it
00:32:44.560was a thing absolutely because she's just like I like she's got this entrepreneurial spirit like
00:32:51.460she's not just being somewhat used by this able-bodied man like she's also freaking out
00:32:58.840her own career and making her own contacts and she's getting to know she like the various fairs
00:33:04.380they go to she crisscrosses all around the united kingdom she goes to all these cities and she meets
00:33:08.680people and she's memorable because of what she looks like and because of her talent so later
00:33:13.940when she leaves the carnival she has these connections so she's able to keep exhibiting
00:33:17.920her work like she's putting all the pieces in place to be able to leave the carnival
00:33:21.280and thrive on her own and i think that's a really interesting part of her story that she's like that
00:33:27.100she's figured this out for herself. She's like, here's the opportunities and here's what I'm
00:33:30.120going to do. And she's apparently so through everyone who's writing about her, who like
00:33:34.780wrote in their memoirs, who remember seeing her, she's so personable and charming and lovely,
00:33:39.240which you have to be, as you would know, Kristen, as a freelancer, when you go to one of these
00:33:44.660events, like you want to be like memorable, but you also want to be someone that someone's like
00:33:48.920when they have a job in mind, they're like, Oh, I'll call that nice person I met. So she's like
00:33:52.440winning people over. She's so lovely. It's, it's definitely, you know, we don't talk about this
00:33:58.660enough, but disability can be a nice advantage if, uh, you know how to use it. Right. Uh, I mean,
00:34:05.160I definitely, uh, had encounters with like, you know, celebrities don't remember anybody. Uh,
00:34:10.840and as a journalist, you know, it's always nice to have people be like, I remember you. I'm like,
00:34:15.780yeah, cause I'm the only disabled person that's ever talked to you. Um, you know, so you may not1.00
00:34:20.620remember my name, but you remember the wheelchair. Uh, you know, so there is, it's, it's a good
00:34:25.240advantage, you know, but you have to have the talent of course, to back everything up. And the
00:34:29.640fact that she was able to showcase that she had artistic ability, you know, somebody may not
00:34:35.920remember her name, but if they're looking for an artist, they're like, Hey, I remember that art,0.91
00:34:41.060you know, from that artist, get the chick with no hands. Uh, so again, all just, all just works
00:34:47.240nicely together if you know how to work it well and this is what's interesting to me about the
00:34:52.080branding that she does like in like there's some um pictures like of the the pamphlets and the
00:34:57.720playbills just saying like come and see miss biffin she's going to be at the fair because
00:35:01.900can you imagine like going to the fair every all these independent contractors are all showing up
00:35:07.360and they all have a flyer it's just like it's like the fringe festival sort of atmosphere was
00:35:11.120just like see this show no see this show and her thing just is like come see miss biffin like her
00:35:15.240name becomes so it's not like miss like miss miffin is huge and then there's like a whole
00:35:20.680paragraph in the middle it's like she doesn't have any hands but it's not like miss miffin
00:35:24.160here with no hands it's like she has no hands and then in her tiny tiny type it's got her name
00:35:31.600it's not like that her name is what becomes famous and i find that really interesting
00:35:36.860yeah that needs to happen far more often uh more often than it usually does uh because i i mean
00:35:43.120even, you know, even now, you know, I tell people all the time, like, you know, I'm a,
00:35:48.080am I a disabled journalist? Yes. You know, but at the same time, I think it's always heartening to
00:35:53.500have people that are like, I, they know my name first before they realize like,
00:35:57.940and there are people that interact with me that do not know that I'm disabled. You know, like,
00:36:02.460I'm like, how do you not Google me and see the first picture, you know, uh, as me as a wheelchair
00:36:07.800user. So that's really important again, to create when creating a brand. So she was again,
00:36:13.840cutting edge. And it's just like, she's this like 20 year old woman from a farm in Somerset.
00:36:21.080Like no one's coming in. Like she's got this guy who's helping her to get into the fair and stuff,
00:36:26.100but like, there's no one there to be like mentoring her in PR. Like her instincts are
00:36:29.360just so correct. Like just, but also her artistic ability, like he's giving her these lessons and
00:36:34.500you could give me those lessons. Like I would not be creating things like she was creating in
00:36:38.9001821. No, I, I took a, I took a rogue art class as a kid. Okay. I mean, my parents and my
00:36:46.500grandparents thought I was a great painter, but I was not. So, so she's traveling around,
00:36:51.120she's traveling around doing these fairs slash building her portfolio, you know, doing these
00:36:56.720other exhibitions and other places. And while she's in Edinburgh of all places, um, so there's
00:37:02.680this guy, George Douglas, the sixth Earl of Morton. And I want to pause for long-time listeners on my
00:37:08.700podcast who listened to the Mary Queen of Scots series. Yes, he is the descendant of the Earl of
00:37:15.700Morton from the Mary Queen of Scots series. There's a line of people who are all called
00:37:19.260George Douglas, and he is one of the Douglas family from the Mary Queen of Scots story.
00:37:24.460Anyway, his whole thing, his vibe. So this is like 1808. So they meet each other. Presumably,
00:37:30.760like we're guessing how do they meet each other but um george douglas was a real patron of the
00:37:37.220arts he was really interested in this and he's also in a pre-charles dickens era interested in
00:37:42.380what i'm gonna call just vaguely social justice sort of like he wants to support people who are
00:37:48.300on the margins of society and that's a good instinct i don't want to say it's not but he
00:37:53.180wants to be seen as someone who is doing that so he wants to do this but in a performative way
00:37:57.900he's definitely like a white abled savior in some way yes he hears i presumably one of these flyers
00:38:06.920comes his way because she's in town and so he goes to her exhibition he's like wait she's actually
00:38:10.840he's like wait but are you really and you know what fair enough i'm sure there's people at the
00:38:15.580fair who are pretending to be doing whatever they're doing right so he's like are you actually
00:38:19.720painting he's like i want you to paint a portrait of me but every day at the end of the day i'm
00:38:22.680going to take home the work in progress and bring it back so that there's no like shenanigans there's
00:38:26.580not like someone secretly overnight finishing i would have looked at him like dude where do you
00:38:32.540think i really you have to be that guy like the magician being like i have to make sure there's
00:38:38.280no there's no hanky panky he thinks that he's watching the unknown with lon chaney and she's
00:38:43.320just gonna actually have arms hiding somewhere exactly just pop out at night and now for a quick
00:38:51.340advertising break. The war is over and both sides lost. Kingdoms were reduced to cinders
00:38:59.340and armies scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken
00:39:06.520world, praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight. But in the shadow dark, the darkness
00:39:12.660always wins. This is old school adventuring at its most cruel. Your torch ticks down in real time.
00:39:20.340and when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job.
00:39:24.100This is a brutal rules-light nightmare
00:54:22.140And so she won the silver medal for like, like person who did something that's not covered by any of the other categories. And in her case, she did copy and a lot of what her art training was and a lot of what everyone's art training was, was looking at famous paintings and then copying them because that's how you learn how to make your painting look like that. Anyway, she won the silver medal and she like, I love this for her. She wore it. She wore it.
00:54:44.680hell yeah we're all the time yeah for the rest of her life she exactly i'd be like i won the0.99
00:54:51.680silver medal and i have no hands like those are just gonna be my my two monikers so she had the
00:54:58.580medal um like in some of her self-portraits you can see that she's like got it on a chain that
00:55:02.500she wears and the medal was like like it's a really prestigious award that she won um it's
00:55:08.340just kind of funny that the category was like other but so they would have painted like they
00:55:13.360the medal was like forged it had like a copy of her painting in silver on it and then like the
00:55:19.660name of her and the name of her painting it probably said like no hands somewhere she could
00:55:25.060so she's just like a self like promoting so she shows up anywhere it's just like oh hey it's me
00:55:30.480remember me no hands won the silver medal that i'm wearing i love to think she has a jacket like
00:55:35.740a jean jacket emblazoned with no hands on the back like hashtag no hands like she would have
00:55:42.460totally done that so she wins this medal she's doing amazing and then just through her various
00:55:47.140connections like through the earl of morton and like with the doubt with the british royal family
00:55:50.860she goes on a trip um with the earl of morton to brussels um where she is hired to by the
00:55:58.120the crown prince there to be his miniature artist for a while so she's like doing like for an artist
00:56:04.160the goal is to get royal commissions because that's as much as you can be paid and that's
00:56:10.140the most prestige you can possibly get so she's but also she's traveling she's left she's been
00:56:15.980all over the uk and now she like is in brussels like just i'm trying to picture also true like
00:56:22.120carriages would be involved trains are not invented yet so she's just like
00:56:27.020her and her manservant jacob alordi yeah they're just they're just traveling all over the the
00:56:34.280landscape right there that's that's gonna be part of our eventual adaptation of this story so
00:56:39.860I think that would be that would be a beautiful sequence of the carriage ride and a carriage
00:56:44.640montage through Brussels like oh my god get get like you know uh Rodrigo Prieto to shoot it or
00:56:51.300something like just chef's kiss so this is I know well now I'm just picturing sort of like a Sofia
00:56:56.520Coppola like just you know like the bored person looking at the window of a traveling thing it's
00:57:01.640just like Sarah Beth and be like, oh, no hands. I got a paint. I'm here with this dude in this
00:57:08.200carriage. Okay. So now we're going to get into what I think in the movie. I don't know how the
00:57:13.160movie would handle this, but, and I've got some late breaking news on the situation, but she gets0.99
00:57:18.020married. And this is a situation that no one can quite figure out what the situation was.0.86
00:57:23.200one theory is that she in her like personal branding genius brain is like i will do better1.00
00:57:32.580if i am a married woman because then i'll be seen as more respectable so i just need to in name only1.00
00:57:38.580marry someone so i can become mrs she's making a taylor swift decision like i just i gotta get1.00
00:57:45.980married so she's gotta find a travis kelsey i don't know if she found a travis kelsey who she
00:57:51.140found was she was looking for a travis kelson she probably ended up with like a martin short
00:57:56.500which is still pretty good i mean no what she ends up with is that other guy taylor swift was
00:58:01.500with that guy from that band they're like greasy british maddie healy that's who she gets so she
00:58:09.240ends up with maddie healy aka um a retired like navy guy slash bankers clerk named william stephen
00:58:16.500right. So they get married. We know this. She starts signing her pictures as Mrs. Right with
00:58:23.060no hands. With no hands, of course. Which is funny to me because she made such a name for
00:58:27.840herself as Sarah Biffin. Like this, that this was her brand for 20 years. And now you're going to
00:58:32.280change it? Like, I mean, yeah, I mean, at least go like Sarah Biffin. Right. Like, you know,
00:58:39.220do you like a, do you like a Priyanka Chopra Jonas something or something like Mrs. Right,
00:58:44.460formerly known as Sarah Biffin the artist formerly known as Sarah Biffin I mean why not I mean just
00:58:51.040just prints it up so she marries this guy and it seems as though they never cohabitate they never
00:58:58.160have anything to do with each other so it really feels to me like like not this but like a green
00:59:02.500card marriage where she just like definitely yeah it's definitely her relationship yeah yeah like
00:59:08.760they so their relationship like they get married they don't seem to have anything to do with each
00:59:12.920other at all. Um, but then he somehow becomes involved with her financial stuff where it's like,
00:59:19.600wait, did this guy marry her for some sort of shady reason? Maybe, but well, maybe she's like,
00:59:25.560I just need to become a missus because that's the next level in my branding journey. And he's like,
00:59:30.440you have a lot of money. I will marry you and then manage that money. So we don't know exactly
00:59:36.160what is going on here. It's not, this is why the prenup can be a beneficial thing. So yeah,
00:59:42.160yeah so this situation the whole thing is just kind of like in the movie in the bad movie
00:59:48.400I think this is where you're going to bring on that who's the guy um who plays Lestat on the
00:59:54.020vampire oh Sam Reed you bring in Sam Reed and just to be like moldery looks at her to be like
01:00:01.000movie ever uh I mean it's it's gonna it's gonna burn up the screen I'm ready for this
01:00:06.820yeah so you bring him in and like I think if you're gonna write this as a novel if you're
01:00:11.340gonna make this as a movie like you need to make sense of this situation which is just like this
01:00:15.360guy just kind of comes and then he's just gone and she's mrs right now and like who was he where
01:00:22.080did he go what was that i don't know it'll be a fever dream sequence we're gonna need like some
01:00:28.240psychedelic images or something yeah she wakes up and she's just like wait i'm married she's like
01:00:34.180i'm married and then she goes to bed again and wakes up wait i'm not married anymore i mean okay
01:00:39.440I'm married, but there's no change to my life at all. Okay. But I'm Mrs. Right. No hands now.
01:00:46.900So she pauses her painting career at this point. I think she just has enough money. She can just
01:00:54.420like rest for a while and good for her. Like just she's been nonstop self-promoting for what? 250.69
01:01:00.880years. It's like, yeah, let's just like take a break. Let's just like hang out with my not
01:01:06.120husband who's not here anyway but what happens is so 1824 they get married she takes a pause
01:01:12.780from painting and then tragically george douglas the earl of morton dies 1827 and that was her
01:01:20.620income was him supporting her so this is kind of like she gets back to painting um is what she
01:01:29.760does and she also likes so many so many other creative people today and then we've talked about
01:01:34.320on the podcast about where she also starts teaching painting, because that's a way to
01:01:38.940make some money. And what's really interesting to me is that just like some of the flyers were in
01:01:43.080this book I was looking at and, or they're talking about how she was advertising her services. And
01:01:47.660so it's like, come to her house and she'll teach you painting, or she'll teach you through
01:01:50.660correspondence courses, which I love. I do though. I do wonder if people got confused
01:01:56.560because she's going to be all learn painting and people are going to be all right, but am I
01:02:01.360learning painting or am I going to learn painting with no hands like yeah what am I learning here
01:02:06.600what and what she's advertising is just to come train with Mrs. Wright and a painter who's been
01:02:11.540exhibited she won a silver medal it doesn't say come learn the no hands method she's just saying
01:02:16.460I will teach you to paint so presumably as far as we know she's not teaching disabled people to
01:02:21.160paint I would love it if there was just a wave of people engaging in this art style where they're0.95
01:02:26.580like they have hands they have arms and they're just like i learned this this method wait people
01:02:32.020aren't doing this they're using their hands their hands yeah so she's she's teaching people painting
01:02:38.920i think what a lot of the especially the correspondent stuff is people would like paint
01:02:42.420and then they would mail the painting to her and then she would look at it and then she'd like write
01:02:46.420her like write some notes like oh you should put some more orange in this part and you should do
01:02:50.620this in this part and then sense so she's kind of like providing editing feedback to anyway this is
01:02:55.860like, what is this now? Like her fourth income stream. Like she's exhibiting, she's painting,
01:03:00.940she's taking commissions and now she's teaching. Like she is, this is the millennial hustle. Like
01:03:05.380this is so much today. It's like, she's like, she's on YouTube. She's got a sub stack. Like
01:03:10.800she's got some spawn con. Like this is, she's doing everything she can. And so this is where
01:03:16.880she starts kind of moving around a bit. I think it just gets expensive to live in London when you
01:03:22.940don't have a Royal patron anymore. So it's just kind of going to place to place. And when she
01:03:27.680gets to a new place, um, she will just put up, do an exhibition and then be like, did you like
01:03:32.700the paintings in this exhibition? Want me to teach you how to paint? Like, so she's just kind
01:03:41.600of like moving around to various places. She, um, she exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts
01:03:47.200a few more times. Like, you know, her patron is gone, but she's still, she's built up this,
01:03:51.320like I don't know if it's a community necessarily but it's just like she's so well known she's this
01:03:57.700you know popular miniature artist people know who she is and she's won these people over right like
01:04:04.580she's memorable they hire her and she's such a pleasure to work with like everybody is happy to
01:04:09.300keep helping her out which becomes more and more necessary financially as we'll see oh yeah so this
01:04:15.920is uh from one of the articles I was saying people were just as we were talking about before like so
01:04:21.240interested in just like how does she do anything like explain her life to me so like one american
01:04:26.160journal included an item talking about her wedding ceremony was was held so it said that he her
01:04:32.920husband like held the ring against her shoulder because no hands can't put a ring on a hand
01:04:38.120and then afterwards he put the ring on a gold chain and then she wore around her neck which
01:04:43.300she is wearing in some of her portraits i mean okay it would have been cooler if he'd like
01:04:48.100fashioned an earring or something out of it and she just wore it as like a lone earring or something
01:04:53.940yeah yeah that would have been cool that would have been more interesting but there's so few
01:04:59.200details like this but like how did she do daily I I am like all those people I'm just like I don't
01:05:05.460want to watch her drink tea necessarily but I'm just like did she have a wheelchair if so what
01:05:09.800did it look like like I just want to know what's her day-to-day what what accoutrements does she
01:05:15.760have like i would just love to know these are questions i i'm right there with you so she's
01:05:20.820painting oh yeah this is this is the part i was talking about when she was in i think in
01:05:26.960brighton which is interesting brighton a place that i mentioned in my book that's the resort
01:05:33.140town popularized by carolina brunswick's husband crinney george the fourth who sarah biffin was
01:05:39.740hired to paint a miniature of church the fourth i was just like all world the regency era um but
01:05:47.340you know what prinny is always going to show up in every story so there's a description of her
01:05:52.520because she also so this is this is this is interesting because i just learned this0.99
01:05:57.340so as her like fifth to sixth income stream she invites people into her house to just watch her
01:06:03.020painting like so it's kind of like what she was doing on the festival circuit but now just
01:06:09.680in her home. So she's combining, but it's kind of like this self, like there's not somebody else
01:06:13.920making her do this. It's just, so now people can just come by and watch her do her painting
01:06:19.520because she's just like, she needs money and she knows people want to watch her. So like,
01:06:23.460why not charge people to, and she has to do the painting. But this is where we get this
01:06:27.260description of a woman who took painting lessons from her. So Sarah Biffin circa 1829 was described
01:06:35.020ads a heavy looking woman she wore a turban and was always seated on a sofa which side note that's0.97
01:06:41.320some information about how is she navigating day-to-day life she sits on her sofa her paint1.00
01:06:45.460brush was pinned to a large puff sleeve which covered the short stump of the upper part of the
01:06:49.780arm she fixed and removed the paintbrush with her teeth when necessary to wash the brush when
01:06:54.540painting she lent her right shoulder forward almost touching the table she declared that she
01:06:59.120considered that for painting she had the advantage of those who had arms for surely it was easier to
01:07:03.540paint with a short brush than with a long stick i did want to mention because it said the thing
01:07:08.320about like the stump of the arm or whatever and like this woman wouldn't have known that because0.88
01:07:12.280sarah biffin always sewed her sleeves shut so nobody could see what was going on in the shoulder
01:07:18.700area so this is how we get sort of the image of her like head close to the table i do think like
01:07:23.740you were saying about like shoulder pain and stuff like this is the amount of painting she had to be
01:07:28.500doing like to get into that position like i'm sure she's been doing this for years definitely got0.97
01:07:32.540arthritis and whatnot like there's there's a lot of issues i know and physio not invented yet0.98
01:07:38.060so yeah so her manservant would carry her when she needed to move
01:07:43.900i love it i want to see this this is this is a beautiful image in my mind
01:07:50.740anyway so she um finally settles in she's just like this era of her life of kind of like her
01:07:57.860patron is dead and she's teaching she's exhibiting she's people pay to watch her do the painting
01:08:02.720like she does this for like 10 years ish this is just kind of what she's up to just like hustling
01:08:08.980hustling hustling um and then as she's like maybe the shoulder pain contributes to all of this but
01:08:13.760like her health starts to suffer also she starts to lose her eyesight and i wonder if that's like
01:08:19.820starts to lose her eyesight or if it's like she needs glasses now but it's oldie times and no one
01:08:26.120really understands about glasses i don't know possibly i'm not i'm not uh versed in regency
01:08:32.260or optometry i am only slightly i only know that one of the actually we're gonna get to this
01:08:39.200uh one of the royal princesses did have glasses because i saw them on an exhibit once and it was
01:08:46.380she was so like she needed glasses so extremely that even though like you weren't like it wasn't
01:08:52.360is like unseemly for a woman to have glasses, but she needed them so badly. She's even painted
01:08:56.600in portraits wearing the glasses. Like this is, she wore her glasses. So, um, her health is
01:09:03.720deteriorating and she is not able to paint as much as she was, or as skillfully as she was able to
01:09:11.860because of health problems. And so this is where like her community is where I'll use the word
01:09:16.960community, like rise up because she has so many friends. She's such a beloved figure, et cetera.
01:09:22.360And they put together what I think of as sort of like a Kickstarter combined with a Patreon where they're like, can people take out monthly subscriptions of paying her money to live and to pay her manservant?
01:09:35.720And one of the people who's involved in this is Jenny Lind from The Greatest Showman.
01:09:40.760The Greatest Showman. Yes. I love that. Finally, Jenny using that power for good.
01:09:45.640mm-hmm so she's one of the people involved in this and so as part of this this is where they
01:09:50.420are just kind of like appealing to everybody it's like what did they say like to those who
01:09:54.980they put an ad in the newspaper i think to those who have at any time whiled away their hour in
01:09:58.860her studio listen to her anecdotes joined in her cheerful laugh or been impressed with admiration
01:10:04.060at her persevering talents this appeal is more especially made so just ask like can you everybody
01:10:09.940please and it's it's it's like would you care to make a monthly donation to sarah biffin it's not
01:10:14.360just like give me some money it's like would you like to become a monthly patron to sarah biffin
01:10:19.280and they write to charles dickens and what does charles dickens like charles dickens
01:10:24.620his reply survives he declined to contribute because he said of the enormous number of
01:10:33.060similar applications of which he was in continual receipt he says there's too many crippled people0.99
01:10:40.600asking me for money and i can't accommodate them so it's okay this is where this is what i've been0.99
01:10:47.760holding in for the last uh hour so charles dickens is an asshole and he ruined disability for0.99
01:10:54.980everybody and i'm glad he's dead um because here's here's the thing he publishes um a christmas carol0.99
01:11:02.500in 1846. And he creates Tiny Tim, this character that is this saintly little boy that everybody
01:11:12.020falls in love with because he is sickly and disabled. But he's disabled in that he's got1.00
01:11:18.020a crutch and he's just got a waxy pallor. There's been a lot of criticism about what did Tiny Tim
01:11:24.320suffer from? And most people say it probably was malnourishment. So the question of whether he's
01:11:31.460a disabled character like but regardless the the whole point of it is is that
01:11:37.580england at this time goes mad for for um tiny tim a character that is not real by the way
01:11:45.740they start putting up tiny tim homes they want to take care of the disabled and so for dickens
01:11:51.840who created this disabled guy and profit off of the character and and have everybody be all i want
01:11:58.940to help the disabled because tiny Tim and then to have him look at a disabled person and be like0.96
01:12:03.740sorry you aren't some waxy pallard Dickensian street wave that is cute anymore you're just a1.00
01:12:09.780regular old disabled chick I can't give you money that guy can go just piss up a rope no but like1.00
01:12:18.020and also what Charles Dickens does is he's like I'm not gonna contribute to her appeal and then
01:12:23.420after she dies he includes disparaging references to her in nicholas nickleby the old curiosity shop
01:12:29.920merton chuzzlewit and little dorrit he spends he creates a disabled character that made everybody
01:12:37.340believe that disabled people were childlike cute physically appealing little angels in the house0.70
01:12:45.400and then spends the majority of his time acting like but you know real disabled people especially1.00
01:12:49.720disabled women chunky heads i don't want to look at and i'm going to proceed to just write this1.00
01:12:56.240burn book all the time about how she's this horrible disgusting figure um again charles1.00
01:13:02.800dickens sucks and if you are a person that thinks tiny tim is awesome i do not want to talk to you0.94
01:13:10.260about it it's the the surprise like jump scare of charles dickens appearing in the story just to be0.97
01:13:18.660do the absolute worst to have charles dickens i think what is just hilarious is for him to create
01:13:25.040this disabled character as he sees it that is childlike and perfect and just disabled enough
01:13:32.080you know but but again it's that perseverance right tiny tim ain't asking for money tiny tim
01:13:38.780is making old rich men smile with his his little how hello governor candor okay and he's just
01:13:48.160providing yucks, you know, not the yucks like bad, but like yuck yucks. Okay. He's providing
01:13:54.580yucks and happiness to a crusty old guy with a lot of money, you know, and just making him feel
01:14:01.400like such good people. Okay. No, that's what he sees disabled people. He doesn't want to see a
01:14:08.400real disabled woman. That's like, it's really fricking expensive in England. Can you maybe like0.97
01:14:13.680give a monthly donation you you know like put it next to your your milk delivery he's like
01:14:19.460yeah no what have you done today Sarah Biffin no hands okay to make me smile nothing
01:14:26.700yeah you know you know what tiny Tim is I feel like he's like oh I'm just grateful my parents
01:14:33.180didn't give me the orphanage when I was born like yeah tiny Tim is just tiny Tim who again
01:14:39.040not a real person but england like really thought he was real okay tiny tim is just like oh charles
01:14:45.640dickens thank you so much for inventing me i i think you're awesome and you're pretty and everybody
01:14:51.760thinks you're awesome and great and yeah sarah biffin sitting over here with no hands being
01:14:56.360like but i paint and dickens i think there's gonna be a scene where dickens is like nobody
01:15:01.640thinks your painting's good. No hands. Yes. Yeah. He grabs the metal. Exactly. Exactly. He's like,
01:15:11.180you're just a disabled person. Nobody wants that. They want tiny Tim. Okay. With his waxy little1.00
01:15:18.360skin and his hay penny. And he's just so charming. What have you done other than create 18 lines of
01:15:25.040work for yourself? You know, like the timeline doesn't work out because I will say spoiler,
01:15:29.520not spoiler but i mean sarah biffin she passes away in 1850 age 66 um charles dickens outlives
01:15:37.160her so our movie can't end with her killing charles dickens but i think our movie could
01:15:41.360end with the ghost of sarah biffin killing charles dickens or it could end with a disabled
01:15:47.380person reading his book in front of him and he's like hey that's a christmas carol i wrote that0.99
01:15:53.540book what do you think about it and they'd be like oh yeah i think it's derivative and you suck0.98
01:15:58.660and i hate you and uh i'm a disabled person and you've ruined my life and then they throw it in0.94
01:16:03.400the mud and then the carriage that we saw through our brilliant beautiful brussels montage runs over0.93
01:16:11.000it and he's just like yeah i just want to zoom in on his shocked and disappointed face the movie
01:16:18.800definitely needs to end with with charles dickens losing oh yeah yeah definitely like 80s villain
01:16:24.940style like i just yeah we need like a sweep the leg like karate kid moment or something and then
01:16:31.360everybody on the street like at the end of um dangerous uh dangerous yeah yeah and close they're
01:16:38.040all like oh you're a bad person everyone looks like charles dickens like yeah we need to have
01:16:42.960somebody follow him around with like the shame bell or something yeah absolutely so sarah biffin
01:16:48.780she does like she's various health concerns um some sort of stomach issue ultimately is what1.00
01:16:54.100she dies of age 66 in 1850. She is buried in Liverpool at St. James Cemetery, although her
01:17:00.480grave is no longer able to be found because people don't take care of things because people are
01:17:05.880terrible. Anyway, a few months before she died, she had one last exhibition at the 1850 Royal
01:17:12.860Academy of Arts exhibition. And then just to briefly touch on, so we talked about her miniature
01:17:18.680was sold at auction in 2019 for 137,500 pounds, which is the most ever that like a miniature from
01:17:27.520that era by anyone was ever sold for. And it was much more than they expected to sell it for
01:17:31.540the first exhibition of her work in a hundred years. Cause she was exhibiting throughout her
01:17:36.000whole life, but was called without hands. The art of Sarah Biffin was held in the galleries
01:17:40.040of Philip mold and company in London in 2022. Um, and some new, like some Sarah Biffin miniatures
01:17:46.680pop up here and there. When they pop up, they go on auction. Now everybody knows they're expensive.
01:17:50.280So I think people are trying to see like, Ooh, do we have any of these miniatures? And so just,
01:17:55.740we have a few minutes left and I hope that you can help me go through these categories quickly
01:18:01.120to score Sarah Biffin in our four categories for vulgar history that we do. And the first category0.95
01:18:07.300is scandalousness. How scandalous was she seen by society at the time? And I feel like1.00
01:18:12.380not at all really yeah it's a zero like she didn't really have a lot of scandal i haven't
01:18:21.880there's nothing that we've said aside from the imaginary feud i've created between her and
01:18:26.660dickens so so yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna say no that's a zero scandal because i think the fact
01:18:32.900that she like she was in the fair but like everyone was just kind of like delighted by
01:18:36.580what she was doing and then yeah she's not doing anything particularly like there's a difference
01:18:41.420between like drinking tea and painting versus like coming to this tent you'll see a chick you1.00
01:18:47.340know with tassels like I think they yeah so not not scandalous there's nothing scandalous at all0.98
01:18:53.580in her story I don't think and I wonder if part of that is because she was not seen as a sexualized
01:18:57.520person very true yeah I mean I think that you know disability at that time it was more there
01:19:04.700was an emphasis on emphasizing the mundane you know uh because again it was more about the0.74
01:19:10.180inspiration so yeah and again eugenics is still very popular at this time too so we didn't want0.99
01:19:16.800disabled people procreating uh you know so it's not surprising yeah just a lot of the scandal
01:19:22.700often comes from people being seen as being promiscuous or whatever and that was just never
01:19:27.780anything that anyone ever said about her ever because that was not part of her personal brand1.00
01:19:35.000um the next category is the scheminess which i think she was actually so schemey i think she1.00
01:19:41.460was so good at finding the right um like winning over the right people who would help support her
01:19:47.200at like all the self-branding stuff like getting married just so she could be like oh i'm a0.54
01:19:51.960respectable married woman now like she had to pivot to teaching like she i feel like she was0.82
01:19:57.060definitely thinking she's definitely a seven on the schemey scale you know like i definitely the0.99
01:20:03.760fact that she was able to to do so many different things and again people were just like we want to
01:20:09.280help you you know she was clearly doing it right that people still wanted to support her even when
01:20:14.580she was like financially destitute you know most people don't you know i somebody calls me looking
01:20:20.940for money i'm usually like click uh depending on the situation but no people wanted to to continue
01:20:26.780to help her and whether that's because she was disabled and they felt bad for her or not
01:20:31.000she's still scheming i love it well and i think also the way that she like she was on the fair
01:20:35.800circuit but she found a way to like also start her own independent entrepreneurial business on0.99
01:20:40.460the side so she was set up so when her contract ended she could just go right out and do that and
01:20:45.000she had all the contact she had everything set up like i feel like she was so savvy and like just
01:20:51.060for anyone for any entrepreneur today like i think she's just like had these killer instincts and she
01:20:55.960got it all done. She made it all happen for herself. The next category is significance,
01:21:01.700which is, I would say, like to disabled disability history, to art history.
01:21:07.140I mean, she definitely gets, gets in, you know, nine there, you know, she's, she's so important.
01:21:12.600And the fact that I didn't know about her is a shame. I think that again, disability history
01:21:18.260is still relatively new history. And we should know the people that were invested in culture
01:21:27.140at that time. So we need, she definitely shaken up the art scene, shaking up the disability scene.0.90
01:21:35.420We need to know her name. And I mean, just in terms of significance, like she is mentioned in0.83
01:21:39.520four to five Charles Dickens novels. Exactly. You know, infamy sometimes, I mean, if she,
01:21:45.960if she had been alive in these times she'd have been all like why are you so obsessed with me
01:21:50.880dickens yeah yeah she'd be like dickens i just made you this miniature that will0.65
01:21:54.840self-destruct and blow up in your face um that's that's the end of the movie is that
01:21:59.700he gets a little miniature in the mail and then it just like a bullet inside of it somehow
01:22:04.020um so the final category is what we call the sexism bonus which is like how much did being
01:22:10.180a woman living in a patriarchy hold her back and for context though like I did read in this book
01:22:16.160about some other disabled artists of the time and the thing is whether you're disabled or not
01:22:21.980male artists get paid more per commission male artists get more opportunities male artists
01:22:27.580just whatever you're doing like they're able to charge more to come to their house and watch
01:22:31.820them paint like she just could have made more money basically definitely yeah and I think
01:22:36.920disability also is something that is limiting you know in in the grand scheme of things ableism
01:22:42.560plays such a role in things and even though she was getting opportunities for a disabled person
01:22:48.180which is amazing you have to wonder how many opportunities she didn't get because of her own
01:22:53.860limitations as well as people assuming that she couldn't do it well and then like her just the0.76
01:22:58.340challenges she had traveling and the fact that her household income she had to pay for a full-time0.99
01:23:02.780carer. Yeah. I mean, all of that, yeah. It costs money and she probably might've been,0.99
01:23:08.580you know, they say that I forget how much the average disabled person spends on living expenses,
01:23:15.020but it's always more than an able person because we require accommodation.0.97
01:23:20.860Well, and this is part of why I think like, I think it's admirable that she was hustling so
01:23:24.540hard, but the reason she had to was for these reasons. Yeah, exactly. Her cost of living was
01:23:29.280just higher for being a woman on her own and for being disabled so in terms of the sexism bonus i1.00
01:23:34.820don't know to put a number on that definitely would put like a seven probably okay so this0.98
01:23:40.740lands her with a total score of 23 out of 40 just for context that parts her in well for instance
01:23:47.480jane austen has a 22 so she has one more point than jane austen would love to see it nothing0.99
01:23:54.360against jane austen i did an episode about these um regency era lesbians the ladies of helen1.00
01:23:58.860Goughlin. They're at 23. And I think she would have loved to have painted them. She would have1.00
01:24:02.800definitely partied with them. I think she would have loved to have gone to their little house,
01:24:07.180their little hobbit house and just had a nice time, honestly, but it seems like everyone had0.99
01:24:11.660a nice time with her. I think she would just, her social skills were clearly got her in the room.0.99
01:24:18.060Well, I guess her disability made her memorable and then her social skills kept her in the room1.00
01:24:21.900and then her art talent made people then give her money. Exactly. The perfect storm. Kristen,1.00
01:24:28.160And can you just quickly tell everybody, again, the name of your book?
01:24:30.760Yeah, it's called Popcorn Disabilities,
01:24:32.800The Highs and Lows of Being Disabled in the Movies.
01:24:35.420You can buy it wherever you buy your books.
01:24:39.320Amazon, you know, your local library, request it through them.
01:24:46.540there is an audiobook for people who have visual
01:24:49.920or don't like to read their books, you know, that way.
01:24:54.700Yeah, so it's available in all formats.
01:24:56.700please uh please consider buying it and i do also just um suggest that everybody should follow you
01:25:02.020on your website the film maven because you do such good well you do essays and things and that's
01:25:08.140important as well but your film reviews are so useful to me personally because i like reading
01:25:12.680reviews by somebody who like thinks a lot like i do like when you recommend a movie i'm like i've
01:25:16.960never heard of that but kristin likes it so maybe i'll like it and i always do yeah yeah it's uh
01:25:22.080the film maven.com. I do all sorts of things. I do do a series kind of similar. If you like,
01:25:27.560if you like stuff like this, um, I started a new series called women. They warned you about0.99
01:25:31.920looking at women in Hollywood, um, who've been labeled difficult. So, uh, I just did,
01:25:37.280I did my inaugural piece on Catherine Heigl. Uh, and then I have an upcoming episode or
01:25:42.100upcoming article on Lupe Valette. So everybody needs to follow Kristen and all the things that1.00
01:25:47.420she's doing. And thank you so much for joining me for this episode and for brainstorming a pretty
01:25:51.680amazing movie i think we're ready to pitch this right um royal patrons if you want to invest in
01:25:57.800this movie idea yeah casting it's gonna be it's gonna be great so yes thank you so much for
01:26:06.060letting me hang out yeah it's been such a good time thank you so much
01:26:09.260so as kristen said she has her website the film maven which is where you can
01:26:19.740find all of her film reviews. She is, I will say, I always like to see her takes on things. And I
01:26:26.680often agree with, you know, she talks about a movie I've never heard of. And she says it's
01:26:30.420great. And I see it and I'm like, Oh, it is great. I very much vibe with her take on things. She is
01:26:35.360one of the film critics who had positive things to say about the recent Wuthering Heights movie.
01:26:40.400So which makes me intrigued to see it. I haven't seen it yet. I've been busy, but I hope to see it
01:26:44.420soon. Anyway, I really suggest that you follow Kristen and her podcast, Ticklish Business,
01:26:50.140which I have recorded a guest spot for. And I think that will be coming out. I think it came
01:26:55.820out last week, actually. Anyway, if you want to hear me talk about the movie version of Pride and
01:26:59.200Prejudice on Ticklish Business, that's the thing I did. And then, of course, her new book, Popcorn
01:27:03.420Disabilities. And I also have a book. It's called Rebel of the Regency, The Scandal Saga of Carolina
01:27:09.160Brunswick, Britain's Uncrowned Queen. It is now available for sale all over the place.
01:27:14.420And I know some of you have already picked up a copy, many of you have already read it. And I would really appreciate if you have done so, if you've ordered it, if you've read it, it's really helpful for me just to let more people know about the book. And a way that you can help with that is if you leave a review for the book on Amazon, and or on Goodreads, because that just kind of like shows the algorithm that there's enthusiasm about this book.
01:27:38.640So it makes the algorithm feature it to other people who might be interested in it as well.
01:27:43.400So if you could do that favor for me, just leave a nice little, even just rate it.
01:27:47.800Just give it a little five stars, even if you don't want to say anything about it.
01:27:50.800Or you could just say like, Ann wrote this book.