To make history "matter" and come alive I try to weave in literature and film and music that fleshes out the eras we are covering. I have watched all of Call the Midwife twice and am going through a third time as my younger girls rewatch. We recently watched the suffragette episode featuring Annette Crosby and it's clear that I was not viewing closely enough prior to this sitting. The discussion about "forced feedings, humiliation, and psychological and physical torture" for instance.
It so happened that we had recently covered women's suffrage and WWI this past semester so we revisited this issue. Last night we found the Suffragette film. It was just a solid B movie but hopefully made the story a little more human than a list of names and dates in a text. Hopefully they have a different image in their minds than the delightful but ditzy Mrs. Banks of Mary Poppins fame, which honestly was the first thing that came to mind for me growing up. The way people and things are depicted so often is the most impactful aspect of how they are memorialized.
There is nothing black and white, neat and tidy about history or humans. As causes intersect and overlap (or not) it can be tempting to make a broad sweep of all activist movements. It is worth the time and discussion to consider the pros and cons of each issue, on its own, together with the merits and drawbacks of proposed next steps.
This post contains a host of links to related books and films.
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