Just A Spoonful of Sugar Helps The Oppression Go Down

When I first think about the women’s rights movement, I don’t immediately jump to the Disney film Mary Poppins, but after watching it and looking at it in connection to the movie Iron Jawed Angels, I can’t help but think about the similarities and differences in the two movies, when it comes to suffragists. The movie Iron Jawed Angels shows some of events of the American women’s suffragist movement during the 1910s and how a group of women, led by political activists, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, fought for women’s rights and lobbied for the nineteenth amendment, prohibiting each state and the federal government from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's sex.

The word suffragist has many different meanings in both movies. In Iron Jawed Angels, the women involved in the movement don’t see it as just a word, but as a life choice. They knew that by choosing to associate with the suffragist movement, they would be giving up the path of least resistance and taking up the challenge of obtaining equal rights for women. Since they were fighting for what they believed in, they were proud to bear the name suffragists and held the word in high regard. Unfortunately, not everyone had the same views. People, like President Wilson, in Iron Jawed Angels, thought the suffragists were either radicals or not to be taken seriously. Even some of the American suffragists looked down on England’s suffragist movement and considered them to be too radical. In Iron Jawed Angels, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were forced to create their own organization, the National Woman's Party, because Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw of NAWSA (National American Woman Suffrage Association) found their methods radical.

Mrs. Banks, in Mary Poppins, doesn’t take the title of suffragist as seriously as the women in Iron Jawed Angels. She treats it more like a hobby that is only interesting because of the “scandalous” acts the suffragists she’s around perform. She laughs about the way her fellow suffragists sometimes get taken away in chains and doesn’t believe in the movement enough to stand up for it against her husband, who is the self-proclaimed “king” of the home. Megan Seely says, “To support the activism of women around the world and eradicate global gender discrimination, we must start at home.” If Mrs. Banks isn’t willing to risk her husband’s temper by even bringing up women’s rights, how can she expect anyone else to take her seriously?

In Mary Poppins, Mrs. Banks is the only suffragist shown and seems to not take the women’s movement very seriously. She laughingly tells the maids about the antics the women have gotten into, from throwing bricks to chaining themselves to places. While she seems to take an active role in the movement, she makes sure to never wear her women’s rights sash in front of her husband or even bring it up in his presence, since it “infuriates him.” At the end of Mary Poppins, Mrs. Banks even uses her “Votes For Women” banner as a tail for her children’s kite, giving me the impression that Mrs. Banks is giving up on the movement to focus on her family.

In my opinion, the suffragists in the movie Iron Jawed Angels were more dedicated than the ones depicted in Mary Poppins. They were willing to risk their standing in society, their lives, and even their marriages in order to further their cause and achieve a society in which everyone is equal. Their convictions can easily be seen as they start a hunger strike, while being held in jail as political prisoners, and don’t give in, even after numerous force feedings.

I think both movies show realistic representations of the suffragist movement. The movies show the extremes of both ends of the spectrum in the suffragist movement, from not taking it seriously and choosing to be involved only as a hobby, to making it your life’s work and giving up on personal relationships. Iron Jawed Angels shows that, even after deciding to support the movement, people struggled internally with their decisions. Both movies show that it wasn’t only single women who were a part of the movement, but married women who had to choose whether or not to go against their husbands’ views. At the end of Mary Poppins, it looks as if Mrs. Banks has chosen not to continue to be a suffragist, but in Iron Jawed Angels Emily Leighton, the wife of a senator, joins the movement against her husband’s orders and continues to take an active role in the suffragist movement, even after imprisonment and a hunger strike.

The similarities and differences in the movies show the many varied ways people reacted and dealt with the women’s suffragist movement and the difficulties people faced trying to make equality for everyone possible.

Citation:

Seely, Megan. FIGHT LIKE A GIRL: How to be a Fearless Feminist. New York: New York University Press, 2007. 40. Print.