I'm writing a piece for which I may actually get paid (yay!) and it is about Alice Paul, a suffragette. So in doing this research, I'm reading all about the things she went through in order to support 'The Cause."
And it's pretty horrible and stuff, but this is not what got to me. What got to me is how much of history I take for granted.
We are told time and time again about those brave pioneers that fought to earn civil rights for themselves and others. And they were so brave blah blah blah.
I mean, in history class, we accept that these things happened. And we know that they are important because we have these freedoms now in part because of these valiant crusaders. But Lordy, do we take this stuff for granted.
And I don't mean that we don't truly appreciate the freedoms we have (true,) or that we undervalue the intense struggles (and martyrdom in some cases) these people underwent (also true.) I mean the very idea of what they fought for.
The piece I'm writing is from the perspective of the oppressor, which means I am narrating the thoughts of someone who opposes women's suffrage. This required twisting my brain into a totally new Rubik's cube arrangement to understand it.
I've done that with racism and the complacency of many Germans in WWII, but this particular WTF aspect of history really hit home tonight.
Think about this for a second: at one point, not only were there people who honestly thought that women should not be able to vote, or merely that those people were in the majority, but the dissenting opinion was largely unfathomable to most people in America.
Fucking AMERICA! Seriously?
Why the hell is 'suffragette' a word in our cultural lexicon? Why was it necessary for there to be any kind of discussion on the subject? At what point did we say, "Ovaries? Then you must have no say in the running of this democracy, thank you very much."
I mean "get in that kitchen and make me a sandwich" sexism I get. I don't actually approve, but I can wrap my mind around that, I just file it under your basic asshole behavior. But to think people would take time from their busy day to oppose women voting is boggling in my general mind area.
I really thought I was too jaded to be shocked by this, but I guess I never really thought about it.
And thank God for that. It took actually trying to defend this position to actually realize how much bullshit this is. And that I feel, is the true measure of success for this kind of thing.
When you can get to the point where kids react with boredom to the idea that humans were denied basic civil rights like voting (snore, who cares about voting?) then you have well and truly done it. You've made the struggle dull, because you might as well say "people once had no indoor plumbing." It's just unimaginable.
I know we say we have to remember the past so we don't repeat it, but we've made sure that we remember it only as a purely academic point. No one gets too worked up about it, because no one can imagine it happening again.
That means NOW is the time to strike, my fellow straight, white, land-owning men! They'll never expect it now! Who's with me?
No one? Really? Oh.
I was just testing you. Good job. You passed.
And uh, you've come a long way baby.
Another one of my favorite high school teachers was Mr. Lott. I personally didn't LOVE history class, just because dates bore me, so it was tedious memorizing it. But he did really try to get us to understand why things happened to make those historic events occur. He would say, "Why? Did they just wake up one morning and say can't dance, too dark to plow, lets...."
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