Iron+Jawed+Angels

CCR- The movie Iron Jawed Angels depicts the push for women’s suffrage. It specifically focuses on the work done by Alice Paul. The most interesting aspect of this movie was the arguments made by the men who opposed votes for women. Most of these arguments were prejudiced opinions twisted into fact by men. However it was not only men who were against suffrage. An in-depth look at the arguments being made and the people making them reveals that most anti-suffragist arguments were spawned from doubt, insecurity, and illegitimate reasoning and fact. Some women, like the Senator’s wife in the film were scared of going against their husbands and thereby angering them. Some also agreed with men that women shouldn’t vote. This was largely due to male indoctrination. If someone is told something over and over without hearing any other side for a period of time, then that is what they are going to believe. Also, the theory of Cognitive dissonance, commonly used and accepted in social psychology, explains that those who are holding conflicting feelings toward something have the urge to justify and support vehemently whatever it is they had just done, said, thought so as to minimize dissonance(guilt/confliction). It further says that if one is not literally forced to change his opinion, then he will dig in to his current opinion as a method of protecting himself. This theory would explain why many, while faced with logical arguments by suffragettes, closed their ears, and doors, to the movement. Genuine arguments made by suffragettes would also regularly fall upon deaf ears when talking with people rooted in maintaining the status quo. David Gal and Derek Rucker explained that those who become uncertain on a topic that is usually held constant or as a truth, will argue against whatever made them uncertain more than they would if they had not become unsure. President Wilson was a man who wanted very much to avoid the issue of suffrage; and though he initially did not want it to be a national issue as much as a state’s rights issue. He finally saw, as a man of intellect, that the arguments against it were flawed and showed support of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. He even spoke to congress about it. At congress, he said that the amendment was a war time issue. The amendment finally passed in June, 1919. x

JGF- In the HBO film __Iron Jawed Angels,__ suffragette Alice Paul's fight for women's right to vote is depicted in detail, along with her split from NAWSA, and the formation of the NWP. After NAWSA's lobbying efforts proved fruitless, Paul, Lucy Burns and others separated and began employing more radical tactics, some of which were used by British suffragists. Some of the most interesting components of the movie were the strategies Paul used to garner attention and sympathy. By using President Woodrow Wilson's own words, it was difficult for opposition to cry "treason." This is especially clever because of the revisions that were being made to the 1st Amendment, which essentially gave the government the right to suspend Civil Liberties (for example, freedom of speech) in times of war. After the women were unconstitutionally arrested for "obstructing traffic," they began a campaign from inside the penitentiary, using hunger strikes, which eventually resulted in the media putting pressure on President Wilson to act. In one of the most poignant scenes of the film, a Psychologist evaluates Paul, and then gives his diagnosis to officials. He declared her as sane as Patrick Henry, who spoke "give me liberty or give me death." His reasoning was that it is not uncommon for history to provide examples of people willing to die for their causes, and the American Revolution so positively lauded in history is an excellent example. Some might even argue that one of the problems with today's bureaucratic system of accomplishing goals is that there are very few impassioned social revolutionaries, or people willing to devote their lives to a cause such as reforming immigration policy or LGBT rights. Suffragettes did not suffer from lack of passion for their cause.

AJJ- The movie __Iron Jawed Angels__ gives us an in depth look at the struggles of the proponents of the women’s suffrage movement in particular the struggles of Alice Paul and the National Women’s Party. The movie’s historically accurate information help explain the complexity of the issue of women’s suffrage and importance of the NWP in gaining it on the national level. The movie reveals not only the anti-suffragist views of men in this era, but the lack of hope and motivation that many women had to gain suffrage. The lack of interest that many women had in the movement was exemplified by a character in the movie who is a senator’s wife who doesn’t pay attention to politics or have a say in the decisions her husband makes. This woman is called by Alice Paul “Worse than an anti-suffragist.” Many people also did not see the issue that the NWP was fighting for as important because the United States had other problems to deal with including the entrance of the U.S. into World War One in 1917. The decision by the NWP to pursue their agenda, which was against Woodrow Wilson, proved to be monumental because protest of a wartime president was nearly unheard of in this era and caused outrage by both patriots and anti-suffragists alike. The strides made by the women of the NWP by going against a popular wartime president, pursuing this unpopular cause proved to be one of the most courageous acts in U.S. history. Though Woodrow Wilson opposed the cause at first, Wilson’s status as a progressive and an new international human rights leader contributed to his sway in opinion of the suffragist‘s struggle. Wilson’s call for the passage of a Suffrage Amendment for all citizens signified a victory for the NWP and women everywhere. The 19th Amendment’s passage brought equality to all citizens and changed the status of women in politics for years to come. This amendment was the great legacy of the National Women’s Party and an example of a successful lobby that made a great impact on American History.

AVG – The parade led by Alice Paul on March 3, 1913 demonstrated her inspiring courage and led to public outrage against the violent anti-suffragists. According to the article “New Life in an Old Movement: Alice Paul and the Great Suffrage Parade of 1913 in Washington, D. C.,” by Sidney R. Bland, Paul had participated in the suffrage movement in England and had been imprisoned and force-fed. However, Paul had also learned that this violence used against her portrayed opponents of female suffrage as tyrannical, so she was willing to expose herself to such risks.

Paul applied this determination to the U.S. female suffrage campaign and therefore persevered during her march through Washington, D.C. despite intense opposition from jeering crowds. According to the movie “Iron Jawed Angels,” Paul was unfazed by the injuries of one hundred women during the march because such violence brought female suffrage into national news. Bland writes that Representative Clyde H. Tavenner declared, “More votes were made for women suffrage in the city of Washington on the afternoon of March 3rd than will perhaps ever be made again in the same length of time so long as the government stands.” Furthermore, the lack of protection provided by the Washington police force prompted a Congressional investigation of the police chief, whose defense that police inaction was accidental rather than malicious was weakened by his successful handling of inaugural crowds the next day. After the incident, government apathy toward suffragettes could not be ignored without political consequences.

Ironically, although the police did nothing to prevent an actual case of obstruction of traffic, the government levied this charge against peaceful women protestors demanding suffrage. When Alice Paul was arrested for this exercise of her First Amendment right to petition the government for change, public outrage against the government’s disenfranchisement of women grew. President Woodrow Wilson’s support for female suffrage in 1918 despite his ambivalence to the issue at the beginning of his presidency six years earlier and Congress’ support of the Nineteenth Amendment the following year demonstrate the growing support for the enfranchisement of women. However, this widespread support would have been unlikely without Paul’s fearless exposure of herself to government tyranny so she would have evidence to convince the American people of the justice of her cause. 12/12

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NDH- The movie, “Iron Jawed Angels,” directed by Katja Von Garnier, accurately shows the life and struggles of Alice Stokes Paul in her fight for Suffrage in the nineteen-teens. Along with her friend Lucy Burns, she used radical techniques to persuade President Woodrow Wilson to accept women’s voting. Her fight started when she and Lucy joined the NAWSA, a group which was working to gain suffrage on a state by state basis. With the idea to throw a parade on Wilson’s inauguration day, they were accepted, but the parade led to a great amount of violence. This made the pair realise that their ideas were too radical, so they broke off from the NAWSA and started the National Women’s Party. The NWP could not be entirely radical, because of World War I; so they held silent strikes outside of the white house. The striking did not change Wilson’s mind; instead, he found them a nuisance. The women who were striking were arrested, unconstitutionally, for “blocking traffic.” In prison, the women used hunger striking to get the point through to Wilson, who, only once he learned that the women were force fed through tubes, made an address to congress regarding Suffrage. He told congress that suffrage was important as a war measure and not because of the protesting. The decision was down to one vote, which switched from anti-suffrage to suffrage by a letter from the congressional representative’s mother. The entire movie is accurate down to the hat purchased by Lucy and Alice at the beginning of the movie. The movie’s significance is in this accuracy. The director combines excellent filming with perfectly accurate information to create an educational and fun to watch movie.