(even Iron Jawed Angels had a scene where a several black women deliberately stepped into the middle of a parade, despite knowing they were not welcome by all or most of the other women there – in fact specifically because they knew they were not welcome, but were determined to participate anyway)

Barring that, they could have changed the line about the fifteenth.  I get that this was the attitude of the time, but repeating it without any visual reminders that “hey! the fourteenth and fifteenth affected women too!” is just…gah.

The wardrobe choices for the anti was rather jarring too, because part
of why the suffragettes were so anxious to look “middle class respectable”
was because – much like Rush labeling Fluke a slut – suffragettes were
often disparaged at the time as being loose and unnatural.

(I’m still in love with the song though, and the pretty.  Also, as an alum of a women’s college that still incorporates “white clothes = women’s suffrage” into graduation festivities, I must admit it made me tear up a bit.  I just know the vid is not without problems.)

I even went back to watch Lady Gaga’s original video to see if her version was similarly whitewashed, and that the producers somehow wanted to mimic her artistic intent (I really was looking for a reason besides exclusion/lack of research!), but her video was not so exclusive.  I believe someone wrote that my comment was a “quick judgement,” but I spent more time than I should have trying to find some valid reason for the misrepresentation that I perceived.

I’ve really enjoyed this discussion!

It would be kind of like making a film starting with the people lining up on the steps of city hall to get married in 2004 and ending with the Prop 8 court battle – and including a representation of Frank Kameny from the 1950s.  Although at least he was still alive in 2004.

I would like Sojourner Truth to her to have her own video, though – and any discussion of the entirety of the US suffrage movement that leaves her out is horribly incomplete.  

I think the problem is far less the video than the fact that it portrays a very narrow segment of the suffrage movement as though it was the whole thing…  which is a decision on the company’s part that could be addressed with additional materials, or more videos.  

My initial problem was along the lines of a knee-jerk reaction to knee-jerk criticism.  If someone made a movie of my childhood, it could be criticized for lacking people of color and openly gay people – but that’s because I grew up in a 99% white town in a 98% white state and all the queers were in the closet.  (Not that anyone will make a movie of my childhood.)

I’m happy to stand corrected on this one. 

It’s actually a great distinction not a minor one, so I don’t know why it’s so difficult to understand.

Hey, yo nigger.   Is empowering for some blacks, therefore it’s a great introduction to advanced anti-racism.

What logic is that???  It’s a justification for the presence of harm, not an actual reason.  The principle you’re using is:  hey the best solution to a culture drowning in misogyny is to throw MOAR misogyny on it.  Almost every mainstream discussion is yet another suckass “introduction” to feminism, without ever getting beyond a superficial level designed to arouse a prurient interest.  It is exactly like saying “hey spewing a bit of racism is a great introduction to more advanced anti-racism theories”.

Sure, for a klan member. 

It does make me wonder why, when discussing women’s suffrage, even in a historical sense, white women in the early 1900s are the only people ever mentioned.  It’s not like it never occurred to women that they might be capable of voting until some upper-middle class white housewife thought of it in a fit of boredom.  I’ve heard of pushes for suffrage, coming from both black women and white women, of varying social classes (from slaves to the wives of presidents) dating back to the 1700s (and I’m sure they would have dated even earlier if we’d been a democracy).  Even when these women are mentioned in textbooks, it’s presented like Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul came up with completely novel ideas with “votes for women.”