Response to IJA

This was the second time I saw the movie, the first being sophomore year of high school. The first time I saw it I was really tired, disgruntled, and in a not very good place. I really didn't want to watch a movie about (what in my opinion at the time was) an unnecessary topic. I was ignorant enough to think that since women had the right to vote, and work in equal or higher positions than men, that there was no longer a need for feminism or the women's movement. I completely forgot about the rest of the women around the world, and looked through blinders only at the women in the U.S. I paid no attention to biases and stereotypes made about someone's gender. All those opinions changed drastically after I saw Iron Jawed Angels for the first time. I remembered sitting shocked in my seat as the rest of the class left after the movie, and I asked my teacher how long ago those events had transpired. When she responded with "less than a century ago" I was completely dumb founded.

In the movie itself some might say that the treatment of the women in prison was the most shocking part of the whole film, that was not the case for me. Even though what they endured was beyond horrific the scene that shocked me the most was when the senator's wife is told by her husband that her assets were frozen and she was banned from taking care of her children because she was "to busy". As if that wasn't bad enough he continued to say that she had nothing without him, and that no court would ever hear her out or even care. It really opened my eyes to how bad it really had been then. The sad part for me was that although women have since gained the right to vote and own their own property, the stereotype that their only purpose in life is to be a care giver still exists today.

Overall this movie pulled me out of the dark in a sense. It shed light on issues that women still face today even though such progress has been made in this country. It made me look at my own childhood, and a lot of stereotypes surrounding women can be seen in my upbringing. After all my mother was the one who took off of work temporarily to take care of me when I was born, not my father; and when my mom went back to work she hired a nanny to take care of me. My "aunt" Connie took care of me from the time I was two months old, and she still takes care of me from a far. The maternal instinct is something that cannot be denied but men are perfectly capable of showing affection and raising a child also. Look at the movie where Ben was a single father, its more than possible. And yet the world continues to operate on stereotypes based off of gender, but Iron Jawed Angels sheds light on a lot of those stereotypes, and hopefully with time and effort more progress will be made towards eliminating said biases and stereotypes.