Suffragettes in film- "Deeds, not Words!"

When I decided to write a post on suffragettes in film, I thought there would be more material on which to draw. There are surprisingly few films (or television programs) which have dealt even peripherally with Women's Suffrage.

I have to give Walt Disney some credit for making the story of the suffragettes so key to Mary Poppins, however the underlying message was really that Mrs. Banks should have been at home, paying more attention to her kids rather than getting "Votes for Women". We'll let that pass as they also skewered Mr. Banks being emotionally absent to the children. That was about as equal as you got in 1964 I suppose.

And truly, I think this is the only exposure to the story of the suffragettes that many citizens of the world have ever had!

We'll have to see whether the issue comes up in the new film Saving Mr. Banks starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers (the author of Mary Poppins). Apparently Disney only put the suffragette story in to explain why Mrs. Banks would have needed a nanny. The majority of the American audience didn't know what a nanny was at the time the film was released.

Apparently the best film about Women's Suffrage is Iron Jawed Angels which was made as an HBO film in 2004. Starring Hilary Swank, Frances O'Connor, Angelica Huston, Vera Farmiga and Julia Ormond it even has Patrick Dempsey as a love interest. How did I never hear about this before???

I have requested this for Mother's Day (OK, who am I kidding? I ordered it myself from Amazon and tossed it to my husband today to be wrapped for Sunday). So I will review it when I have seen it. Stay tuned but it sounds amazing.

Just a brief history lesson here. The women's suffrage movement was active mainly in England, America and the colonies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The purple white and green stood for dignity, purity and hope respectively. It is a popular myth that the colours were green white and violet for "Give Women Votes".

Posters like this one were a common sight in England and the USA. Emmeline Pankhurst coined the phrase "Deeds, not Words" as the male politicians kept telling women to be patient and that the topic would be debated...sometime soon! Women demonstrated in the streets and were often arrested and force fed if they went on hunger strikes. If thrown in gaol, they considered themselves political prisoners.

Valentine Wannop (Adelaide Clemens) from Parade's End gave a little demonstration on a golf course (with her friend Gertie) whose escape was aided by Christopher Tietjens played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

I was thrilled to see that Mr. Selfridge included the suffragettes right from the first episode, making it clear that Harry Selfridge's fictitious female financial backer Lady Mae Loxley was also a quiet funder of the women's suffrage movement and held her meetings at the restaurant in Selfridge's.

Edwardian suffragette pendant 

Of course you just know that the real Harry Selfridge would have been marketing all kinds of merchandise to the suffragettes at the time. Indeed he would likely have wanted women to wield more power in England so they could have more influence over how the money was spent. Shrewd man that little Jeremy Piven!

On a more serious note, New Zealand was the first country to grant women full voting rights in 1893 and Switzerland was the last western country to do so in 1971! And just so you know, there are still places in the world where women still cannot vote such as Saudi Arabia and The Vatican. So please vote in every election you are able to. Our ancestors (who were denied the right) won it for us, ladies!

Let me end with a link to a YouTube music video that you may want to show your daughters, granddaughters, sisters and girlfriends. It won an Emmy and you will have Lady Gaga stuck in your head for days!

YouTube Bad Romance: Women's Suffrage

Mary Poppins and the Suffragettes

Mrs. Banks suffragette!

I have loved Mary Poppins since I was little. Since I am approximately as old as this film, I did not watch it often as a child as there were no VCRs and it was only rarely on TV (I had a Mary Poppins book with lots of pictures however). It was when my eldest son was about 2 or 3 years old that we watched this a lot! He used to dance around pretending to be a chimney sweep. Sooooooo cute.  He is now in university, but would still likely watch this with me when he comes home.  I will have to try that.  Right now I have him addicted to Jeeves and Wooster. That's my boy!

Lets go fly a kite...

He used to sing all the songs too, although with slightly different lyrics.  For example:

"Let's go fly a kite and send it snoring!!!"

"Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down....in the microwave!!!!"

His father (as a child of course) thought it was "Feed the birds...toughens the bag!!!"

Feed the birds...tuppence a bag!

Anyone else with funny mistaken lyrics from Mary Poppins, please comment below.  I love these and will likely snort my tea through my nose if you have any good ones.  Anyway, I will not review this film.  It's wonderful, and if you haven't watched it for a while, you will really enjoy it.

The reason I got thinking about Mary Poppins and Mrs. Banks was because I came across an old film clip on You Tube which shows a riot at Trafalgar Square in London in 1913 where they actually show Miss Sylvia Pankhurst (the more radical daughter of Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst) being hauled away by police. So the lyrics of the Sister Suffragettes song rather hit home when you actually see Miss Pankhurst being "clapped in irons again".

Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst (she doesn't look militant, does she?)

I am what I would consider a feminist, and I really enjoyed Lady Sybil on Downton Abbey.  I can see her joining in with Mrs. Pankhurst and the suffragettes next season, although they got much less militant during the war (less throwing stones at 10 Downing Street) and put their effort behind the war on the home-front instead.  Mrs. Pankhurst also concerned herself with children's welfare, starting an adoption home yet was criticized for helping mothers of children born out of wedlock. She even adopted 4 orphaned children at the age of 57.  What a woman!




Now that you have watched that, you may enjoy the Disney version. Part of me has mixed feelings about the message Disney is trying to give...that Mrs. Banks should spend more time with her children and not be out campaigning with the suffragettes. However, the message was also leveled at Mr. Banks, so one would assume that the message for both was just to spend more time with the children, not to stop going to work or stop demonstrating in the streets altogether.



My favourite line, bar none, has to be:

"Though we adore men individually, We agree that as a group they're rather stupid!"


VOTES FOR WOMEN!