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I can't watch this trailer without crying, and I've seen it about five times now. Just in time for Oscar season and the election season is a film that captures women's fight for the right to vote: Suffragette. From what I can tell it does the struggle justice.
In this film the story of women's suffrage in England is told from the perspective of a working-class mom named Maude, played by Carey Mulligan. She couldn't possibly be more different from the silly, pampered suffragist Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins. Maude has been working since childhood.
You see what Maude has at stake. Her factory job, where she's sexually harassed by her boss, puts food on the family table. At one point her child is taken away from her because of her political activity. She is a powerless woman weary from work but more weary of always being told what to do by men.
Maude finds her voice with other women in the movement, led by Emmeline Pankhurst (played by Meryl Streep, of course). I grew up learning about the movement as a group of genteel women marching and holding signs -- asking for the vote politely. Suffragette turns that version on its ear. This was a violent movement. Women threw rocks into glass windows and planted bombs in mailboxes. Politeness had gotten them nowhere, and so they resorted to speaking to men in their language.
I can't wait to see the film -- it looks thrilling and emotional and inspiring -- but I also know it will make me feel ashamed. I didn't vote in the last election (for mayor of my city!). I frittered away a privilege women fought and sacrificed for. What careless ingratitude. I'll redeem myself at the next election. I hope Suffragette inspires more women to turn up at the upcoming presidential election. We still have a lot at stake.
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
Are you going to see Suffragette?
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