Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Lucy in "Iron Jawed Angels"
One thing that I found very interesting in Iron Jawed Angels was something that Lucy articulated more than once. In one of the first scenes, when Alice and Lucy arrive at their new headquarters, Alice says, in regard to getting the district police to help them out, "Go over his head." Lucy says under her breath, "Go under his belt." She argues for manipulating men and using their womanness to their advantage. This strikes me as a blasphemous thought in this time period, but it is one that I believe crosses many women's thoughts today. It is one that is engrained in culture, but it is not what Alice Paul and the suffragists wanted. Manipulating men in this regard does not get women closer to equality, except to make us more like them in manipulating us.
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This is a great point that I hadn't really realized while watching the movie because I was so wrapped up in Alice's character and story. Lucy did begin to suggest manipulation of men, which would indeed take the women suffrage movement to an entirely new level and a disgraceful one at that. Yet I did realize that she never actually put any of her snide remarks into play and it is this that I think redeems her character. Her ideas become more of a symbol of just how desperate these women were becoming to reach there goal, and being faced with so much opposition I could see being frustrated enough to say or do anything. Lucy does not though and keeps her spirit intact.
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