{"id":173,"date":"2016-04-03T11:47:39","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T15:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/womenushist\/?p=173"},"modified":"2016-04-03T11:47:39","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T15:47:39","slug":"decoding-womens-history-at-the-national-constitution-center-by-meghan-madonna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/womenushist\/2016\/04\/03\/decoding-womens-history-at-the-national-constitution-center-by-meghan-madonna\/","title":{"rendered":"Decoding Women’s History at the National Constitution Center by Meghan Madonna"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ncc1\"<\/a>As I sat and waited in the middle of the main exhibit of the National Constitution Center, I wondered if anyone would show up for this event.\u00a0 After all, there were TWO whole benches designated for the space where \u201cDecoding the Video\u201d would be held.\u00a0 Finally, another couple and three-person family joined me, reviving my hope that maybe someone else cares about women\u2019s history (who is not writing a paper for their class in women\u2019s history)!\u00a0 The event started and I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting the content was, which I will classify as the \u201cpositive\u201d of attending this event.\u00a0 Although generally enjoyable, there were \u201cnegative\u201d aspects of this presentation, such as the location and disinterest of the speaker.\u00a0 This review will address both positives and negatives, but will hopefully encourage the masses that there\u2019s always something new to learn at their local historical events.<\/p>\n

To start, the subject of the presentation was a modern and refreshing take on historical content.\u00a0 The video was a remix of Lady Gaga\u2019s \u201cBad Romance\u201d music video, made to teach viewers about the Women\u2019s Suffrage Movement.\u00a0 More specifically, the period of the movement lead by Alice Paul.\u00a0 This video was mostly about the fight for the vote, but contained many \u201cEaster eggs\u201d which told a much more detailed history.\u00a0 These \u201cEaster eggs\u201d were then explained alongside a PowerPoint by the presenter.\u00a0 With little more than a textbook paragraph on women gaining the right to vote in high school as my background knowledge, this was welcomed information.\u00a0 While I must admit, I took a class at Temple where I learned in depth about the Suffrage Movement, but that is obviously not the case for everyone attending this event.\u00a0 Even with this additional knowledge, the presenter brought up facts I had never learned about, such as the actual events of the final ratification.\u00a0 There was a scene in the video where a vote was obviously going on, with men wearing either a yellow or a red rose on their suits, but the specifics were not included, prompting the presenter to explain.\u00a0 Tennessee was the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment, with supporting legislators wearing yellow roses and opposing wearing red.\u00a0 The last legislator to vote was wearing a red rose, with his being the deciding vote, he switched his position and voted to ratify the Amendment.\u00a0 The presenter elaborated on this story by telling us the legislator\u2019s mother had called him the night before and said to vote for the 19th.\u00a0\u00a0 I found this as a fascinating moment in history as well as a triumph over the long-held bias that motherhood can make a woman anti-feminist.<\/p>\n

Another interesting topic brought up was the nature of Abigail Adam\u2019s impact on politics.\u00a0 One of the lyrics in the video was, \u201cRemember the Ladies\u201d and would have gone overlooked as significant if it was not clarified by the presenter.\u00a0 Abigail had apparently told John as he left to draft laws at the Continental Congress in 1775 to, \u201cRemember the Ladies\u201d when writing legislation.\u00a0 He obviously did not listen to his wife, but this monumental instance of advocacy for female agency is important to the representation of high status females\u2019 view of their own worth and capabilities.\u00a0 Intrigued by this moment in history, I decided to do independent research just to verify that she meant it the way the presenter said she did.\u00a0 From this I found an extension of the quote where she basically says she did not want him to create the same world of their ancestors, where the husbands have all the power.[1]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 All of these ideas, events, and vital moments of women\u2019s history were alluded to or packed into this short, educational video.\u00a0 These are reasons why I really liked the event, especially because if I watched the video on my own, I definitely would not have caught all of the little secret objects that symbolized massive factors of the movement.<\/p>\n

However, I also found issues with the event that left me with a weird, incomplete feeling.\u00a0 For one thing, the location was slightly obnoxious.\u00a0 Set in a mini, closed-off space in the middle of the main exhibit, it was difficult to hear and pay attention to the presentation.\u00a0 People were constantly walking in and out, or passing by, squinting at the screen, then shaking their heads and walking away.\u00a0 Openness and accessibility are without a doubt, beneficial to any event, but can also cause interruptions.\u00a0 There was also the behavior of the presenter that did not sit right with me.\u00a0 While he was very knowledgeable and considerably engaged with the audience, he gave off the impression that he had somewhere better to be.\u00a0 This could have been because of the audience size or possibly it was just not his day, but it made me personally feel like an imposition.\u00a0 In fact, when I asked where the presentation was being held, most of the employees did not even know it was going on.\u00a0 One helpful guy who pointed me to the area with the benches even said, \u201cYeah I think it\u2019s still happening\u201d in reference to the event.<\/p>\n

All of these \u201cnegative\u201d factors together brought back the question we started the semester with, \u201cDo We Still Need Women\u2019s History?\u201d\u00a0 After all, walking around the main exhibit led me to discover a lot of interesting information on women\u2019s contributions to the Constitution and their role in government itself.\u00a0 These were not even specifically deemed part of Women\u2019s History Month either, but part of the regular exhibit, available to all visitors.\u00a0 Should women\u2019s history be changed to, \u201cgender history\u201d as Alice Kessler Harris advocates?[2]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Does the information I found in this main exhibit answer this question?\u00a0 Maybe we have come to the point where women\u2019s history is just history now, or should extended to gender history.\u00a0 To counter this possibility, I reflected back on the attitudes of both the presenter and the visitors scoffing when they found out the subject matter of the presentation.\u00a0 People still find women\u2019s history as non-essential, not even worth sitting down for a twenty minute event, even if Lady Gaga is involved.\u00a0 This is why I would still argue that women\u2019s history needs to exist and be taught at every level of education.\u00a0 Learning about Alice Paul being force fed in jail is just as, if not more, exciting than the repetitive teaching of how the Bill of Rights was established.<\/p>\n

To close, I would recommend this event for the exact reasons stated above, we need women\u2019s history!\u00a0 There were obviously drawbacks and the fact that it was in the Constitution Center already predisposed me into knowing this event was not at the top of their list of importance.\u00a0 That being said, I thought the content was actually very imaginative and proved there are still ways to draw the youth into historical events.\u00a0 As long as people keep attending and hosting these events, and groups keep making videos like the one analyzed, women\u2019s history will hopefully stop being overshadowed.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Mara L. Dodge, \u201cAbigail Adams,\u201d Historical Journal of Massachussetts<\/em>, Vol. 43, No. 2, (July., 2015), 138.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Alice Kessler-Harris, \u201cDo We Still Need Women\u2019s History,\u201d The Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em>, Vol. 54, No. 15, (December 7, 2007), B6-B7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I sat and waited in the middle of the main exhibit of the National Constitution Center, I wondered if anyone would show up for this event.\u00a0 After all, there were TWO whole benches designated for the space where \u201cDecoding … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1329,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,54,55,53],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-decoding-the-video","tag-alice-paul","tag-do-we-still-need-womens-history","tag-lady-gaga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/womenushist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/womenushist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/womenushist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/womenushist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1329"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/womenushist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/womenushist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/womenushist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/womenushist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/womenushist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}