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Just about everyone’s seen a newsreel. Either in an old documentary, or in history class, or spliced into a period movie. But how many of us have heard a newsreel narrated by a woman? I know I never have, but it appears there were some women in the field, after all, and I have proof.

This is an article from the Hartford Courant originally published July 22,1938:

Woman Newsreel Commentator Finds Her Job Thrilling
Good Voice, Excellent Diction Won Job for Sue Read

Being a woman newsreel commentator is an exciting life, according to Sue Read, one of the few women holding such a position. Miss Read in an interview with Edna Gorman of the New York Sun says “I’ve never had a greater thrill from anything I’ve done than to see and hear myself describing some important front-page event, knowing that within four days 28,000,000 people all over the United States and in South America and Canada will be viewing these newsreels.

Miss Read was asked how it is possible to follow a news cameraman into all sorts of adventures and always have the right comments ready to synchronize with the picture as it is taken.

Everyone asks me that question, Miss Read replied. However, newsreels aren’t made that way. “Pictures are taken any place in the world and rushed to the studios, usually by plane. A short script is then prepared by the staff, and this is voiced on the sound track,” she explained.

Another question every one asks Miss Read is: “How do you get a job like that, and how does it happen that even though there are a few girls doing this work, they are almost entirely limited to women’s fashions, while you have been doing horse races and ship sailings and similar news events?”

Well it seems that little Sue Read liked the idea. And being one who doesn’t let grass grow under her feet, she hunted up a man she had met who was somebody important in the business. But the important man only laughed at her. “Run along, child,” he said, “we don’t want any girls in this work.” But, eventually, he gave her a letter of introduction, and although his secretary insisted she was wasting her time, Miss Read got an audition. And they took her on just when they had definitely decided a woman would never, never do!

As for the rest, she has had a thorough training in dramatic expression, and both her diction and her speaking voice are charming.

She is a brunette, with eyes as expressive as her voice and a freshing, sunny smile. She believes that any girl who is planning her career should never limit it by patterning it after some one else. No two careers are alike, she says.

“And don’t believe people who say you must have ‘pull’,” she insists. “Pull can be such a harmful thing. It can get you in long before you are fitted for a place, and then you are let out, and have to start all over again.

Miss Read is a Quaker from Philadelphia, and was educated in Quaker schools. At a very early age she displayed more interest in dramatics than she did in regular school work. After inveigling her parents into letting her go to dramatic classes after school once a week, she was soon devoting all her time to dramatics, with a few special school subjects on the side.

She says she came to New York to study singing and, finding her voice wasn’t great enough for an outstanding vocal career, she made her interpretation the most important part of her singing. Her dramatic training has been of value to her here, so that she is able to give dramatic interpretations which have made her singing of box-office value and which has now landed her the enviable job of feminine news-reel commentator.

Her hobby, at the moment, is tap dancing.

With our boys off to war, American women stepped it up during World War II, represented by that iconic figure, Rosie the Riveter (check out this sweet post about Rosie at Bitch Blogs).  Ever wonder what Rosie had on under that blue work(wo)man’s shirt?

How about a plastic safety bra?

I’m not really sure what to say about this.  It seems that it would be equally sensible (if not more so) to wear something akin to a sports bra, essentially strapping those beauties down to keep them from harms way.

I mean, I’m not an expert on the manufacturing industry, but were men encouraged to wear jock straps and nut cups in order to protect their goodies?

Anyway, next time you’re admiring the safety goggles and hard hats of laborers, remember fondly this image of the plastic bra.  Gives new meaning to “save the boobies,” doesn’t it?

You can find more (and somewhat less confusing) images of women at work in the Records of the Women’s Bureau of the US National Archives on Flickr.  Shoutouts to io9!

If you know me, you know I love the Beatles almost as much as life itself.  This week I’ve been working on a T-shirt quilt of shirts than needed to be retired (some of these have been with me since middle school), and the Beatles have been my soundtrack while I work.  In ironing and sewing and dancing, I began noticing some disturbing material, especially that from early in the Beatles career.  Here’s a quick look at three troublesome Beatles songs.

You Can’t Do That – 1964

Despite the Lennon-McCartney traditional tagline, John deserves most of the credit (or blame) for this one.  An early Beatles tune, the song is about a jealous boyfriend who warns his girl that if he catches her talking to another guy again, he’ll leave her.  Posessiveness is so romantic.  I know that the Beatles were serious aphrodisiacs for teens and young women (my generation had the Backstreet Boys, this generation has the Jonas Brothers), but the wild screaming during a song about a pretty unhealthy, jealous, possessive and threatening relationship is a bit disturbing.

You Like Me Too Much – 1965

This one is a George song, and if you know the outcome of his relationship with Pattie Boyd, this little dedication collage is kind of disturbing.  This song is sung from the manipulative male partner to his lover, who likes him “too much” to leave him, though it’s all that he deserves.  He sings about following her if she leaves to bring her back where she “belongs” and admitting that he was “wrong” in order to convince her.  I love George (in theory, I guess), but I feel like we should have listened to this song at our domestic violence crisis line training.  This is exactly the kind of thing that is operating when it takes women (on average) seven attempts before leaving a dangerous relationship.  But when its sung by a Beatle, its “romantic.”  Yikes.

Run For Your Life – 1965

Of these three tunes, this is probably the one that you are most likely to know.  Kudos to John again, this time upping the ante with death threats on top of the possessive manipulations.  John Lennon, the “peace icon,” tells his “little girl” she better “hide her head in the sand” rather than be seen with another man, as he’d rather see her dead.  In a choice verse he announces: Well I know that I’m a wicked guy / And I was born with a jealous mind / And I can’t spend my whole life / Trying just to make you toe the line. John has always made my stomach turn, but I think anyone in their right mind would be hard pressed to defend this one.

So, there you have it.  My favorite band, the classic and timeless Beatles, as manipulative, misogynistic music makers.  I guess sometimes Love isn’t all you need.  Any other rough tunes I missed, or Beatles favorites of yours that redeem the band?

Although Rosemary’s Baby is considered a classic horror film by many, and a feminist film by some, I had never given the flick any thought, nor had I seen it before.  Once again, my self-imposed Halloween Movie Marathon gave me the excuse to check out something I otherwise might not have, and particularly with the recent Roman Polanski developments, this seemed like as good a time as any to give it a shot.

Themes of female oppression and patriarchal dominance abound in this film, which was based on the book of the same title by Ira Levin, who also wrote the novel The Stepford Wives.  Although I’ve never had much interest in the Nicole Kidman Stepford Wives remake, after Rosemary’s Baby I’m interested to see the original and some more of Levin’s interpretation of mid 20th century women’s roles. My thoughts on whether or not this is a feminist film after the jump.

Carrie is a classic horror-meets-coming-of-age flick, and it incorporates a wide range of themes, from menstruation to bullying to domestic violence to religiosity.  Stephen King has fallen from favor over the years, but a number of his works have stood the test of time.  Carrie is one of those gems.

Of the films I’ve watched for our Halloween Movie Marathon, Carrie has been the most frightening, and also the most deeply tragic.

Carrie is the story of a high school senior (Carrie White) who is outcast by her peers largely as a result of her strict religious upbringing.  Her mother makes the rounds to visit the parents of her classmates in an attempt to convert them, and when Carrie has her first period (a traumatic locker room experience) her mother punishes her for the sin she has committed.  Taken under the wing of her gym teacher, Miss Collins and asked to prom as an act of charity, things momentarily look up for the young woman until a terrible prank at the prom (dumping pigs blood on her after she “won” prom queen – surely another jab at the locker room incident) unleashes Carrie’s telekinetic rage on the community.

Even in this brief synopsis we can glimpse the following themes: the dangers of female sexuality and sexual development, domestic violence, questions about charity and outreach, and religiosity.  I take a closer look at each of these after the jump.

A production of To Kill A Mockingbird came to our small town this week, and having reread the book for the first time since 10th grade, I was thrilled to see it!  After finishing the book this summer, I poked my nose around the internet a bit to get a better idea about its critical reception.  I was surprised to learn that although it was originally heralded as a controversial and monumental statement about race relations in the south, the book has not been received favorably by many African Americans or feminists.

In reading the book for the first time in my adult life, I was able to truly comprehend the importance of the trial at hand – perhaps even in the 10th grade I was as naive as Scout, or maybe I just wasn’t that engaged in the reading since it was required.  Reading it after spending two years in a community that is even more homogeneously white than the community in which I grew up, the racial messages of the book were very prominent to me, and I came away feeling like I understood the hubub.  The fear, hatred, and judgment of the unknown, including (or maybe especially) racial differences, have become more visible to me in that time, and I felt the book did a good job of condemning such ignorance.

As excited as I was to see the play, suddenly the criticisms of the novel became clear and understandable to me.  As I sat in the theater, filled with college freshmen required to attend for their Creative Arts and English 1010s, I realized that the supposed triumph over one form of prejudice simply promoted various other forms.  And I feared that even if these homogeneous, pious young adults were paying attention to the most prominent message of the production, racial tolerance, the acceptance of sexism and classism were being reinforced.  What messages would these students really walk away with?

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She’s one of the most recognizable cartoon vixens in America.  She’s not a female counterpart to a male star, like Minnie Mouse or Daisy Duck, and she’s not just somebody’s babelicious girlfriend, like Jessica Rabbit.  However, her status as a sex symbol is undeniable.  But who is Betty Boop really, and can she be seen as an early feminist icon, or nothing more than a black-and-white pinup?

Based on the 1920’s fun-loving flappers, Betty Boop debuted in 1930 as the partner to a little dog named Bimbo who was intended to compete directly with the famed Mickey Mouse.  Although she eventually became far more popular than her beau, she stared out with long, floppy ears, a doglike face, but the curvaceous body of a woman.  As Betty stole the center stage from Bimbo, she lost her doglike characteristics, although she maintained an awkward relationship with the canine Bimbo.  Eventually Bimbo faded from Betty’s films, though Betty was later overshadowed herself by another mutt, her own puppy Pudgy.

The 1930s animated shorts were intended for general (read: adult) audiences, not for children.  Betty’s shorts (no pun intended) were considered “sexy, tongue-in-cheek” romps.  The animators were typically in their late teens or early 20s, and enjoying the freedom that followed the end of prohibition.  Of course, it wasn’t long before the films drew the attention of outraged church groups and moral watchdogs.  Betty was forced to clean up her act (and lengthen her skirt), as seen in the short “Housecleaning Blues (1937).”  However, as narrated in the A&E Biography special Betty Boop: The Queen of Cartoons, this led to audiences perceiving Betty as “the homebody that cared more about her home than her body,” and the demise of her popularity.

But Betty was more than just a homebody…

After the jump Betty goes to work and runs for president!

Star Trek: The Next Generation – The first episode “Encounter at Farpoint”
Original Airdate: September 28, 1987

Story:

Next Generation is the Star Trek show I grew up on. Every Saturday until I was 9 my family would heat up a frozen pizza in time to watch the latest episode at 6:00. I wonder what stereotypes and ideologies were being fed to me without my knowing…

We get an idea immediately with the opening narration: “Space. The final frontier…” It’s the same Kirk said every episode of the Original Series with one difference. While Kirk ended it with “to boldly go where no man has gone before,” Picard offers a more egalitarian “where no one has gone before.” A small change, but a telling and important one.

When the 2-hour pilot “Encounter at Farpoint” begins, the Enterprise, newly under the command of Jean-Luc Picard, is going to investigate a mysterious space station on the far side of the galaxy.

As Picard records his log entry he roams through the ship and we see at least two women in Engineering. They’re easy to spot in their super short mini-skirts. He then walks on to the bridge and the first thing we see there is a woman (in pants!!) standing at a console. As Picard glances over the rest of the bridge and takes his position in his chair, we see another woman on the bridge (in another super short skirt).

Troi (mini-skirt) starts sensing a powerful mind and the space around the enterprise starts going goofy and the Enterprise becomes trapped in some giant chain cage or forcefield.

A man dressed like one of the three musketeers shows up on the bridge telling the Enterprise to go back to their own star system. His name is Q, and while changing into various “captains” (old-fashioned naval and WWII–and some futuristic military guy) and freezing a redshirt to prove he’s powerful, this strange creature explains that he’s witnessed humans and understands that they’re a savage race. He threatens to kill Picard and such if the ship doesn’t go back to where they came from.

Everyone including Chief of Security Tasha Yar wants to get rid of Q, but Picard wants to talk. He acknowledges humans used to be pretty bad they’ve made a lot of progress. Q doesn’t really listen and eventually disappears. Troi suggests they avoid future contact with him. Picard decides to take him (although, still confused by the entity he refers to him as “them”) by surprise. Oh, he has no idea what he’s getting into. Outrun Q? Silly Picard.

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Star Trek: the last episode “Turnabout Intruder”
Original Airdate: June 3, 1969

Story:

The first episode of this series to air featured “that woman from Dr. McCoy’s past” and it seems the last one features “that woman” from Kirk’s. It also features more body-snatching, once again begging the question of how anyone in space trusts any one else ever. But let’s get down to it:

The Enterprise gets a distress call to help some scientists on some planet. It turns out there’s been trouble, and the only two survivors are the surgeon Dr. Coleman and the leader of the expedition party Dr. Janice Lester.

The Enterprise crew meet the two doctors as the surgeon is tending to Dr. Lester. Turns out Kirk and Dr. Lester used to be a thing, so the rest of the crew leave the two of them alone. They talk about how much fun they had together and how unfair it is that Dr. Lester couldn’t be a captain and was relegated instead to studying whatever it is she studies. Apparently it’s a Starfleet rule that women can’t be captains. (Really? People certainly weren’t very forward thinking in 1969. I guess the the intro to the show isn’t kidding when it ends with “where no man has gone before.”) Kirk admits it’s unfair she couldn’t be more and points out “you punished and tortured me because of it.” Apparently he’s a little bitter that she took out her anger at the lame systemic rules on him (but what did he do to oppose them, one wonders).

He walks away toward this wall with strange markings on it. While he’s there, investigating it, she pulls out a gadget and shoots him with it. He freezes against the wall and she gets out of bed, smiles at the frozen captain and then activates some machine that allows her to switch bodies with him.

Dun dun dun.

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Star Trek is over 40 years old and has recently been revived with a new film that looks to be just the beginning of a new series of stories. Growing up on the franchise and being semi-familiar with the different incarnations I started wondering exactly how the portrayal of women has changed over the years. I decided to investigate. Join me in an ongoing series of posts as I watch the first and last episode of every Star Trek series from a feminist perspective. What did they do right? What could have been done better? Does the embrace of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations apply to the females of the universe? I’m looking to find out.

Star Trek: the first episode “The Man Trap”

Original Airdate: Sept. 8, 1966

Story:

I must admit in all my years of watching Star Trek I’ve never been much into the original series. As such, when I sat down to write this post I was relatively fresh to the televised antics of the crew of the Enterprise (NCC-1701) and I was a little surprised to find there’s no real introduction to the characters or setting (as in most first episodes) instead we jump straight into the plot of the episode.

Basically, our intrepid heroes are on a mission to do a routine medical investigation of an archeologist and his wife. The wife is “that one woman in Dr. McCoy’s past.” When the away team meets the Craters (Hehe. They’re actually named “crater.”) “Bones” McCoy sees the Mrs. as exactly the way she looked at age 25 when they fell in love. To Kirk, she looks like the appropriately aged Mrs. Crater, and to the expendable redshirt (who’s actually wearing blue) she appears as a young blonde that “looks just like a girl [he] knew once.” She walks around Mr. Redshirt all sultrily and he just can’t take it. He follows her away from the rest of the away team and we cut to the opening credits. Read the rest of this entry »

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