Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

 

NOT FOR OURSELVES ALONE: THE STORY OF ELIZABETH CADY STANTON AND SUSAN B. ANTHONY tells the little-known story of one of the most compelling political movements and friendships in American history. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were born into a world ruled entirely by men and for more than half a century led the fight to win the most basic civil rights for women. Their story is filled with love and loyalty, envy and betrayal, and it raises larger questions about principle and compromise, achievement and ends, and the meaning of independence itself. Their more than half-century struggle led to the passage of the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, which finally granted American women the right to vote. Neither woman lived to see this great victory, but Stanton and Anthony stand as the two most important women in American history.

Directed by Ken Burns. Written by Geoffrey C. Ward. Produced by Paul Barnes and Ken Burns.

More information.

A Thin Wall’ Puts People’s Stories at Forefront of History

"Mara Ahmed, a Rochester-based filmmaker, has a small but notably socially conscious list of works. Her latest film, A Thin Wall, debuted at The Little Theatre in Rochester on April 10th.

A Thin Wall is a documentary about the partition of the British Indian Empire in 1947 which created the Hindu state of India and the Muslim state of Pakistan. The film is told through the dual perspectives of Indian and Pakistani people who lived through partition and current citizens of both countries who are affected by it today.

The film stands as testament to that trying sentiment of social critics that the past should not be forgot, lest we repeat its tragedies. Opting for a more authentic take on the event as opposed to a historical retelling, its acutely personal approach delves well below the major names of well-known political figures and religious divisions into what continues to be a scarring, more intimate reminder in the daily life of both Pakistanis and Indians, many of whom themselves own the memories of partition.

Through its personal stories, artwork and animation, Mara Ahmed’s A Thin Wall is a moving, thoughtful addition to the stories of refugees and immigrant communities throughout the melting pot of the United States. It provides a refreshing, organic look at history how it was lived by its actual witnesses as opposed to being told in a more traditional fashion by third parties focusing exclusively on notable social movements and leaders."

Read the entire article by by Derek Scarlino here.

Who is Gloria Steinem

This book was special to read with my daughter because I was able to meet Gloria Steinem after she spoke at my college in the 90's. I still have the book she autographed. As we were nearly finished, my daughter said, "Wait, do you think she's going to write about meeting you in this book?"

It was a painful reminder that the ERA has still not passed. I think this bit of HERstory is worth repeating:

"The Equal Rights Amendment was drafted by Alice Paul in 1923. She was one of the first leaders of the movement for equal rights for women in the United States.

The Amendment states: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

The amendment has been brought before the US congress every year since it was written, but it has never passed. Feminist organizations continue to work for the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment."

I especially loved the ending.

"In her book Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, Gloria wrote an essay explaining how she came to devote her life to women's rights. She said, "In my first days of feminism, I thought I would do this ('this' being feminism" for a few years and then return to my real life (what my 'real life' might be, I did not know)...But like so many others now and in movements past, I've learned that this is not something we care about for a year or two or three. We are in it for life--and for our lives."

Gloria Steinem has spent her life working to improve the lives of women and making sure they have every opportunity that are entitled to. For Gloria, there is always more work to be done in the fight for equality In her words, "We haven't even begun to imagine what could be."
Who is Gloria Steinem by Sarah Fabiny / Illustrated by Max Herenrother

"As a field reporter in the 1960s, Gloria Steinem worked hard to dig up important stories. She went undercover to expose the grim realities of gender inequality in America. As her message continued to grow, she became the spokeswoman of the women’s liberation movement and created the feminist publication, Ms. magazine. Steinem continues to speak and write about women and women’s roles in media and politics."

A much needed new children's book on feminism and women in history

"Written by Kate Schatz and illustrated by Miriam Klein Stahl, the book was inspired by Schatz’s two-year-old daughter. As the writer told Mic, "the book was created to fill the “feminist-shaped hole in children's literature,” and goes from A (for Angela Davis) to Z (Zora Neale Hurston).

Rad American Women A-Z strays from both traditional children’s and history books in more ways than one, featuring an equal proportion of women of color, as well as several members of the LGBT community. As Schatz mentioned in a press release, “I wanted to focus on the stories that aren't always part of the standard telling of women's history. With all respect to Susan B. and Rosa and Helen and Gloria, I want to try to introduce readers to women they aren't likely to have heard of.” This includes women ranging from architect Maya Lin, to prolific sci fi writer Ursula K. La Guin, to punk singer Patti Smith."


by Laura Feinstein   via magazine.good.

A Feminist History of Menstruation by Metis

One upon a time, in primitive societies menstruating women were made to walk through paddy fields because they were shedding “blood of life” from their bodies that was believed to help crops grow. This theory is only recently been proved to be correct when researchers and scientists have claimed that “cells coming out of menstrual blood are highly regenerative” and scientists have used stem cells from menstrual blood to save limbs[1].

Let us go back a few thousand years - primitive people believed that women were far more powerful than men and if a menstruating woman ran naked through a field in the night, the power of her menstrual blood would destroy all crop worms. It was this power that made ancient South American Indians maintain that humans were created from “moon blood” since fertility was attributed to the moon in early cultures. The gods of the moon, like Ishtar, Quilla, Dschan, Selene, and Luna were female and often linked to fertility. Similarly the Mesopotamian mother goddess, Ninhursag, was believed to have created humans out of her “blood of life” and Mesopotamian women made loam dolls for conception-spell by painting them with their menstrual blood. This would be a perfect place to mention that the meaning of the name of the first man in many religions, Adam, means “bloody loam” and many ancient cultures believed that humans are created from “coagulated blood.” 

It was in ancient Egypt that taboo against menstruation can be first found. An inscription at the Hathor temple has a list of gods with their specific dislikes; one god disliked menstruating women because they were seen as extremely powerful and a likely threat to patriarchy. However, in general public sphere menstruation was considered to have a life-giving and healing effect and was used for producing medicines and ointments. Interestingly, menstrual blood was supposed to have a cleansing effect; for example, in ancient spells for mother and child menstrual blood was used as ointment to protect newborns from demons.

In a “Wisdom Text” from ancient Egypt there are hints about menstrual hygiene particularly the ancient use of tampons made from several types of material like flax, papyrus and cotton. It is believed that Isis was the inventor of the first tampon in the form of the “Isis knot[2].” We also now know that “sham menstruation”[3] and “sex-strike” was used by primitive women to oppress men.

Four hundred years before Jesus was born, Greeks firmly believed in the life-giving qualities of menstrual blood. Aristotle wrote in the 4thcentury BC that a fetus was born entirely out of menstrual blood and the role of the man was only to act as a ‘catalyst.’ Gradually Aristotelian view was displaced within 300 years by Greek myths that the woman’s body merely provided a vessel for the child, which was in fact entirely created by semen. Thus, although up till the end of the 18th century and early 19th century it was the Aristotelian theory that was taught in medical schools throughout the world, major world religions took a deep interest in the patriarchal view presented by the later Greek myths. We, therefore, have Scriptures teaching both views: Aristotelian view that a fetus is made entirely of coagulated menstrual blood and the Greek myth that it is made entirely of semen. Both views, we know today, are wrong.

Slowly men began to fear powerful women and aimed to bring them down by firmly establishing patriarchy and teaching that menstruation was taboo:

The Talmud, ancient store of Jewish wisdom, states that if a woman at the beginning of her period passes between two men, she kills one of them. The Lebanese believe that the woman’s shadow causes flowers to wither; a menstruating woman, they say, will kill the horse she rides. Pliny’s “Natural History” states that the touch of a menstruous woman turns wine to vinegar, blights crops, kills seedlings, blasts gardens, rusts iron (especially at the waning of the moon) kills bees and causes mares to miscarry. Frazer records that in Brunswick, Germany, there is a custom that if a menstruating woman assists at the killing of a pig the pork will putrefy[4].

A menstruating woman began to be seen as unclean[5], unsafe for others, in distress[6], and even mentally disturbed[7]. Men began keeping away from menstruating women and started to believe that having intercourse with their menstruating wives would harm the women (although today science has offered theories[8] that women feel sexiest and enjoy intercourse the most during their period which actually has benefits for their general health and well-being!). Unfortunately, in many cultures women on their period were put away in “menstrual huts[9]” and shunned completely.

Over time, menstruation became associated with male honour and hence odd traditional practices developed like the Jewish tradition (note: it is not a religiously sanctioned tradition) of slapping a daughter who starts her period. It is believed that the original purpose was to “slap sense” into a newly fertile girl, warning her not to disgrace the family by becoming pregnant out of wedlock; or to “awaken” her out of her childhood slumber and into her role as a Jewish woman. In Hinduism a woman is banned from even approaching a temple[10]; in Judaism and early Christianity a woman had to purify herself after period by sacrificing two turtle doves in the temple. A Muslim woman must also ‘purify’ herself after menstruation by taking a ritual bath. She cannot touch the Quran, fast or pray while menstruating and according to at least one oral tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, menstruation of a woman leads to “deficiency in her religion[11].”

Even today when science has constantly proved men (and women) wrong and cleared many myths associated with menstruation, men use menstruation as an excuse to oppress women by claiming that “women have less of these qualities than men[12]” especially when they are menstruating. There are communities that train their girls to believe that menstruation will make them sick. Studies have now been conducted on the influence of religion on women’s menstrual well-being that show that “women who were most likely to suffer from menstrual pain and problems were the ones whose religion told them they were unclean or that they had to be submissive to men.[13]”

Unfortunately women are not trained to capture the power of menstruation which was once widely feared in the ancient world. We are never taught as growing girls that “during the time of bleeding women’s ability to dream, have visions and attain altered states of consciousness is strong.[14]
” We are not taught that 4,000 years ago menstruation was neither shame nor taboo but was used as harnessed power making gods out of women. Instead of being taught that the fluctuations of our bodies make us more adaptable and resistant, we are taught by our societies that we have the “curse” – a result of our ‘original sin’, and that we are “unclean” and “in distress.”

Truth is that “menstruation is an initiatory time, when women can potentially open to a highly charged altered state, giving them access to a singular kind of power. The power of self-awareness, deep feeling, knowingness, intuition. A power that matures over time with each cycle” (Alexandra Pope).

Menstruation can be the best time for a powerful spiritual experience.


-by Metis, a selection from the upcoming Girl God Anthology, Whatever Works: Feminists of Faith Speak.

Celeste Gurevich, Whatever Works Contributor

Whatever Works is a unique collection of writing by feminists of diverse faiths from around the world. This anthology combines personal essays, poems and academic musings with the goal of sparking conversations among women of all faith backgrounds. Religion plays a key role in defining and maintaining value systems, and yet it is often disregarded within feminism itself. This book shares the stories of highly diverse women with the hope that we can find collective solutions to the global problems that plague women and girls living under patriarchy.

Order here.

Metis is a wife, mother, academic, and a writer on topics related to Religion and Feminism.

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[1] http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14559-stem-cells-from-menstrual-blood-save-limbs.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news8_head_dn14559#.VO4B_fmUeSo

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyet

[3] http://www.amazon.com/From-Interaction-Symbol-communication-Literature/dp/9027243441

[4] http://www.asphodel-long.com/html/menstrual_taboos.html

[5] http://www.atruechurch.info/sexduringmenstruation.html

[6] http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=showfatwa&Option=FatwaId&Id=87273

[7] http://peacetvpage.blogspot.com/2013/08/why-muslim-women-not-allowed-praying.html

[8] http://pms.about.com/od/myths/a/menstrual_myths.htm

[9] http://www.longmontacupuncture.net/hut.jpg

[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_and_menstruation#Indic

[11] http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/006-sbt.php#001.006.301

[12] http://islamqa.info/en/71338

[13] Luna Yoga: Vital Fertility and Sexuality (1997) by Adelheid Ohlig. Published by Ash Tree Publishing. Also see http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct02/pmdd.aspx

[14] http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct02/pmdd.aspx

Who Was Susan B. Anthony?

This has been one of my very favorites in this series. The friendship between Susan and Elizabeth Cady Stanton is truly touching. More so was the scene recreated of Susan's death:

"Susan began to speak the names of women she had known. Some Mary recognized as family. Some Anna knew as fellow suffragists. Some were people known only to Susan. "They all seemed to file past her dying eyes that day in an endless, shadowy review," Anna Shaw said later, "and as they went by she spoke to each of them."

Susan lay her cheek on Anna's hand. "I know how hard they have worked, she said. "I know the sacrifices they have made."

With that she closed her eyes. On Tuesday, March 13, 1906, Susan B. Anthony died.

She never lives to see women get the right to vote. But the amendment she had fought so hard for became law on August 18th, 1920."
     
Who Was Susan B. Anthony?      
by Pamela D. Pollack (Author), Meg Belviso (Author), Mike Lacey (Illustrator)

"Susan B. Anthony may be an international icon but her campaign for women’s rights had personal roots. Working as a school teacher in New York, Anthony refused to settle for less pay than her male colleagues which ignited her lifelong devotion to women’s equality. Anthony toured the United States and Europe giving speeches and publishing articles as one of the most important advocates of women’s rights. Learn more about the woman behind the movement in Who Was Susan B. Anthony?"

Menstrual Hut and Moon Lodge History

"Menstrual hut and moon lodge traditions show us that the Red Tent has a history: The idea of a separate women’s space or menstrual hut is not a new idea. Anita Diamant claims that the Red Tent in her book was fictionalized, but is rooted in research from Africa. Menstrual hut and moon lodge traditions shape women’s understanding of the Red Tent as a women’s power space. There are menstrual hut and moon lodge traditions all over the world that date back to 800 C.E and in some places are still practiced today. These spaces offer a unique view of the Red Tent, but do they reinforce or contradict patriarchal oppression?" -Isadora Gabrielle Leidenfrost, PhD

To learn more about the history of menstrual hut and moon lodges read our new eBook/Audiobook "The Red Tent Movement: A Historical Perspective" by Isadora Gabrielle Leidenfrost, PhD and ALisa Starkweather.