Full transcript
0:01so by
0:031968 um young feminists increasingly
0:06identify as members of the women's
0:10Liberation movement and they stage a a
0:12protest at the 1968 Miss America pageant
0:16in lanic City New Jersey um these women
0:20have begun seeing themselves as as they
0:23would have put it radical feminists or
0:25more radical women what's radical is
0:27they no longer see themselves as they
0:29have in say 1963 or
0:321964 when they felt like they could work
0:35with men in groups like SDS and Snick to
0:40reform women's roles now they've
0:44rejected those relationships because
0:46they believe like they need to
0:48demonstrate they can succeed on their
0:50own as women they need to be liberated
0:53from patriarchal control from control of
0:56men over Society so again I'd like to
0:59draw a line here between these women and
1:02Charlotte Perkins Gilman you know that's
1:04the thing that Gilman had argued back in
1:071898 was that a patriarchal society had
1:11been created by industrial capitalism
1:14that women had lost rights and now
1:16needed to gain them back by going into
1:18the public world to work and educate
1:21themselves here we are you know several
1:24decades later and these women are saying
1:26the same thing they're saying this
1:28patriarchal society still exists it
1:31operates to privilege male power over
1:33women's power and for
1:35them they see the Miss America Pageant
1:39as an event that really represents the
1:42way men are using women to make money
1:45and in a sense commodifying women uh the
1:49pageant was sponsored by Massive
1:52Cosmetics corporations like Maybelline
1:56um they argued that the pageant wasn't
1:59really a pageant that um identified the
2:03best woman but a pageant that identified
2:06the male version of what women should be
2:09like so a a woman who is essentially a
2:11Playboy pinup you can see here this
2:14protester is holding up a a Playboy
2:16centerfold and she's got her carved up
2:18like a sight of beef right uh and so you
2:22know these more radical feminists argue
2:25that P this particular pageant Works to
2:29treat women like objects and it teaches
2:32people to not respect women it keeps
2:34them from seeing them as equals and only
2:38allow it kind of helps perpetuate the
2:41idea that women's are women are objects
2:43that exist to make men happy so the
2:46thing that the the the uh women's
2:48Liberation protesters are doing is they
2:52get into the event itself they unfurl
2:55banners trying to interrupt the
2:57broadcast uh they uh stage of protest
3:01outside the uh event where they bring
3:04these big 50 gallon metal trash cans in
3:07and they invite women to throw things
3:10that they think represent male control
3:13of women into them so they can burn them
3:14so women are showing up with like um
3:18High hilled shoes and throwing them into
3:20the can women are showing up with like
3:22makeup kits and throwing them into the
3:24can um a woman shows up and throws an
3:27American history textbook into the can
3:29because it doesn't talk about women at
3:32all if you read the textbook you can't
3:33tell that women have had any role in
3:35American society um and one woman shows
3:38up and throws her bra in in there and
3:41they set the whole thing on fire um the
3:43event is loud and Rowdy and they're
3:46counter-protesters there are a lot of
3:48people yelling at the women throwing
3:50things at them shoving them they have to
3:52have a police escort to get out uh and
3:55Reporting on this event isn't
3:57particularly complimentary uh uh it's
4:00depicts the women as angry young women
4:05who reject men uh they they uh insinuate
4:10that they're
4:11lesbians uh they portray them as a sort
4:14of threat to normal American families so
4:18from this event what begins to to
4:20develop is this sense that if you're
4:23feminist you're a radical feminist which
4:26wasn't true but that's that's the
4:28association that begins to develop uh
4:31and then if you're radical feminist or
4:32feminist at all uh you hate normal
4:36middle class life you you hate families
4:39uh you hate
4:40heteronormativity uh and that you're
4:42somebody to be feared and made fun of as
4:45abnormal um and unfortunately what that
4:48did was gloss over the complexity of
4:52this women's rights movement uh it it
4:55narrowly defines women who push for
4:57rights as jokes
5:00uh and it really ultimately even though
5:02these women are responsible for getting
5:05more women into into college more women
5:07into law school more women in the
5:08medical professions more women into
5:10political office even though there's
5:12some very real gains the women's
5:14movement achieves in the late 60s and
5:15early 70s they they end up making the
5:19label feminist a bit of a a hot button
5:22topic so that it's difficult for more
5:25women to join in because they're worried
5:28that if they do that they'll be seen as
5:30abnormal and a danger to the people
5:32around them and that ultimately sort of
5:35limits the appeal and acceptance of
5:38women's rights uh in the 70s and into
5:41the 1980s