Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston: A Re-Discovery that Helped Preserve African-American Culture
February 26, 2008
by Shana Thornton-Morris
Sometimes friendships just happen when we meet someone. An instant spark ignites a lifetime of favors, compassion, words, activities, and challenges. Often circumstances make us friends. Other times, we choose and actively pursue friendships. During grad school, I heard the story of Zora Neale Hurston’s rescue by a friend she had never known in life.
In 1973, when Alice Walker discovered the unmarked grave of Zora Neale Hurston and read her stories, Walker made an active choice to befriend the spirit of Hurston. Hurston was an influential writer in the Harlem Renaissance, but most of her work was out of print by the time she died in 1960. She was a forgotten writer until Alice Walker reached through the mists of time, blew the dust away from the covers, and re-introduced Hurston’s work into American literature.
Walker recognized the shared experience of being an African-American female author. It wasn’t an easy road to travel…few predecessors had blazed the trails. Often, those women who bent their bodies over paper (most in secret) and labored their pens to reveal a truth rarely shared and spoken became forgotten like Hurston. Maybe that’s what Alice Walker felt when she faced the wordless grave site of Hurston, a woman intensely dedicated to the preservation of her culture. Maybe Walker felt a sudden pain for her new friend’s final circumstances in life and a desire to revitalize the work, life, and spirit of an author who shows us an intimate portrait of the oldest incorporated African-American town in the United States during its formation in the post-Reconstruction years. The University of Central Florida’s Department of English offers a Digital Archive of Hurston’s work that shows the scope of the creativity that Walker rescued; she was a novelist, folklorist, anthropologist, and singer.
Alice Walker’s re-discovery gave us the treasured story of Hurston’s character Janie Mae Crawford, a woman drifting like blossoms on the wind into a loveless marriage, then rolling in the tide with a controlling, ambitious, second husband, and swept away in love with Tea Cake until Janie finally discovers herself alone, rowing her own way home. Countless activities have stemmed from Alice Walker’s emphasis on Hurston’s work. Her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God has become part of many high school curricula. A Zora! festival is hosted every year in Florida. Scholarships and artistic endowments are offered in her name. A t.v. movie was created. Plays of her work are often performed. Her work has inspired a celebration of African-American culture and prompted African-American women to use their voices and challenge censorship from all sides.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of the books featured in The Big Read, “an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (that’s) designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.” The National Endowment for the Arts teamed with the Institute of Museum and Library Services as well as Arts Midwest to promote reading and discussions about literature in communities across the United States. On the evening of Wednesday, February 27, many cities are kicking off The Big Read campaign. From Chapel Hill, NC, and Lafayette, LA, to San Diego, CA, and Brooklyn, NY, groups will hold discussions about Their Eyes Were Watching God. In Brooklyn, special guest Lucy Ann Hurston will speak. She is the niece of Zora Neale Hurston. The calendar of events contains information about the above meetings, as well as events through 2009, in participating cities.
In The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s Exhibition Portfolio titled, “Harlem 1900-1940: An African-American Community,” Zora Neale Hurston’s work is described as “play(ing) a large role in preserving the folk traditions and cultural heritage of African Americans.” Alice Walker thoughtfully retrieved Hurston’s “genius” from the grave and gave us a chance to hear her sing and tell stories.
Shana Thornton-Morris reads about, researches, and explores her curiosities. She also blogs frequently at http://storytimeout.blogspot.com/
Rape in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Ravens of Avalon and the Modern American Military
February 26, 2008
by Nicolette Westfall
In Ravens of Avalon, a fictionalized account of historical first century Celtic Queen Boudica, rape is displayed and handled in several different ways. First, there is the marriage bed. Boudica, is raped by her warrior husband, Prasutagos, after he sniffs out the scent of another man (Pollio). Boudica’s confidant, priestess Lhiannon, glosses over the fact of rape by attempting to figure out whether he has been violent or is simply guilty of mishandling Boudica (165, 168). Of course, Boudica and Prasutagos make up in a Beltane ceremony (192) and enjoy years of peace until he dies of illness.
Men were legally able to rape their wives in pre-industrial times and so we have slight acknowledgement to it in Ravens. In the current era, it is not legal. It was not until 1993 that marital rape became a crime in all 50 states of America. The U.S. is certainly not alone in previously upholding the view that wives consented to their husbands sexual advances at all times simply through the act of becoming men’s property in marriage; Countries such as England and Wales did not make marital rape a crime until 1991. Married women have not gained much ground at all since Boudica’s period in history.
The problem of protecting women from their own husbands highlights the seriousness and prevalence of sexual assault against women. It is no wonder that women face the same danger in their military lives. From recruitment to military colleges and Iraq, sexual misconduct is something that the American DOD simply hasn’t methodically confronted yet. While the military gradually makes progress in dealing with it, cases continue to make headlines. Army specialist Suzanne Swift went AWOL in early 2006 after what she reported as sexual harassment at the hands of her immediate military supervisors. One of the more recent stories involves Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who was visibly pregnant at the time of her disappearance in December 2007. Her body was found in January and the fellow Marine she claimed had raped her has been charged by authorities with murder.
Lance Cpl. Sally Griffiths reported rape (by a fellow Marine) in 1993 and accidentally found out that the soldier admitted to the crime. The Marine responsible never received any consequences. More recently, Sgt. Robert Shackelford was acquitted of raping a female soldier and convicted of indecent assault, because forensics could only prove sexual assault, not actual rape; besides, the male witnesses provided a solid fraternity front with inconsistent testimony.
In most situations, the cultural norm of blaming the victim, coupled with the “he did serve his country” mentality, makes it almost impossible for victims to even consider pursuing charges.
Unlike the U.S. military, there are no instances of fellow soldiers raping their female counterparts (not wives) in Ravens. There are plenty of images of enemy soldiers (Romans and traitors), raping Celtic women and even Boudica’s daughters. The Roman men throw “dice” in order to decide who gets to gang bang the young girls first (292). Boudica’s rage fuels her people into a walking army that fights against Roman colonization. The rape of royalty is intolerable in the community (298). Boudica’s men, however, are not immune to using rape as a measure of control against Roman women or Celtic women who have, along with their husbands, chosen Rome’s side. Boudica is conflicted because she is both their leader and a woman. Her inner conflict is reconciled by the idea that her men would simply desert the cause if she forbade them from raping the women (335). She remains silent as they violently carry out the task and the victimized women scream.
Through the centuries, little has changed regarding reactions and solutions to rape in the martial bed and on the war front. Ravens and recent media attention to rape cases indicate that rape is a frequent and normal element of humanity that shows no signs of disappearing any time soon; it is so systematic and deeply embedded that outlawing rape and instituting military policies such as never going out alone or making sure you go to the washroom with another female soldier are only band-aid solutions.
Cited Works:
Bradley, Marion Zimmer. Ravens of Avalon. Viking: Toronto, 2007
Thoughts on National Eating Disorders Awareness Week
February 26, 2008
by Martha M.
According to the National Eating Disorders Association, February 24 to March 1 is Eating Disorders Awareness Week. My own story comes to mind. Rather than go into personal detail, I would like to share what I learned in the process of recovery after 13 years of bulimarexia.
There will always be enough for me, whether it be food or love. I can say “No” to dessert or requests that demand too much of me. I can say “Yes” to dessert if I have room in my stomach, if it looks good, and if I WANT some. I do not consider that a sin. Nor do I consider it a sin to say “Yes” and do someone a favor, if I find it acceptable or within my means. Good eating is about three meals a day — a regular thing. It is not about diets or fasts. I feed my body regularly. It has come to depend on me for nurturing. In return, it gives me strength, energy, determination and the ability to pursue my dreams. I consider that a fair deal.
I have learned that eating is not about will power or discipline, neither of which I claim to have. It is about taking time for myself. I eat slowly and chew thoroughly. That allows me to enjoy food, prevents indigestion, and gives my body plenty of time to send the “satisfied” signal. Afterwards I feel good and can devote myself to other activities.
I admitted that I didn’t know how to eat, or what hunger and satiation felt like. I wanted to recover and enjoy life. In the process of recovery, it helped me to set up a basic food plan and commit myself to eating “normally” for six months, no matter what. That is a realistic alternative to the quick-fix mentality of this day and age. It doesn’t mean someone will lose a certain amount of weight in ten days, but rather, that they nourish their body and let it find its own ideal weight where it can function best. This long-term approach is life enhancing.
Recently I encountered some recovery myths in a conversation. I would like to set things straight. Now that I am healthy, I still get sad, feel lonely, screw things up, get tired, act like a child when I’m angry, don’t know everything, make mistakes. I get irritable when I’m hungry, have undesirable habits, and am still rather untidy. My marriage did not improve as drastically in the long run as I’d hoped. But I also often feel happy, enjoy spending time with people, actively pursue my hobbies and derive great pleasure through them, enjoy my children, feel energetic, enjoy a good meal, love to listen to music and read. In other words, many of the less enviable qualities have remained, but health has enriched my life incredibly. 2008 is my 20th year of health.
Last summer I published my story as told by my journals, which I have kept from the age of ten until the present. There is no one patent recipe for recovery, but through telling my story I hope to convey that full recovery is possible, and to encourage fellow sufferers to embark on their own unique path of recovery. My story is told in Diary of a Recovered Bulimic.
Martha M. grew up in upstate New York and moved to New York City and then to Europe, where she eventually recovered from bulimia, married, and started a family. She earned her master’s degree in psychology at a renowned European University. A poet and songwriter, she gives occasional concerts.
Here’s A Riddle For You
February 25, 2008
by Karen Harrington
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many pictures would it take to represent almost 80,000 words?
The answer: Only an artist could say for sure. But in my experience, it takes a powerful 2.54 minutes of heart-pounding video to display a pictoral representation of my novel.
In other words, I now have a book trailer.
A book trailer aims to convey the same hook and lure movie trailers attempt for a film. It is quickly becoming vogue in the world of publishing. Not only do publishers produce print ads to sell books; now they add image, movement and music to the mix and create what this writer believes is one of the most compelling innovations in the publishing industry in decades.
Author Brenda Coulter disagrees however saying that most trailers are simple slideshows with a soundtrack. She also dislikes that so many of the trailers cannot be viewed by a huge percentage of Americans due to slow dial-up connection. Now, to be fair, Ms. Coulter wrote her opinion two years ago. The method has come a long way, baby!
The trailer for Ann Patchett’s latest novel Run shows an aqueous blue background with bubbles continuously floating over images of people, houses on the rich/poor ends of the spectrum and selected descriptive passages from the novel. The singular piano accompaniment to this trailer creates an inviting, if not subtle, undercurrent of mystery and secrets. You could probably view this trailer in a library.
By contrast author Caro Ramsey’s book trailer for Absolution comes at the viewer full stop, with ominous images of knives and crosses bouncing across the screen in a shaky hand-held camera style, all set to an eerie single violin Silence of the Lambs-esque piece that would likely get you summarily shushed by a librarian.
This art form is not limited to fiction. Photojournalist Jim Lo Scalzo’s Evidence of My Existence views like a mini-documentary of the lens through which he photographed the world, with a bend toward the compassion he has for his subjects. I’m not certain if I wouldn’t rather view his book as a PBS special than actually read the book. Still, I am intrigued.
I am intrigued by the very way images, music and ideas come together in less than five minutes to give a potential reader a sense of the book. And this new view into book trailers made me wonder: would we choose books the same way we choose movies – from a two-minute glimpse? Would you rather go into Barnes & Noble and scan several short videos to make your selection? Or do you prefer to scan the New Release table and thumb through the pages in hand?
Much like the current political environment where the key slogan of the day is “You Decide,” you can decide for yourself by viewing the trailers above, or even the one created for Janeology – which is filled with water imagery, dark family secrets, hints at a black sheep legacy, all scored with music that vibrates on a background heartbeat until your neck hairs stand at attention. (Fortunate author that I am, this trailer was created by one of THE inventors of the novel trailer art form, Kam Wai Yu, who has been perfecting this art since the 1980s.)
And if you do view these trailers, I’d like to know what you think. Feel free to reply to this post or drop me a line at kharrin2003@yahoo.com.
Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY, the story of one man’s attempt to understand his wife’s sudden descent into madness and murder.
www.karenharringtonbooks.com
HCE Welcomes New Books Editor
February 24, 2008
Please help me in welcoming Christine Hamm as our new Books Editor.
Christine is a PhD candidate in English Literature at Drew University. She worked as a social worker for 12 years, concentrating on the mentally ill and addicted before teaching courses in both composition and poetry writing at Rutgers University and York College.
Christine served on the editorial board of several literary journals, including Vernacular: A Women‘s Literary Journal, published by Women‘s Studio Center of Queens. Twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and once for “The Best of the Web,” her full-length book of poems, The Transparent Dinner, was published by Mayapple Press in October 2006. In 2007, she was a runner up to the Queens’ Poet Laureate. She is author of three chapbooks, Children Having Trouble with Meat (MiPoesias), The Animal Husband (Dancing Girl Press), and The Salt Daughter (Little Poem Press).
Welcome Christine!
Woman Worthless, Never Mind Female Support Networks: From a Reworking of the Arthurian Legend to Present Day India
February 19, 2008
I first decided to write up a piece about my frustration with the competitive and catty nature of many women in North American society, who try to tear each other down—all in the bid for hollow male approval, instead of banding together to rip apart the male-centric system. I thought about applying the example of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s overtly critical statement of the Christian hierarchy in The Mists of Avalon to argue that women need to come together and support each other; they are potentially half of the solution to misogyny. As I began to reread the book, however, the age-old theme of the patriarch placing value only on the male child/heir kept cropping up. As long as people think a pregnant woman is going to give birth to a male, there is hope; when a girl child comes into being, disappointment infiltrates all levels of Arthur’s realm. Bradley’s pro-feminist reinterpretation of a legend that is open to countless possibilities still cannot erase the fact that girl babies are less than equal to their male counterparts.
Bradley presents the devaluation of the female child in a tempered manner, through both sexes, which is highlighted through Morgaine’s character, who oft laments society’s repulsion to girl children. The story is a fantasy that allows Morgaine’s mother, Igraine, to keep and nurse her girl child despite her husband, Gorlois’ righteous need for a male heir. Of course, Gorlois has bastard sons with other women—women who Igraine treats with indifference, rather than as allies in the suppressive atmosphere. Although it is not Igraine’s fault she does not bear him a son (he’s very likely impotent, as a result of various reasons including age), he punishes her physically for her failure. Christian men simply don’t value inferior fetuses (girls).
The medieval European view of male worth compared to female burden, partly a consequence of male property rights, has not gone away, despite feminist movements in various parts of the world. The situation has gotten worse in some areas. India has received much press for the rising trend in sex selective abortions, often termed “miscarriages” to cover up the discriminate termination of female fetuses. Expensive dowries for burdensome women (never mind that women still perform the majority of housework and child raising) are deterrents for having girls and so many parents are opting for illegal ultrasounds (banned in 1994) in the second trimester to determine the sex of the unborn. Other influences like preference for boys (which are not specific to India) add to the growing numbers of sex-selective abortion, decided in the majority of cases not by the individual pregnant woman, but her family. The termination of female fetuses is so successful that there are approximately 800 girls born for every 1,000 boys in areas such as Haryana, Punjab, and Gujarat. The issue isn’t whether abortion itself should be allowed as a choice, but that it may turn into female genocide.
When discussing the discrimination against female fetuses, the non-abortive ratio of male to female births must be included. In general populations, for example, in Canada, the ratio is not too distorted in favour of females (one study found a 0.2% decrease in male births from 1970 to 1990) when taking into account external variables. Dodd suggests that light variances in the sex ration do naturally balance out. The birth rate of female children does, however, outstrip that of males in polluted environments. One such case study involves the Aamjiwnaang First Nation, located on a heavily polluted reserve near Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The birth ratio of this Chippewa nation is two girls for every one boy. Excluding cases of environmentally influenced male foetus termination, the willful removal of unborn females in India is the modern culmination of the medieval devaluation of women before they are even born.
The transition from communal medieval disappointment in female offspring to removal of female fetuses is a warning; sex-selective abortions do not lead to treatment of the female body as a worthy prized specimen for coveted breeding. The contrary is already being experienced in some regions in India, where women are sold, forced into polyandry, and abandoned or killed because they don’t produce sons. People on an international level must stand up and call for an end to the deadly discrimination. What happens in India is not only physical manifestation of the lack of female power within a patriarch, but also a call for global social justice intervention.
What a Good Character Will Do
February 18, 2008
by Karen Harrington
My publication due date is fast approaching. I’m in the final trimester, as it were, with only about six weeks before the ideas and characters that were in my head are printed en masse and clothed inside a hardcover. It’s almost unreal.
So the other day, a friend asked me what Jane, the pivotal character of the book, would say about me if she could. About me?! This struck me as a rather unique idea. I had to pause to consider how she would view the portrait I had drawn of her. In thinking about this, I jotted down several more questions about her and attempted to answer them. Know what I discovered? I thought I had considered Jane from every angle, having known her for almost five years. But some of the answers surprised me. But then, that’s what a good character will do.
Is Jane the heroine of JANEOLOGY?
She is actually an anti-heroine if you consider that she commits the murder that sets the story in motion. But like many stories, you may find that though you cannot excuse her actions, you have sympathy for her because of the life that created her.
Why did you pick that name for her?
I don’t actually recall how it came to be. But when I was thinking up various titles for the book, I remember thinking how I could use Jane for Jane-e-ology (which rhymes with genealogy) as an apt description of the book – the story is the history or study of Jane.
What does Jane look like?
She is from Texas so her hair is always naturally highlighted, especially around her face. Her eyes are blue, clear and confident. In many other ways, she is your typical pretty American mother who looks worn out at Wal-Mart, but who cleans up to a nine if she’s going to a party.
What is her occupation?
She was an ER nurse before she had her kids. Then she had the toughest job in the world: a stay-at-home mom.
Who does she love? Why?
Jane loves her husband, Tom. That is certain. He has drawn out her softer side, which wasn’t really nurtured in her childhood. I think this is why she was attracted to him.
Does this person love her?
Immensely. This is the heartbreak of the story – loving someone whose mind is no longer her own. How do you love someone who doesn’t really exist anymore? This is what her husband grapples with.
Tell us about her family.
This question makes me smile. Why? Because it is the heartbeat of the book. JANEOLOGY is the story of Jane’s family. The chapters alternate through past and present and reveal eight of her ancestors. Who they were, what they did and how they were raised all trickled down into Jane’s DNA. To say anymore is to begin writing the story for you. Suffice to say, ask yourself about your own family. You would have a story about your mother, your father, your grandmother, your grandfather and so forth. These are the stories that make up JANEOLOGY.
Where is she from?
She is from Texas, born and raised. And it shows. There’s a certain can-do moxie about her spirit. This spirit propels her in both good and bad directions.
Does her hometown affect her attitude?
Perhaps. Texans have a certain wide open attitude. That there is enough room – physically and mentally – to do things in a big way. So, yes, I think that living in Texas must have affected her worldview.
What would she say that she wants out of life?
To be known. To have one person really understand her.
What’s her biggest secret?
Like most people, she has two secrets: one from childhood and one from adulthood. Her childhood secret is that her mother once abandoned her at a grocery store. And her adult secret is that she had murderous/post-partum impulses before she acted upon them.
Did you write more than one story about her?
Actually, yes. I wrote Jane from several perspectives and ages. One of those – Jane at age nine – appears in the novel. And it is one my favorite chapters in the entire book because of the way her innocence begins to bend.
How would she describe you?
If she were to describe my day job as a stay-at-home mom she would say, “I completely understand what a tough job it is. Call me if you want to go garage-saling next weekend.”
If she were to describe my job as a novelist she would say, “You are too sympathetic to my husband. Do you realize all the things you DIDN’T see about him? Don’t ever call me.”
What else should readers know about Jane?
Jane is a complex, dark, hurting individual. She surfaced in my writing because of all the tragic stories I have heard about mothers who kill and my quest to understand why and how this was possible. I believe I gleaned a few answers to this question by knowing her.
Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY, the story of one man’s struggle to understand his wife Jane’s sudden descent into madness.
www.karenharringtonbooks.com
Isadora Duncan: Dancer, Feminist, Woman for Our Times
February 16, 2008
by Carolyn Lee Boyd
Recently, Isadora Duncan has been featured in a 92nd Street Y series, “Isadora Duncan and the Revelation of Beauty” and an art exhibit, “Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis: The Dawn of Modern Dance” at the National Museum of Dance running through May 20, 2008.
What does this free-spirited, outspoken originator of modern dance who lived 100 years ago have to say to us now? Her messages about the inner power of women and the sacred beauty of the female body are as relevant to women today as they were in her lifetime.
Duncan’s passion was to nurture into being through dance a “new woman.” “Oh, she is coming, the dancer of the future; the free spirit, who will inhabit the body of new women; more glorious than any woman that has yet been… the highest intelligence in the freest body!” (Cheney, 29)
What woman still would not benefit from believing that her body – no matter its shape or size — is worthy, sacred and inviolable? “The body is beautiful; it is real, true, untrammeled. It should arouse not horror, but reverence.” (Rosemont, 48-49)
Yet,
Even in the midst of this agony, she was determined to “create new life, to create Art.” (
Women of today have more opportunities than those of
For more information, visit the Isadora Duncan International Institute, Inc.
Bibliography
Cheney, Sheldon (ed.). Isadora Duncan: The Art of the Dance.
Duncan, Isadora. My Life.
Rosemont, Franklin (ed.). Isadora Speaks.
Carolyn Lee Boyd writes stories, poems, memoirs, and other pieces for feminist and women’s spirituality publications including SageWoman, The Beltane Papers, Matrifocus, The We’Moon Calendar, and Moondance. Her novel, The Temple of the Subway Goddess, is scheduled for publication by Creatrix Books in the Spring of 2009. You are invited to read more of her writings and keep up with what’s new with her at her blogsite, http://Goddessinateapot.wordpress.com.
The Tale of Genji — One Thousand Years Later
February 15, 2008
by Suzanne Kamata
This year marks the millennium of The Tale of Genji, a literary work written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu and considered to the world’s first novel. Murasaki, a widowed courtier in Heian Era Japan, wrote about the lives and loves of women through the story of the “shining prince,” Hikaru Genji.
Genji, the exceedingly handsome son of the emperor and the emporer’s favorite concubine, philanders through 54 chapters. He has a love affair with his stepmother, marries Ai-no-ue, who is haunted by a jealous spirit who also adores Genji, and loves and leaves a number of women who later decide to become nuns. Setouchi, a writer and Buddhist nun who is the most recent translator of The Tale of the Genji into modern Japanese, points out that Murasaki was able to tell the stories of a number of unique and interesting women by writing about the prince’s love life.
Courtiers often communicated via poetry, thus the text is full of poems. Murasaki is widely praised for having succeeded in delineating the voices of her various characters in these verses.
The story has been translated into modern Japanese by a number of prominent women writers, including Akiko Yosano (1878-1942), perhaps Japan’s most popular woman poet. She published her rendition in 1912. Yosano omitted part of the original story and simplified other parts for the sake of readability.
In 1972, writer Fumiko Enchi (author of Masks) published a modern translation which included stories not included in the original text.
Setouchi’s translation, published in 1996, remains faithful to Murasaki’s version. In speaking to The Japan Times, Setouchi said that The Tale of the Genji, which she first read at the age of 13, “moved me more than any foreign work of literature I had ever read and that’s when I began thinking about becoming a writer.”
This epic novel, which has been translated into English, French, Chinese, and Russian, has inspired other writers, manga artists, filmmakers and dramatists as well. In Japan, the story was adapted for kabuki theater, and also performed as a musical by the all-female Takarazuka Revue. At least four films based on The Tale of Genji have been made in Japan, and Waki Yamato based her 1979 serial manga Asakiyumemishi on Muraskaki’s classic tale.
In the United States, writer Liza Dalby, the only Western woman to have become a geisha and a primary source for Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, was inspired to write a novel based on Murasaki’s life – The Tale of Murasaki. Dalby has said that her reading of the novel, as a university student, sparked her interest in Japan.
This year, one can expect numerous events to commemorate this enduring work of literature.
Suzanne Kamata is the author of Losing Kei and the editor of the anthologies The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan and Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs.
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Celebration of a Friendship that Changed the World
February 13, 2008
by Shana Thornton-Morris
On Valentine’s Day, people are often wrapped up in gifts, dedications, and sentiments regarding romantic love; however, the ties of love aren’t only attached to romantic relationships. Many women now honor Valentine’s Day and Susan B. Anthony’s February 15th Birthday with a V-Day performance of the Vagina Monologues. These performances are symbolic of the current, global Women’s Movement, which has its roots in the work started by two friends; their dedication to one another; and their desire for universal suffrage.
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton shared a friendship based on tolerance and human rights. They lectured together, delivered speeches, formed political parties, created a newspaper for Women’s Rights and Universal Suffrage, wrote a History of Women’s Suffrage, testified before Congress, pledged their loyalty, and remained friends at a time when suspicions of change and true freedom divided families, friends, neighbors, and the nation itself. While both women fought tirelessly for women’s rights, they also faced the challenges of disagreeing with the socially accepted opinions of the time, which were codified into laws; their peers; and one another concerning the finer points of the Women’s Rights Movement. Together, they set about on the rigorous task of following and re-interpreting the governmental procedures (both in state governments and the federal government) to challenge the prevailing laws against women’s rights to vote and own property, as well as other common rights and liberties enjoyed by American women today. These include “the right to retain their own wages and equal guardianship of their children,” to name just two.
In Rochester Libraries’ Online Exhibition “Susan B. Anthony: Celebrating an Heroic Life”, we can see some of the physical effort put forth by Susan B. Anthony in her many letters, printed speeches, and programs for her tours. In the photographs, we glimpse the playful fire in the eyes of a young Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who Anthony first met at the age of 31 in 1851, just a decade prior to the start of the Civil War. A young, liberal, mother of four, the activist Stanton is credited with “convinc[ing] Anthony that women could not be effective reformers without the right to vote.”
From that time, Susan B. Anthony devoted her life to universal suffrage, with an emphasis on the Women’s Movement. While their peers and contemporaries split over disagreements on the specifics of the suffrage movement, Anthony and Stanton tried to support one another in spite of their differences. Anthony is often seen as a mediator, trying to help conservatives, who were loyal to their religious ideologies while still fighting for women’s rights, as well as liberals like Stanton, who wanted more than simply rights. Liberals of the time pushed for a recognition of equality that encompassed such things as the right to divorce and the ability to enjoy a legally-recognized biracial marriage. While Anthony often maintained her focus on the ability to cast a vote and saw that act as the ticket to even more rights, Stanton wanted to give voice to all of the shadows of inequality. She threw a bright light out into the darkness of the time and was often criticized for her bold opinions. Though Stanton was eventually excluded by many of the women in NAWSA, the women’s rights organization that she helped to found with Anthony and several other women (ironically, she organized the first US Women’s Right convention with Lucretia Mott), Anthony often supported and encouraged Stanton’s political perspective, even when it conflicted with her own focus.
When the suffragists were divided based on the 14th and 15th Amendments and when politicians drove a wedge between “African-American males and…all women“, Anthony and Stanton maintained their dedication to universal suffrage and friendship. They suspended their own efforts during the Civil War in order to support the abolitionist movement and end slavery. The two women seemed to always recognize, respect, and honor each other’s responsibility to fight for human rights. They shared scandals, like allowing George Francis Train to fund their lecture tours and their newspaper “The Revolution“. They shared criticism for creating “The New Departure,” a new way of interpreting the 14th Amendment that prompted Anthony to cast an “illegal” vote. They were satirized as ducks “flocking” to Washington “for freedom”.
In a photograph from 1892, the two aged friends share a table while looking through papers and a book. In the photo, Stanton sits facing the camera while her gaze rests on the paper in her hands. Her white shawl with fringe is a contrast to Anthony’s formal, ruffled, black dress that’s secured at the neck with an International Council of Women pin. Anthony’s gaze is turned to the side, which is common in her photographs, due her self-consciousness about the way that her eyes appeared close together.
As true friends often are, the two women are also keenly aware of their differences. They could be called opposites, though they ultimately combined their desires for women’s rights in order to make progress. As Stanton writes to Anthony on March 10, 1887, prior to the conference for the International Council of Women, she “…cautions Anthony to ‘not get up more machinery than you can manage. You err on the side of details & I on the opposite extreme. Let us try & strike the happy medium & leave something to peoples common sense.’” This was in response to Anthony’s letter written to Stanton who supported Frederick Douglass’ marriage to a white woman. In the letter, “Anthony implores Stanton not to publicly endorse Douglass’s marriage.” After Stanton stayed in Anthony’s home for a month in 1890, Anthony extended an invitation for her friend to remain permanently; however, according to the notes of the exhibition, “Stanton, who did not relish the idea of being daily harassed by Anthony to do suffrage work, declined the offer.”
In a photo taken at Anthony’s house during that time, we discover the same accepted differences in the appearance of the two friends: the white print dress and black lace shawl worn by Stanton in contrast with Anthony’s formal, Quaker black dress and broach. Stanton faces us, while Anthony maintains her sideways stare. Anthony’s hands are clasped. Stanton reaches out toward the books stacked on a table in the doorway. Their knees meet in the middle of the photograph. Between them, the history of the suffrage movement is stacked upon the table.
Through their shared passion, opposite approaches, thoughtful tolerance, and ability to speak about their differences, Anthony and Stanton allowed us to know the benefits of their working friendship. For Anthony’s 80th birthday party held on February 15, 1900, Stanton wrote a poem honoring her “life-long friend and co-worker.” Though she was unable to attend the celebration, the poem showed the dedication of two lives and their many journeys, of the beginning of a new century and new hopes in younger American women. In Verse II, we can hear the winding routes of their journey. Stanton writes:
“We met and loved, ne’er to part,
Hand clasped in hand, heart bound to heart.
We’ve traveled West, years together,
Day and night, in stormy weather;
Climbing the rugged Suffrage hill,
Bravely facing every ill:
Resting, speaking, everywhere;
Oft-times in the open air;
From sleighs, ox-carts, and coaches,
Besieged with bugs and roaches:
All for the emancipation
Of the women of our Nation.”
Not only did the two friends put up with unsanitary accommodations in their quest for Women’s Rights, they also bravely faced hostility from the public, government leaders, and their own peers. Yet, Anthony and Stanton remained loyal to one another while respecting one another’s right to have her own opinions.
All women should be so fortunate to have a true and lasting friendship in which both friends are aware of their own limitations. Our celebration of Valentine’s Day should honor our friendships, especially those that have weathered the challenges of years; in this way, we would also honor the life of Susan B. Anthony on her birthday.
Shana Thornton-Morris reads about, researches, and explores her curiosities. She also blogs frequently at http://storytimeout.blogspot.com/
