Iron Jawed Angels vs. Mary Poppins.... FIGHT!

1. How is the word suffragist used in each film?
Iron Jawed Angels: The suffragists comment negatively on the more radical suffragists in England. To the American suffragists, the movement is dignified, respectable, and civilized.

Mary Poppins: Suffrage is seen as good fun. Even Mrs. Banks treats it like it's just hooliganism, bragging about her acts of vandalism and the imprisonment of her peers as if it weren't a tragedy.


2. Which women are active and which ones are passive? Are all the activists in both films active?
Iron Jawed Angels: All women are active except Emily Leighton, who makes monetary contributions to the NWP but is not active until later on.

Mary Poppins: Mrs. Banks is the only activist in the film, but she is not "active". She never wears her suffragist sash in the presence of Mr. Banks. She remains an "activist" but still participates in the patriarchal system (Johnson 72), making her a kind of passive activist.


3. Are these representations of the suffragist movement realistic?
Yes. All of the events in Iron Jawed Angels are fairly historically accurate, and the portrayal of even Mrs. Banks doesn't seem all to unlikely to have occurred. While Mrs. Banks probably isn't representative of all British suffragists, its perfectly possible that there were some suffragettes whose hearts were in the movement, but whose minds weren't quite there.


4. How is activism represented is each film? Does it sustain or disrupt stereotypes of femininity?
Iron Jawed Angels disrupts the stereotypes of femininity. The suffragists depicted in this film had very strong characters, were able to withstand cold, riots, and brutal prison treatment.

Mary Poppins continuously sustains stereotypes of femininity and supports the role women should play in a patriarchal system. Mrs. Banks is submissive about her activism. When the children go to the bank, Michael is encouraged to open a bank account, but not Jane. Mr. and Mrs. Banks both express sexist sentiments, Mr. Banks referring to female thinking as "sugary", and Mrs. Banks singing that "men are nice, but stupid on the whole."


5. Do the women in the films continue to be suffragists by the end of the film?
Mrs. Banks remained a suffragist, though she did use her Votes for Women sash as a kite tail, which may have signified her decision to focus more on her family and less on politics. In Iron Jawed Angels Alice went on to fight for women's rights until she died in 1977.


6. How are male and female relationships depicted in each film? How is marriage depicted?
Mary Poppins: Mr. Banks, as husband, is "the lord of his castle" and Mrs. Banks submits to his wishes. Bert courted MANY other ladies and, though Mary finds this annoying, it is okay for men to have these kinds of relationships.

Iron Jawed Angels: The only husband-wife relationship Thomas and Emily Leighton. Emily stays home and cares for their children, and when she becomes more active with the suffragist movement, he takes her money and children away. Alice appears fearful of a relationship with Ben. I thought this depiction perpetuated the stereotype that feminists hate men and are "antisex" (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 4).


7. How are men depicted in each film?
In both films, men hold positions of power - politicians, police officers, military personel, wardens, president, bankers, etc. Mary Poppins mostly depicts them as detatched and greedy, especially in regard to the bankers. Mrs. Banks even says they are "stupid". Some characters (chimney sweeps, police officer) are sensitive and fun-loving, but always chivalrous. The men of Iron Jawed Angels are almost always dismissive of the women's movement, to the point of neglecting their duties (i.e. the police officers during the parade and picketing). They are always the first to incite hostility and violence, and are rarely shown to demonstrate chivalry.


8. How is women’s labor represented in each film?
Mary Poppins: Women only worked as maids and nannies. Here women are given a very limited capacity for work.

Iron Jawed Angels: Not only are women depicted as nannies, maids and mothers, but also factory workers, matrons, and scholars.


9. Are the main characters suffragists? Who are the "main" women in the film? How do they fulfill or disrupt gendered notions of femininity?
The main characters in Iron Jawed Angels are suffragists, but only one main characters in Mary Poppins is.

Alice, Lucy, Inez, Doris, Emily, Anna, Mabel, and Rose of Iron Jawed Angels are all suffragists. As a mother and housekeeper, Emily fulfills most notions of femininity. Alice's brutal honesty and toughness is distinctly unfeminine. Lucy's high-maintenance attitude is distinctly feminine, and even she is concerned that she is nearing thirty and has no children.

The main women in Mary Poppins are Mary Poppins and Mrs. Banks. Both of them tend to fulfill, rather than disrupt, notions of femininity as evidenced by their jobs, how they dress and maintain themselves, and how they generally submit to the wishes of the men around them. Even Mary Poppins, who doesn't wait around to hear Mr. Banks' opinion on anything, is easily pressured into doing whatever Burt wants her to do.


10. How does this relate to “isms”- i.e. is this add racist, ageist, etc.?
In Iron Jawed Angels, Lucy and Alice have their opinions about a constitutional amendment shot down by Doris Stevens: they are too young for their opinion to matter. When the black women's group insists that Alice allow their group to march side-by-side with them in the parade, they are refused.


Cited Sources:

Johnson, Allan. "Patriarchy, the System." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. 5th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 4. Print.