Originally Aired: FebruaryΒ 21st,Β 1976
Written by: Bob Dorough & Tom Yohe
Performed by: Essra Mohawk
Shel's Review
Music: π΅π΅π΅π΅π΅
Animation: πΊπΊπΊπΊπΊ
Pedagogy: ππ
Accuracy: π―π―
Yikes Factor: π¬π¬π¬π¬
Here's the song, as a song and as a visual spectacle this is a really fantastic song. It's really fun to listen to, the lyrics are clever, and I absolutely love the effects with dancing around the photographs and the white woman mass-production machines are still a fun effect for dancing. They did a great job on this song as like, simply a song with a music video. Unfortunately, this song is Essra Mohawk, a white woman whose surname is appropriating the name of an Indigenous Nation, singing a Black gospel rock song appropriating language and styles associated with and invented by Black womenβin order to celebrate the white suffragette movement which very infamously excluded Black women from their movement.
White women got the vote with the 19th amendment in 1920. Black women did not get the right to vote until 1965. The white suffragettes very actively and intentionally distanced themselves from Black suffragettes in order to gain the respect of white men. The famous suffragettes named all said some pretty vehemently racist things, publicly, and proudly. In this song, every single "sistah" we see is white! And not a single mention of Sojourner Truth! How can you possibly cover this moment in history without mentioning Sojourner Truth!
I also just don't like this song pedagogically. What is it teaching us? It's so vague, we really get no sense of how the white suffragettes organized and won the 19th amendment, it sounds like they just came together and told everyone it should be the case and there was no pushback or anything. There is no mention of the fact that Black women had begun organizing for suffrage before the white women's suffrage movement had begun. It creates a very positivist depiction of the events where even though we're talking about how only (white) men could vote until 1920, somehow America still comes out looking like a wonderful democracy.
It's even in the lyrics: We were suffering until suffrage. Then the battle was won and patriarchy was over. The nineteenth amendment struck down the "restrictive rule." It was not taken down by collective action.
And we must remember the historical context of this song! This song is from 1976! The Voting Rights Act is only eleven years old at this point! MLK was assassinated only 7 years ago. This is the American bicentennial it's about "history" not recent events. It's about celebrating America not reckoning with injustices that have only even begun to be partially alleviated very recently. This was the culminating year of major protests in Boston against desegregation of schools through busing initiatives.
If it were only a song about the 19th amendment which didn't talk about race, it would not get as many yikes points as I'm giving it, but the fact that it does so while appropriating Black culture to do it just makes my fucking skin scrawl. I mean come on how can you talk about some of these minor suffragettes and not mentioned Sojourner Truth at all. Oh I want to scream.
June's Review
Music π΅π΅π΅π΅π΅
Animation πΊπΊπΊπΊπΊ
Pedagogy ππ
Accuracy π―π―
Yikes π¬π¬π¬
GOD this song is fun. After so many folksy country songs this season it's nice to hear a song that just fuckin GOES. The beat is great, the lyrics are so much fun; the yelling "SEE YA LATER, ALLIGATOR" sticks in my head. The song is so good it makes me regret giving other songs good scores, why didn't i save them for this.
The animation is just as top notch, they came up with a gimmick here and executed it perfectly. Putting the character into actual historical pictures gives the song a connection to real history it could easily have been missing, and it makes the whole thing more fun to watch. I love it!
Unfortunately, I can't say the same about what the song teaches. Shel covered most of it, the points about this being very much a black gospel song are really fantastic, but I do think part of the blame has to go to the animation and music. While the music is fun to listen to, it doesn't get stuck in your head like other songs, and while the picture-animation is really fun to look at, it's often a bit confusing to understand.
But perhaps that's part of the point? To be frank, I don't think Schoolhouse Rock is interested in teaching the details of women's rights. I think that it wants to convey one idea: things used to be Bad for women, and now they're Good because we can Vote. This is perhaps why it's such a binary state presented. Things were bad, then the 19th amendment happened, and it saved us. That's the idea this cartoon wants to stick in your minds.
That or perhaps that girls in bell bottoms and crop tops are hot. Congratulations to SUFFRAGETTE LADY for being the 9TH MOST SMASHABLE schoolhouse rock character! Apologies to everyone who now, after reading a full unpacking of this song, feels vaguely uncomfortable that they supported the personification of white liberal feminism. Your sadness can be redeemed for a slightly used "I'm with Her" shirt at the table in the back.
Up Next: Personally, I think school buses should just charge through railroad crossings and if the train hits the bus then whose fault is that really. Sounds like those children should have made safer decisions about how they get to school.
