Drunk Historians for the Win!

Back in July 2016, I told you about the television show Drunk History on the Comedy Central network.  To recap,

The show's creator gets a storyteller drunk and the storyteller then attempts to tell the audience an interesting story about a historical figure or event.  As the story unfolds, a team of actors in period costume faithfully acts out the inebriated story.  Add some low-budget special effects and some celebrity cameos and you have an entertaining (if unsophisticated) show. 

What was more relevant for our purposes was the show's surprisingly progressive/feminist themes.  Over the course of three seasons, the show had increased the percentage of female storytellers to 42% and the percentage of woman-centered stories to around 25%, all without making a big fuss about it.  I predicted that at the current rate, Season 4 might get even closer to parity.

With Season 4 now complete with 10 episodes exploring 28 stories, how did they do?

Female Storytellers

Starting with the storytellers, I counted 17 male storytellers and 11 female storytellers across all ten episodes.  This works out to about 40% female storytellers across the season, roughly equal to the representation in Season 3.  No increase, but not too shabby.

Stories About Women

Turning to the stories themselves, I counted 11 stories featuring a woman (or several women) in a significant way (see the list below).  This amounts to about 40% of the Season 4 stories!  Remember, Seasons 2 and 3 averaged only about 25% stories with a female focus.  The fourth season gave us more that 50% more stories about women!!

• Ella Fitzgerald and Marylin Monroe (Episode 2)
• Carrie Nation (Episode 3)
• Marsha P. Johnson (Episode 3)
• Eleanor Roosevelt & Lyudmila Pavlichenko (Episode 4)
• Sadie the Goat and Gallus Mag (Episode 5)
• Katharine Wright (Episode 6)
• The Kopp Sisters (Episode 6)
• The Fox Sisters (Episode 6)
• Emily Roebling (Episode 7)
• Julia Child (Episode 8)
• The Cherry Sisters (Episode 10)

But, Wait! There's More!

As if 50% more stories about women wasn't enough, the show's creators added an interesting new feature to the fourth season. As the episodes progressed, I noticed that many of the background and supporting roles were performed by the show's female cast in trouser or pants roles.  For example, business man no. 2 would be a woman wearing a suit and mustache.  Or Shakespearean actor no. 3 would be a woman in men's garb.  At first I thought they were just short-staffed on those filming days, but it happened enough to seem intentional.

Then it happened . . . Episode 9 "Hamilton" featuring a very drunk Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The Hamilton-Burr story goes way back to the show's beginnings as a web-series, so I was a little surprised they were tackling it again.  But this time you have Lin-Manuel Miranda and an entire episode devoted to the two men and their relationship.  You also have both Hamilton and Burr played by women.  That's right, female founding fathers.  BOOM!

Did I mention that this show is hosted by drunk people?  Where is the rest of the entertainment industry?!  Probably hiding with embarrassment because they're so far behind the times.  Would they have cast women to represent the founding fathers?  I don't think so.  They couldn't even imagine casting Asian-American actor John Cho as Shakespeare (episode 8).  Oh, yeah, Drunk History did that too.

Drunk historians for the win!

Why You Should Follow the National Women's History Museum

Somehow or other I came to follow the National Women's History Museum on Facebook.  I think it is one of the best social media decisions I have ever made.

The National Women's History Museum, which currently only exists online--- they are raising funds and support in order to build a physical space--- posts regularly about numerous and diverse women throughout (mostly) American history.  I love stumbling upon these fascinating people as I scroll through my news feed.  Sometimes the women they feature come from the recent past (1970s and onward), or even from current news and events, and other times they post about women from the early years of this country.  The women come from all walks of life, races, classes, and ages.  They recently featured an 11 year-old (Samantha Reed Smith)!

Through the NWHM I have learned about women like:

• Amanda Theodosia James - who lived in the 1800s, patented several canning techniques, and owned and ran her own canning and preserving business--- that only hired women!
• Dr. Kazue Togasaki - a Japanese American doctor and one of the few physicians allowed to practice medicine during the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII
• Nannie Helen Burroughs - an African-American activist who in 1909 founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, D.C. to provide schooling for black students in the segregated south

Belle

Next week the independent film Belle will hit theatres in the USA.  I had the privilege of seeing the film in February at the Athena Film Festival in NYC.

Belle is an historical drama based on the real life of Dido Elizabeth Belle, a mixed-raced British aristocrat who lived the late 1700s.  Dido was the child of an enslaved African woman and an admiral in the British navy;  the two likely encountered each other in the West Indies.  Her mother is believed to have died when Dido was very young and her father sent her to be raised by his uncle, an Earl and Chief Justice, in England where she was raised as a gentlewoman along with her white cousin Elizabeth.  The film was inspired by the painting the Earl had commissioned of his two nieces in 1779 and which still exists to this day.

The film examines what Dido's life may have been like given the real people she would have encountered in her life as well as the historical events that impacted her and her family.  Portrayed by the young British actress Gugu Mbatha-Ra, the film allows us to begin to understand the complex intersections of race, gender, and class that Dido had to negotiate, and to honor the courage and strength of Dido and her family in making the choices (large and small) that they did and the impact those choice can have.

Watch the trailer here:


When speaking after the film screening at the Athena Film Festival, director Amma Asante expanded on the goal of the film besides just bringing the story