Drunk Feminist History

After spilling 1,850 words in my last post lambasting Conan O'Brien for his awful sexist video game reviews, I feel obliged to highlight some surprisingly feminist entertainment to restore balance to the Dropout blog.

While we hold our feminist principles sacred, not all entertainment needs to offer sophisticated social commentary.  I love watching feminist comedy shows like Inside Amy Schumer, but sometimes I just need to turn off my brain and be entertained.  Comedy Central's Drunk History, surprisingly, fills this niche very well.

As the title suggests, Drunk History doesn't provide sophisticated, highbrow entertainment.  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.  [Note: The UK has its own version of this show, based on the US version for once.]

One might not expect particularly progressive or feminist themes given the show's dependence on drunkness, but I've been pleasantly surprised on two fronts.

Female Storytellers

First, the show includes a surprising number of female storytellers.  In the show's first incarnation as a Funny or Die series, 2 of the 8 storytellers (25%) were women.  This ratio stayed the same in Series 1 on Comedy Central (2013); 6 of the 24 storytellers (25%) were women.  Season 2 (2014) saw the ratio increase to 30%, with 9 of 30 storytellers being women.  Season 3 (2015) increased the representation even further to include 15 women among the 36 storytellers (42%).  At this rate, Season 4 might easily have 50% female representation among its storytellers.

Stories About Women

Second, an increasingly large minority of the stories focus on women.
[Full episodes for seasons 1-3 are available behind a paywall on Hulu.]

Funny or Die Series: 1 woman's story out of 8 total stories (13%)

• Oney Judge (episode 3)

Season 1: 4 women's stories out of 24 total stories (17%)

• Mary Dyer (episode 4)
• Mary Ellen Pleasant (episode 5)
• Patty Hearst (episode 5)
• Dolly Parton (episode 7)

Season 2: 9 women's stories out of 33 total stories (27%) 

• Claudette Colvin (episode 1)
• Sybil Ludington (episode 2)
• Nellie Bly (episode 2)
• Sylvia Robinson (episode 3)
• Peggy Shippen (episode 8)
• Babe Didrikson (episode 9)
• Frances Cleveland (episode 10)
• Edith Wilson (episode 10)
• Dolly Madison (episode 10)

Season 3: 8 women's stories out of 36 total stories (22%) 

• Griselda Blanco (episode 2)
• Harriet Tubman (episode 4)
• Virginia Hall (episode 4)
• Dorothy Fuldheim (episode 5)
• Kentucky Daisey (episode 7)
• Nellie Bly & Elizabeth Bisland (episode 8)
• Mary Phelps Jacob (episode 11)
• Ann Druyan (episode 13)

If the trend continues, we can expect roughly one in four stories in Season 4 to focus on women.

This isn't 50/50 representation, but the show does a nice job including entertaining stories, voices, and performances from women without making a big fuss about it.  It's just what they do.  If I wasn't a feminist blogger I probably wouldn't have noticed I wasn't getting 100% white male stories.  (The show also makes a point to regularly include stories highlighting minority groups.)

Ultimately, this silly show makes me wonder why more media products don't do more to present women's stories.  If a show full of drunk people can do the right thing by women and minorities and be successful, it can't be that hard. (I'm looking at you Conan.)

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

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

I was really surprised to see this article on the Australian television series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.  Primarily I was surprised because a mainstream blog had developed an entire article to one of the obscure costume dramas that only people who subscribe to Acorn TV seem to know about. 

(Note:  Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is a murder mystery show set in Australia in the 1920s.  It features a firebrand flapper/female detective who helps the police solve murders, whether they want her to help or not!)

I tend not to read netflix reviews, but it is a bit disappointing that people are still so narrow-minded.  Actually one of the first things I was pleasantly surprised to find in this series, was a female PI who philandered as much as much as all the male PIs.  It is a little bit unbelievable for an unmarried woman in the twenties, but also a bit believable (it's the twenties!) and more importantly, more fun . . . this is fiction after all!  The show is light, upbeat, fashionable, and refreshingly devoid of slut-shaming characters . . . too bad that the audience seems to be making up for that last point and missing out on all the other good stuff!

In particular all these shallow Netflix reviewers are missing out on a show that has not only a great female character, but a bunch of great female characters and a great community in which these female characters can go about their business.  The women in this show do not fall into the old stereotypes of judging each other and being 'catty.'  Rather they support each other and try to stand up for each other, even when they don't really understand each other or agree with each other.  For example, Miss Fisher's right-hand girl Dot, doesn't really agree with her carefree lifestyle, but she tries not to judge and see all the great things about Miss Fisher and is grateful for her friendship, mentorship, and protection.  She even takes a page out of Miss Fisher's book when her priest tells her she needs to dump her Protestant boyfriend (Ack! Kissing Protestants! The horror!).  Miss Fisher and Dot in turn help many other women, not by judging them and shaming them, but by just facing the facts and helping to stop suffering and injustice as best they can.

These two are supported by a cast of equally accepting male characters: Miss Fisher's stodgy but dreamy police Inspector, Dot's Protestant police constable, their reliable housekeeper Mr. Butler, and two handymen.  These men recognize these women as being somewhat anomalous but try their best to understand their unique ways and support them in their quests for justice.

But finally, the other great thing about this series is that it showcase women's history in a refreshing way, in that it actually shows women lives.  I love costume dramas but am continually frustrated by them because so often lazy writers seem to thing that prior to WWII (if you are lucky) women were either mothers or prostitutes.  I know that career opportunities have historically been limited for women, but they seriously still did manage to do other things than be burdened by children or have sex with men for money (and no, managing a brothel does not count!).  This show actually shows women doing other things!  Perhaps a lady detective is a bit of stretch, but in this show women serve as domestic help, women work in factories, women are nurses and physicians, women write for women's periodicals, women manage companies, women run schools, women manage cocaine smuggling rings, women are performers, women are part of the communist movement, women are pickpockets . . . and that is only about half way through the first season.  It is refreshing to see women's history sneaking onto the screen!

Some other television series that I've been enjoying for this reason: Bomb Girls (Canadian), Land Girls (UK), The Hour (UK), Call the Midwife (UK).  I don't mean to imply by this list that there are no American shows that do this, I just watch a lot of British stuff.

If anyone has any suggestions of what to add to this list please let me know!