Salt of the Earth by Michael Wilson (1954) Review by Sophie Alves (MAS 585) Women have often played an important role in advocating social justice. However, they have rarely been credited for their efforts and actions. Indeed, the research or narratives on social movements too often focus on male experiences. Yet, a gendered approach to social movements is crucial, because women’s experiences differ from men’s, as do their reasons for becoming involved with any type of activism, be it political or social. The movie Salt of the Earth by Michael Wilson (1954) illustrates those differences and emphasizes the importance of understanding the role played by individual and collective identity in political action. How does one’s social identity shape one’s involvement in political action? In this movie, women get involved in a strike; they become visible activists and no longer just the shadows of their husbands. Yet, their depiction in the movie presents them as essentially mothers and wives, inscribing their actions in the realm of domesticity. Thus, their actual agency remains in question. Salt of the Earth depicts a miners’ strike in which the miners’ picketing is blocked by the Taft-Hartley injunction, which restricts the power and actions of labor unions. Since the injunction only prevents men from going on a strike and not women, the miners’ wives take over the picket line, challenging their husbands’ male supremacy. The film highlights the fact that political action or
In Larry Lankton’s text, “Beyond the Boundaries” we gradually enter an unknown world that is frightening yet filled with immense beauty for miles. Due to the copper mining industry, a gradual increase of working class men and their families start to migrate to the unknown world with unsteady emotion, yet hope for a prosperous new life. In “Beyond the Boundaries”, Lankton takes us on a journey on how the “world below” transformed the upper peninsula into a functional and accepted new part of the world.
More than 600 of these marches took place all over the world, the largest being at the nation’s capitol in Washington D.C.. Those who participated did so for a multitude of reasons. Marching for not just equal rights for women, but for equal rights for the LGTBQIA+ community, for Black Lives Matter, for raising awareness about climate change, and much, much more. The hashtag Why I March has garnered up millions of Instagram posts, Tweets, Facebook updates, and articles, all from men and women standing up for their beliefs. The coordinators of the Women’s March on Washington put together a document outlining their guidelines and principles, and illustrate modern day feminism very well. They go over the basic principles that human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights. It also demonstrates intersectionalism, calling for an end to police brutality, reformations for the criminal justice system, an end to human trafficking, rights for immigrants and refugees, among many others. Just as the first women’s convention in American history drew up a doctrine, the guiding vision and definition of principles of the Women’s March is eerily similar to the Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances written 169 years
Women have been active since the beginning of the early 1800’s and struggle until today’s day, to fight for equality. There were two women movement waves. The first wave was focused on the equality of the women by working on voting rights. The second wave from 1963 to 1982 concentrated on social issues. As in “Collective Action for Social Change”, Aaron Schutz and Marie Sandy stated in their book “women were tired of being second class citizens”. The civil rights movement spillover inspired women to create social movements by acting and building organizations focused on the issues that affected the women. The social issues were child care, domestic violence, contraception, and women’s health. One of the major topics that the feminists focused on was domestic violence that still exists in today’s day worldwide.
The 1954 film Salt of the Earth directed by Herbert J. Biberman, is set in New Mexico and is about the Hispanic miners working for Delaware Zinc, a mining company, and the plot of the movie is about how the miners go on strike till they are treated equally the same as the other non-Hispanic miners. The miners’ strike goes on for months and the company decides to hold out on the workers by scaring the old workers with new miners to take their jobs, and during that time the wives of the miners decided to take it upon themselves to put themselves on the frontlines with the men because the women are also fighting for something else sanitation. News gets out about the strike and many supporters send letters with money
In light of the recent presidential election, many people fear for their freedom as restrictions on immigration, religion, and abortion rights have been proposed. As a result of this, on January 20th, countless citizens banded together across America in “Women’s Marches”, the largest of about 400,000 people at Washington, D.C. (10 Actions). At these protests, advocating for people of all genders, races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations, zero arrests were made. These peaceful gatherings gained the attention and unification of many people across the country and motivated citizens to continue to organize events. At the Women’s March on San Francisco, it was said by a speaker that we are “on the right side of history”. As people continue to vocalize their disagreements with the government, change will always be made, though it may be
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is a beautiful tale of two women in Afghanistan during the Taliban uprising. They grow up on complete opposite sides of Afghan culture. The main character, Mariam, grows up in a more traditional way caused by her forced marriage to Rasheed. Laila on the other hand, grows up with a supportive father who encourages gender equality and education. There are many cultural differences such as, women’s rights, public executions, and the Taliban. The two main characters, Mariam and Laila, develop greatly throughout the novel. They push each other to be better and to stand up for equality. This plays into the themes of the novel. Women’s strength and loyalty are the two most important themes. They
Across cultures and throughout history, women have experienced ongoing systemic oppression; and they have responded with progressive movements of protest and creative alternatives. Harriet Tubman in the fight against slavery: Fannie Lou Hamer for voting rights: Ella Baker and Mary White Ovington in the civil rights movement: Rosa Luxemburg in the German socialist movement: Winnie Mandela in the anti-apartheid movement: Puerto Rican independence leader and poet Lolita Lebron: and American Indian movement activists Anna Mae Aquash, Ingrid Washinawatok, and Winona LaDuke (Mink and Navarro). Women have pioneered in movements for labor rights, prison reform, reproductive rights and health, education, affordable housing, affirmative action and equal rights, human rights, and environmental safety. These women’s leadership styles span a range from soft to harsh, from wielding individual, hierarchical power to possessing a commitment to collectivism, and from identifying as “woman as caretaker of life” to woman as requiring and utilizing equal power to man. There is no one characteristic that applies to all women as social change leaders (Hurtado).
Women have often played an important role in advocating social justice. However, they have rarely been credited for their efforts and actions. Indeed, the research or narratives on social movements too often focus on male experiences. Yet, a gendered approach to social movements is crucial, because women’s experiences differ from men’s, as do their reasons for becoming involved with any type of activism, be it political or social. The movie Salt of the Earth by Michael Wilson (1954) illustrates those differences and emphasizes the importance of understanding the role played by individual and collective identity in political action. How does one’s social identity shape one’s involvement in political action? In this movie, women get involved in a strike; they become visible activists and no longer just the shadows of their husbands. Yet, their depiction in the movie presents them as essentially mothers and wives, inscribing their actions in the realm of domesticity. Thus, their actual agency remains in question.
The piece compares patterns of traditional political activism as well as protest politics (such as demonstrations, petitions, strikes and boycotts). From all these aspects, it is implied that the rising tide in gender equality transforming aspects of both men and women’s lives in the public sphere women usually remain less politically active in most nations, contrary to expectations. The gender gap is still consistently evident across many facets of civic life, even in post-industrial societies.
No Land’s Man is an autobiography written in short essays by Aasif Mandvi. He sections off his book, into many important events that happened throughout his life. Mandvi writes about his life as a child all the way through adulthood. Mandvi was born in India and moved to England when he was only a year old. He grew up with his mother, his father, and his younger sister, Shabana. Ever since Mandvi was a child he wanted to be an actor. Culturally, Indian and Muslim parents strive for their children to be successful, with high paying jobs. Mandvi’s parents were supportive of him, but wanted him to be a successful actor. At the beginning of the book he explains how his family and friends reacted to his new future plan; they wanted him to be an
Cities of Salt has often been read as at once an elegy for a disfigured space and society, and a chronicle of its transformation. How does Munif represent the encounter with and effects of global capital and its arrival? How are tradition, traditional social ties on the one hand, and the encounter with the foreign other represented? What are the limitations and potential problems of attempting to write such a work? Elaborate!
Many women from different social backgrounds have dismissed feminism and remained largely silent (i.e., they decided to be voiceless) in the movement. Their reason to remain silent varies. For instance, some women feel contend about their current situation, some do not see sexism as the most severe form of oppression, and others have an unfavorable opinion of feminism due to poor media representation. Remaining silent can be problematic. On the inner level, being voiceless can kill one’s notion of Self “which holds and molds an individual together in order to
The movement in the late 1970s constructed itself as secular but did not make any effort to define its identity as such. It was assumed that affiliations with the women’s movement were based on gender and positions of difference were articulately largely on grounds of class rather than caste or religious community. Class was constructed as a modern identity unlike caste or religious community, which were seen as pre-modern identities to be transcended.
Enhancing gender equity may be implemented depending on the circumstances as demonstrated in the film Iron Jawed Angels for example 1. activism, organizing, and women’s networking; 2. policy-focused strategies; 3. mentoring; 4. leadership development; and 5. altering organizational norms and procedures. I see activism as a passionate effort which will change the landscape in social, political, economic, or environmental reform for improvements in society. Most, if not all strategies have emerged from formal and informal that is grassroots activism. In a more formal approach to activism the focus is on justice, equal rights and fairness; nonetheless, policy initiatives are needed to avert the injustices to woman as presented by the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) whereby establishing suffrage was an
Historical fiction is often able to provide readers with an understanding into past events through the lives of the characters portrayed. Seen in Suchen Christine Lim’s novel “A Bit of Earth’, we follow the journey of the main protagonist Wong Tuck Heng. Through Tuck Heng’s story, the novel provides a chronicle of the Chinese immigrant story, depicting the social situation in nineteenth-century Malaya. The novel exemplifies the presence of anti-colonialist feelings, the struggles amongst the various communities living in Malaya, highlighting issues of racial differences as well as conflicts that arose from the dichotomy of tradition and modernity. However, through the use of revisionist tactics, the text attempts to “intervene in history and the historical imagination”, “disturbing the comfort of received knowledge and interrogating historical events” for readers. (Poon, 2008) Thus, this essay seeks to explore the history of Malaya through Lim’s “A Bit of Earth” and understand how an alternative perspective is presented in viewing characters from the past.