LOOSE ENDS, 3.27.24
Dear Readers,
Thank you for reading, and sometimes responding to, my PINKS. I appreciate all your comments and corrections. I rectify the errors, but they may only appear in Substack’s archives.
About the 1913 MARCH: Memorial Continental Hall, built in 1905, where the marchers regrouped after the melee, was not the same building as Constitutional Hall, built in 1929, where Marian Anderson would be refused a stage in 1939. Both buildings belong to the Daughters of the American Revolution. It’s likely many of the marchers were members.
But not the Black sorority women from Howard (the DAR did not integrate until 1977). Alice Paul’s attitudes were the immediate impediment. The AKAs sent the letter below to Paul. She did not respond. Ms. Quander wrote again. (Sources: Pat Wirth, Rohulamin Quander)
Not surprisingly, BARBIE attracted a lot of attention, evenly divided between loathers and lovers.
“I was one of the 10% [who did not own a Barbie]. I had a cowgirl doll who came with a horse.”
“I am firmly in the loathe Barbie camp. Even as a child I saw the dolls as promoting absurd physical standards. Remember Twiggy? I recall reading only 8% of women had her body type. My main reaction was how many women grew up feeling bad about their bodies.”
“Not a Barbie fan. My mother didn’t like them, but she did get me a Twiggy doll with all the mod accessories. And flat feet she could stand on.”
In 2016 Viola Davis (not yet a PINK reader) vowed never to buy her daughter a Barbie doll: “I don’t want her creating images of women who do not look like her.” For Barbie’s 65th birthday, Mattel made a Viola Davis Barbie.
One reader sent a picture of herself with her beloved Barbie, in a pink ballgown; another sent a photo of the Barbie she keeps on her desk, of Ida B. Wells, from the Inspiring Women Series.
On the topic of Barbie and aspirational womanhood, I recommend reading or listening to America Ferrara’s monologue in the Barbie movie. Audiences cheered.
I was interested to see that HBCUs have added two dolls to promote their schools, dressed for homecoming and prom.
Recently, I noticed the little boy at the restaurant table next to me playing with a baby doll. It reminded me of William’s Doll by Charlotte Zolotow, a children’s feminist classic from 1972. It became a lyric sung by Alan Alda and Marlo Thomas on the Free to Be You and Me recording. William wants a doll but his dad gives him a basketball and his brother calls him a sissy. Finally his grandmother intervenes. His dad protests, “But he’s a boy! Why does he need a doll?” She responds, “So that when he’s as father like you, he’ll know . . . how to take care of his baby . . . and give him the things he needs . . . like a doll.”
Reading about BLOODY SUNDAY prompted this reader recollection: “This one I read twice; it is such a powerful story and personally meaningful. In the spring of 1968, I went with some Smith students to help register Black voters in Bertie County, NC. Although I grew up in segregated Washington, DC, I had no idea about the nature of Jim Crow until that week. I kept a diary; I was so shaken. I am sickened that the painful work of so many brave people has been casually tossed aside by 5 votes on the Supreme Court.”
Some readers feel overwhelmed by the LENGTH AND FREQUENCY of PINK posts. As you know, these essays are a work in progress. My goal is 1000-1200 words, not counting sources. For the fourteen published to date, the average word count was 1431. It is a challenge for historians to share less of a story; I aspire to be concise. My frequency goal is 4 or 5 posts per month. It depends entirely on what happened in that timeframe. You will have to wait until next March to read about Rosie the Riveter, the Triangle Fire, Equal Pay Day, or Gloria Steinem.
Or ABIGAIL ADAMS. It seemed appropriate to end Women’s History Month with her “remember the ladies” epistle, mailed to her husband on March 31, 1776. She hoped that Congress would stop treating women as “vassals of your sex,” reminding him that “all men would be tyrants if they could,” a pointed reference to their revolution. Her letter reached John Adams in May. He dismissed it as a joke.
To be continued, in March 2025.
Onward!
Betsy
PS: Look what I saw during Jen Psaki’s March 18 MSNBC interview with election lawyer Marc Elias. If you randomly find FORMIDABLE somewhere, please send me a photo.
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