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.Members also took active roles in shaping television, radio, and filmproductions treating the suffrage movement.On more than one occasion,the BBC canceled production plans because of opposition to its representa-tions by former suffragettes.Writers at the BBC found they had to negotiatethe shoals of prewar factionalism among suffragettes, as well as field chargesthat the organization did not take women’s struggles for political rights seri-ously enough.8One consequence of the ceaseless activity of the Suffragette Fellowshipwas that militancy’s variety became reduced in the recounting.In its versionof the story, Emmeline Pankhurst became single-handedly responsible forBritish women acquiring the vote.This had become a theme of postwar dis-course on the suffrage movement as early as the late 1920s and was recog-nized by former militants themselves, as in Emmeline Pethick Lawrence’s1929 observation that Emmeline Pankhurst had become “the embodiment136c o n c l u s i o nf i g u r e 8.1Former suffragettes at Mrs.Pankhurst’s statue,ca.1945.Museum of London.and representative” of the militant movement.9 Mrs.Pankhurst’s unique sig-nificance was reiterated by former suffragettes in numerous radio produc-tions and press publications throughout the next thirty years.10 Some formersuffragettes chafed at the difficulties surrounding any attempt to commem-orate the efforts of other women active in the militant campaign, but to littleeffect.11 The proposals of a committee, formed in 1958 to make additions tothe site of Emmeline Pankhurst’s statue, exposed the bitterness many formersuffragettes felt at how their movement had been represented by some oftheir colleagues.The proposal, to add bronze medallions honoring Christa-bel Pankhurst and depicting the Holloway prisoners’ brooch, elicited strongcomments from those who believed that too much attention had been givento violent militancy, and not enough credit had been given to nonviolent mil-itants and those who had opposed militancy altogether.12 Former WSPUmember Theresa Garnett asserted that the committee’s suggestions were “anaffront to all the women who fought, but did not agree with the later meth-ods of the WSPU.” She reminded readers that those opposed to the use ofviolence “were and still are in the majority.” 13 This discussion among former137t h e m i l i ta n t s u f f r a g e m ov e m e n tsuffragettes took place within the pages of the Women’s Freedom League Bulletin, the successor to the WFL’s paper, the Vote, and consequently had little impact on wider public portrayals of militancy.Representation of the prewar movement within the popular press in the1920s and 1930s bore a striking resemblance to former WSPU members’ ac-counts of the prewar movement.At times the two overlap significantly, intelling and interpretation.One barometer of this was the newspaper cover-age of the tenth anniversary of the first extension of the suffrage to womenat the age of thirty, which coincided with the tense waiting period leading upto passage of the Equal Franchise Act of 1928.Every major newspaper car-ried stories of commemorative dinners staged by former suffragettes, re-porting in admiring or condescending tones upon the speeches, toasts, andpolitical utterances made by these women.Former suffragettes emerge fromthese accounts seemingly titillated by militancy.At one meeting in Craig’sCourt Restaurant in February 1928, attended by approximately 150 formersuffragettes, discussion revolved around the chair’s instructions to speakersto “‘tell the most humorous or thrilling experience [of militancy] you everhad.’” 14 Suffragettes went on record as marveling at their prewar selves.Atthe Craig’s Court Restaurant dinner, Irene Middleton, described as having“served one bleak Christmas in Holloway,” commented that “‘looking backon those W.S.P.U.days it all seems mad, but well worth while.’” 15 “‘It all seems mad’” had the effect of diminishing the rational causes of women’s politicaldissent, while overemphasizing the heady physicality of women’s violent re-sistance [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]