Falling Angels and a Rant, If you Please

If you've been paying attention at all, you will have noticed that we are rather fond of Mary Poppins in this household.  And why shouldn't we be?  The movie is marvelous and so well-done.  And the music is perfect, albeit a bit annoying seven or eight times in a row while driving in the car.  But that is just because our daughter happens to worship Mary Poppins so much.  Emilia likes to sit in front of the telly with her hat and gloves on, a teeny-tiny plastic umbrella next to her, and put on her 'make-up' with Mary Poppins.  (You know that scene in the beginning where Mary Poppins touches up her make-up while sitting on a cloud?)  Anyway, her current favorite song is Step In Time, but for the longest time she absolutely adored Sister Suffragette.  (If you don't believe me, click here.)

Personally, I find Mary Poppins to be rather educational -- you can learn an awful lot about British history just by singing along.  One of these 'things' in particular is the Women's Suffrage Movement.  Laugh as much as you'd like, but I'm dead serious.  Its all there: ... '1910, King Edward's on the throne, it's the age of men...  though we adore men individually, we agree that as a group they're rather stupid... Take heart for Mrs. Pankhurst's been clapped in irons again!'  See what I mean?  It's chock-full of information: the year it happened, who was on the throne, political tension between the sexes, and a shout-out to a major player within the movement: Emmeline Pankhurst.  It even acknowledges the struggles between husbands and wives during this time: 'You know how the cause infuriates Mr. Banks!'  In a truly spectacular way, it captures everything -- down to the colors worn by the suffragettes.  And it is so well done.

(Quick disclaimer: If you happen to be one of my family, you may want to avert your eyes now.  Goodness knows you're all sick to death of hearing me talk about this.)

A few days ago I finished reading Tracy Chevalier's book Falling Angels.  This book tells the story of a few women and their daughters (with a few other voices sprinkled throughout) during the Women's Suffrage Movement in England.  It is very readable (I finished it in two or three days), and this is what I enjoy about Chevalier's books.  They always put you in a historical period and tell you about something you've always wished to know more about.  (I loved Burning Bright, The Lady and the Unicorn and Girl with a Pearl Earring.)  That being said, I have no patience when an author's agenda eclipses the story they are trying to tell.  The story ends up losing something.

One of the main characters in Falling Angels is a married woman named Kitty Coleman.  She has one daughter (Maude) and she is wildly unhappy.  Her husband bores her to death, and she can't be bothered with her daughter because she is so wrapped up in herself and her misery.  In Kitty's pursuit for mental stimulation, she ends up having an affair and gets pregnant.  Fine, I can deal with that, I'm a grown-up -- it just makes her more interesting as a character.  But what loses me entirely is when Chevalier takes women's rights to mean abortion rights.  Yes, Kitty Coleman has an abortion, right in the middle of the women's civil rights movement.  (Wow, ain't it great to be a woman!  Whoo-hoo!  I feel so liberated!)

What astounds me so much is that the backdrop for the book is the women's civil rights movement.  Am I the only one to find the sheer irony here?  It is utterly gobsmacking.  Could she not have chosen a more perfect period in history?  Civil rights!  For whom exactly?  The wonderful Father Richard John Neuhaus once said that abortion is the most important civil rights issue of our time.  I'll say it again, just in case you missed it: Abortion Is The Most Important Civil Rights Issue Of Our Time. 

Anyway, as the story goes on, Kitty dies during a rally and their maid (Jenny) is run out of the house (by Kitty's mother-in-law) for having a baby out of wed-lock.  Jenny is one of the few who knew of Kitty's 'medical' adventures and strongly voiced her disapproval at the time.  However, in the last pages of the book, Jenny has realized the errors of her ways, and is found leaving a mid-wife after procuring her own abortion.  Oi -- kind of makes me want to stick a fork in my eye.

As for the other women in the book?  Well, they belong to one of two different groups.  Group #1:  Those who are sick and tired and not going to take it anymore.  Now, pardon me, my abortion appointment is in twenty minutes and I don't want to be late.  And Group #2:  I'll faint if you talk about women's rights one more time. Don't you all think I'm so pretty?  Thoughts?  Me?  Well, I've not got any.  Oh, I can't wait to get married to a mean and oppressive man! 

As for myself, I can be found in the Winifred Banks' Sister Suffragette camp of Mary Poppins -- which is very far removed from the convoluted-agenda-laden women's rights of Kitty Coleman (a.k.a. Tracy Chevalier).  But that's just me.  Besides, I'd much prefer to have a tea-party on the ceiling with Uncle Albert or dance around with the other chimney sweeps, than attend one of those Swingers New Year's parties the Colemans often resorted to. 

And please believe me when I say that I am not taking my rights as a female lightly.  I know they were hard won, and I am very grateful to the thousands of women who fought for these rights.  If only we could now get the same fight for the little lives that continue to be lost every day -- still, in our liberated and ever-so-enlightened 2010.