{"id":1497542,"date":"2022-05-31T07:15:25","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T11:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1497542"},"modified":"2022-05-31T07:16:58","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T11:16:58","slug":"smithsonian-exhibit-reduces-american-womens-history-to-cheap-ideological-falsehoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/smithsonian-exhibit-reduces-american-womens-history-to-cheap-ideological-falsehoods\/","title":{"rendered":"Smithsonian Exhibit Reduces American Women\u2019s History To Cheap, Ideological Falsehoods"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsmithsonian-exhibit-reduces-american-womens-history-to-cheap-ideological-falsehoods%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1497542&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>With vibrant colors and provocative murals, \u201cGirlhood: It\u2019s Complicated\u201d at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History immediately catches one\u2019s eye. It may seem harmless at first glance, but a deeper look exposes the dangers lurking behind its bright wall displays.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"990\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl-1-1024x990-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-272971\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl-1-1024x990-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl-1-300x290-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl-1-768x743-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl-1-1536x1485-1.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl-1.jpg 1540w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The exhibit appears to be primarily targeted toward children and young adults. Its <a href=\"https:\/\/americanhistory.si.edu\/exhibitions\/girlhood-its-complicated\">description<\/a>, written on the wall next to the entrance, reads:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>The history of girlhood is not what people think; it is complicated. Young women are often told that girls are \u2018made of sugar and spice and everything nice.\u2019 What we learn from the past is that girls are made of stronger stuff. They changed history. From Helen Keller to Naomi Wadler, girls have spoken up, challenged expectations, and been on the front lines of social change. Although definitions of girlhood have changed, what it means to grow up female in the United States has always been part of the American conversation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The exhibit\u2019s displays are then divided into six main categories: News and Politics, Education, Work, Wellness, Fashion, and \u201cA Girl\u2019s Life.\u201d The latter presents a series of personal stories of girls who have overcome obstacles or made history.<\/p>\n<h2>Inconsistency in Depth<\/h2>\n<p>One of the striking aspects of the exhibit is its inconsistency in terms of historical depth. Some sections are well-developed, such as an <a href=\"https:\/\/americanhistory.si.edu\/girlhood\/education\/schooled-work\/secretaries\">entire wall display<\/a> dedicated to the history of women\u2019s secretarial jobs. It details how women entered the corporate workforce in larger numbers with the invention of the typewriter. It documents this process using photographs, statistics, and typewriter models from the early 20th century.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"360\" height=\"296\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-272972\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl3.png 360w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl3-300x247-1.png 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Other sections are threadbare, relying on clich\u00e9 statements with scant historical context and, quite often, a lack of primary source material. The two descriptions below are examples of this.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"930\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl4-1024x930-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-272973\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl4-1024x930-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl4-300x273-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl4-768x698-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl4-1536x1395-1.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl4.jpg 1540w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"834\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl5-1024x834-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-272974\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl5-1024x834-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl5-300x244-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl5-768x625-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl5-1536x1251-1.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl5.jpg 1540w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>We are presented with a narrative \u2014 that science was \u201cfor girls\u201d in the 1800s and \u201cfor boys\u201d in the 1900s \u2014 but with the exception of a few hand-drawn depictions of 19th-century upper-class girls being educated in the sciences (such as the one below: \u201cAstronomy,\u201d1815), there are no sources presented to back up these resentful claims.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"487\" height=\"799\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl6.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-272975\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl6.png 487w, https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl6-183x300.png 183w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Likewise, in the \u201cWellness\u201d section of the exhibit, we are told that the reason Americans have talked so much about \u201cgirls\u2019 bodies\u201d (i.e. birth control) over the past century is because in America, \u201cgirls\u2019 bodies are [viewed as] community property.\u201d According to the exhibit, it is up to girls to \u201ctalk back\u201d and \u201ctake control\u201d of their bodies.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"971\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl7-971x1024-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-272976\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl7-971x1024-1.jpg 971w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl7-284x300-1.jpg 284w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl7-768x810-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl7-1457x1536-1.jpg 1457w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/girl7.jpg 1540w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>This statement is confusing. What does it mean to say that girls\u2019 bodies are \u201ccommunity property\u201d? Is that a veiled allusion to the abortion debate? Is it a way of saying femininity is a social construct and thus \u201cgirls\u2019 bodies\u201d belong to the community insofar as the community determines what a girl\u2019s body is? \u201cGirlhood\u201d leaves these questions unanswered.<\/p>\n<h2>Cheap, Almost Nonexistent \u2018Scholarship\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>On the whole, the exhibit seems most concerned with reinforcing \u2014 over and over again \u2014 the opening <a href=\"https:\/\/americanhistory.si.edu\/girlhood\/news-and-politics\">statement<\/a> that \u201cJust being a girl makes a person political.\u201d We are told that \u201cchallenging the status quo\u201d is what girls do best, and they are important agents of social change. Thus, everything about the history of American girls \u2014 the things they have said, the clothes they have worn, the causes they have supported, and the education they have received \u2014 has always been political.<\/p>\n<p>The issue with the exhibition\u2019s \u201cthesis statement\u201d is that any one-sided view of history is often shallow and inaccurate. \u201cGirlhood\u201dreduces the entire history of American girlhood down to feminist activism. It is akin to a Marxist saying that everything in history can be boiled down to class struggle, or advocates of critical race theory insisting that everything in history is about racism. Certainly, those are lenses through which our past can be interpreted, but reducing <em>all <\/em>of a group\u2019s history to a single social phenomenon is extremely problematic.<\/p>\n<h2>All People Are Political<\/h2>\n<p>Now, this is not to say that the entire exhibit is without merit. Paradoxically, I may even agree with the thesis statement \u2014 although not entirely in the way the creators of \u201cGirlhood\u201d intended it. Aristotle <a href=\"http:\/\/classics.mit.edu\/Aristotle\/politics.1.one.html\">states<\/a> in Book I of his \u201cPolitics\u201d that \u201cMan is by nature a political animal.\u201d This simply means that human beings are community-builders, capable of interacting with other human beings in an ordered society, by virtue of their capacity for reason and their inherent sense of morality.<\/p>\n<p>In Aristotle\u2019s words, \u201cIt is a characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of good and evil, of just and unjust, and the like, and the association of living beings who have this sense makes a family and a state.\u201d (Note here also the emphasis on<em> family <\/em>as the building block of the political state). Very well, then \u00a0\u2014 all people, according to Aristotle, are political \u201cby nature.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>But what makes being a girl especially political? \u201cGirlhood\u201d offers an interesting explanation:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>For most of the nation\u2019s history, schools prepared girls for a common future\u2013motherhood. Girls would raise the next generation of Americans. The future of the country rested in girls\u2019 bodies and beliefs. Girls\u2019 power over the future made many adults uncomfortable. Who would raise future citizens? Who would raise children denied this right? The battleground over national belonging was waged over a girl\u2019s education. Girls could shape the future and create new versions of America.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Unfortunately, the exhibit does not offer any evidence or source material demonstrating the claim that American adults were \u201cuncomfortable\u201d with girls\u2019 power over the future. It does, however, quote Presbyterian pastor Jonathan F. Stearns, who in 1837 told women, \u201cOn you, ladies, depends, [to] a most important degree, the destiny of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I concur. To some extent, girls are political because they have the potential to become mothers, responsible for raising the future generations of a society. A well-informed woman, who can think critically and exercise good judgment, will be better equipped to form the minds and characters of her children. <\/p>\n<p>In a republic like the United States, well-educated, independent-minded women are indeed <em>crucial <\/em>to a free and ordered society. As \u201cGirlhood\u201d puts it:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Girls\u2019 education became important after the American Revolution. The Republic wanted educated voters and counted on girls (as future mothers) to teach their children well. While the United States valued women as mothers, it denied them their personhood. Nationally, women had a voice but no vote until 1920.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>How did the United States value its mothers? What were the tenets of an American girl\u2019s education, and how did it differ from girls\u2019 upbringing around the world? I found this section of the exhibit quite fascinating, and would have loved to see it expanded a bit more. The trend that \u201cGirlhood\u201d describes \u2014 that is, the early American Republic\u2019s emphasis on well-educated women \u2014 defined at least the first century of our nation\u2019s history, if not more.<\/p>\n<h2>Society Depends on Independent, Educated Women<\/h2>\n<p>To back up their claim, I wish \u201cGirlhood\u201d had quoted someone like Alexis de Tocqueville, whose 1835 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/816\/816-h\/816-h.htm\">book<\/a>, \u201cDemocracy in America,\u201d contains an entire chapter on the \u201cEducation of Young Women in the United States.\u201d Tocqueville, while visiting America in the early 1830s, was amazed at the independence and self-reliance of the American girl, \u201cfull of confidence of her own strength.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>He explains that \u201c[l]ong before an American girl arrives at the age of marriage, her emancipation from maternal control begins; she has scarcely ceased to be a child when she already thinks for herself, speaks with freedom, and acts on her own impulse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The freedom and resilience that American girls experienced \u2014 in contrast with their more sheltered European counterparts \u2014 was a critical part of their education because it prepared them for the challenges of life in a new nation, and especially frontier life. Diana Schaub <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/marriage-and-family\/report\/the-way-we-were-alexis-de-tocqueville-women-and-the-family\">points out<\/a> that Tocqueville places an emphasis on the frontier as the special domain of the American woman:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>It is from such isolated outposts that the continent was peopled and the vast forests vanquished. The contents of the cabin (a rifle, a map of the United States, a Bible, a few volumes of Milton and Shakespeare, and a teapot of English porcelain) reflect the virtues of its inhabitants. Tocqueville highlights the \u2018religious resignation\u2019 and \u2018tranquil firmness\u2019 with which this pioneer woman \u2018confronts all the evils of life without fearing them or braving them.\u2019 One is reminded of the frontier novels and female protagonists of Willa Cather (O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and My \u00c1ntonia) or Laura Ingalls Wilder\u2019s Little House on the Prairie series for younger readers.\u00a0 She is resolute.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2>The Epitome of American Girlhood: Laura Ingalls Wilder<\/h2>\n<p>Laura Ingalls Wilder is, in my own view, the epitome of American girlhood. In addition to navigating the uncertainties and perils of pioneer life, Laura earned a teaching license at the age of 15 \u2014 which was quite young, even by 1880s standards \u2014 so she could save money to send her older sister, Mary, to a college for the blind. <\/p>\n<p>Laura\u2019s resilience, incredible work ethic, and brilliant mind were the result of the education she received primarily from her mother, Caroline Ingalls, another model of American womanhood. Although Laura describes her mother in all her books as soft-spoken and gentle, Caroline Ingalls endured unimaginable hardships on the frontier, yet placed such a high premium on education that she maintained rigorous schooling for Laura and her sisters whenever their family was in a place without a schoolhouse (which was most of the time).<\/p>\n<p>Consider the following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.susannaspencer.com\/?p=229\">reflection<\/a>, which Laura had on Independence Day of 1881, at the age of 15 \u2014 just before she became a schoolteacher:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Then Pa began to sing. All at once everyone was singing:<\/p>\n<p>\u2018My country, \u2019tis of thee,<\/p>\n<p>Sweet land of liberty,<\/p>\n<p>Of thee I sing. \u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Long may our land be bright<\/p>\n<p>With Freedom\u2019s holy light,<\/p>\n<p>Protect us by Thy might,<\/p>\n<p>Great God, our King!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The crowd was scattering away then, but Laura stood stock still. Suddenly she had a completely new thought. The Declaration and the song came together in her mind, and she thought: God is America\u2019s king.<\/p>\n<p>She thought: Americans won\u2019t obey any king on earth. Americans are free. That means they have to obey their own consciences. No king bosses Pa; he has to boss himself. Why (she thought), when I am a little older, Pa and Ma will stop telling me what to do, and there isn\u2019t anyone else who has a right to give me orders. I will have to make myself be good.<\/p>\n<p>Her whole mind seemed to be lighted up by that thought. This is what it means to be free. It means, you have to be good. \u2018Our father\u2019s God, to Thee, author of liberty\u2026\u2019 The laws of Nature and of Nature\u2019s God endow you with a right to life and liberty. Then you have to keep the laws of God, for God\u2019s law is the only thing that gives you a right to be free.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This was the fruit of the American education that Laura received as a girl, and her story is just one of countless tales that define historical American girlhood. What a legacy! She is a model of American femininity, not American feminism. The depth of insight and keen intellect she demonstrated at age 15 puts the modern American education system to shame, and particularly its study of American history.<\/p>\n<p>Although the \u201cGirlhood\u201d exhibit makes a few valuable points, by centering its attention around an ideological agenda \u2014 and relying on sweeping clich\u00e9s to back it up, rather than detailed source material \u2014 it misses the mark. Like so much of the American history that today\u2019s children are being taught in our schools and museums, it provokes contempt for America\u2019s \u201chistory of injustice\u201d rather than fostering a healthy pride in our nation\u2019s legacy, flawed though it may be. I wish our National Museum of American History could do better.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Zsanna Bodor is a graduate of Hillsdale College, where she studied music and German literature. Born in Budapest, Zsanna grew up speaking Hungarian with her family. She enjoys long walks in the Midwest, cooking, philosophy, and performing quartet music with her three brothers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With vibrant colors and provocative murals, \u201cGirlhood: It\u2019s Complicated\u201d at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History immediately catches one\u2019s eye. It may seem harmless at first glance, but a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":652,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1497542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/652"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1497542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1497542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1497542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1497542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}