(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Being able to browse through 150's history through stylish, striking and life-affirming illustrations, interpretations and dramatizations is fascinating. The look rests well on details that give associations and food for thought. There is humor and wit in Breen and Jordahl's work, in both content, context and line. This brave image story colors iconic female characters and contrasts important combat elements. And it is very well timed.
Knowing its history provides insight and strength, and it can inspire to let past experiences be aids to the present. The impact of the Metoo movement has changed how many women view themselves and their opportunities. The discovery of global unity, commitment and solidarity hits directly on the mobile and mobilizes massively in days and hours. New opportunities open up to improve the situation of women and girls in society. The wave of focus and empathy provides momentum. What better fits then, than take a look at the story that has brought us here to where we are today?
Many milestones
The creators of the comic book elegantly divide the themes with different colors: light blue for women's situation before emancipation, red for voting rights, pink for dominion over their own body and rainbow colors for the struggle for free love, and so on. The story of the first female Iranian martyr Táhirih is yellow. She was executed in 1852 because she took off the veil as a deliberate act for women's liberation.
The time spirit from the start of the Emancipation account is captured in color, lines and composition, and the glowing battle spirit shines through.
The milestones are many, but are they all equally famous? What about the women's struggle against slavery? Or the pioneering women's major contribution to the development of birth control and family planning? Much is included in the book, and something is missing. Mala's enduring struggle for girls' education despite their own mutilation of the Afghan regime is part of the end result. Even I miss Pussy Riot or the Afghan rap artist Paradise. To me they play on the same strings as the peace activist Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) did. They risk life and health by challenging conventions and taboos to get through. Pussy Riots provocative music in a Russian church was met with severe prison sentences, making music that woman was met with brutal violence in Afghanistan. Rosa was punished for her courageous words in a time of war that demanded national loyalty and regarded pacifism as so dangerous that she was liquidated by right-wing soldiers.
Contraception Revolution
The book gives a good introduction to a field that is fortunately wider and more diverse than it can fit between these perms. The women pioneers not only fought for their own rights, but also contributed to society as a whole. Nurse Margaret Sanger (1879 – 1966) lost her mother early, who underwent entire 18 pregnancies. At that time, maternity and child mortality were high, and sexual education and information on how to prevent pregnancy were seen as a sin. Together with her sister, she started, among other things, the first maternity clinic in the United States. She stated about birth control such as vaginal showers and diarrhea, but wanted to find a better method: the hormone pill. Her idea and recruitment of researcher Dr. Gregory Pincus resulted in the revolutionary birth control pill. In this connection, it would have been appropriate to also mention our own Katti Anker Møller and her revolutionary work.
Voting rights
The book has a talking overview image of a double page (p. 52 – 53) on the introduction of voting rights for women worldwide. New Zealand was the first country out in 1893, and we can bask in the brilliance of Norway being the fourth country in the 1913 series. What does it tell us that Italian women first got the same dish as late as 1946, and Swiss first in 1971?
That Saudi Arabia first introduced women's suffrage in 2015 may not surprise anyone. Now, however, new rights are in line for Saudi women, who since 2017 have been able to go to concerts and cinemas and can soon drive a car. The book also talks about the reason why British women over 30 gained voting rights in the 1918 suffrage – the violent struggle that was set to contribute in the First World War, women serving in the war, performing "men jobs", driving ambulances and being frontline field nurses. The story illustrates how what was not achieved by other means came about by itself as society needed women to fulfill necessary functions. Now Saudi Arabia needs 1,3 millions more women to work in 2030 to remedy weakened oil revenues. That is why there is a sudden rush to give Saudi women the rights to contribute.
Voting rights for British women came by themselves as society needed them to fill the necessary functions.
In the fight against slavery
When a US delegation was in England to attend The World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840, the participating American ladies (or other ladies) did not speak, but had to stand behind a curtain. After working against slavery for years, the American women experienced this as unfair. One of several African-American opponents of slavery was Harriet Tubman (ca. 1820 – 1913), who had escaped from slavery himself. She constantly returned to the south and managed to free hundreds of others. Many of those who did not dare to escape to freedom, she forced with weapons. She is drawn in posing gangster style.
The cartoon format seduces and gives a sense of quality posters of the Parisian poster type from the 19. century. The time spirit from the start of the Emancipation Report is captured in color, lines and composition, and the glowing fighting spirit shines through. Case writer Marta Breen and illustrator Jenny Jordahl shine in their multi-book collaboration with refinement, humor and accurate communication pleasure. Rarely have I seen the women's struggle portrayed with such power and sizzling charming attitude. The project is catching on. Showing the book to others has immediate consequences. The "test group" (from young girls at 12 to mature men at 84) had in common that they spent an extremely long time releasing the book, and were happy to snap it back.
To summarize what makes this comic book project so successful, I get the help of children's mouths: "Telling an important message through humor often makes it better in memory."
