Difference between revisions of "328 2010--Week 5 Questions/Comments"
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First I believe that Alice Paul had to have been one tough women to have gone through all that she did while being in jail; dealing with the disgusting conditions and then the scrutinizing men guards and doctor. The one protest she did come up with, the hunger strike, I didn’t exactly understand. She complained of having little to eat and it being “not a diet destined to sustain a rebellion for long,” (112) but then she starts a hunger strike. This must have only made her and the women weaker, and I don’t understand the logic behind that. At least with the food they were given they had something in them, but nothing after three days? It’s no wonder the doctor thought she was crazy, I know that I wouldn’t be able to think right if I was that deprived of food. Once the doctor had come in and Alice only rambled on about her cause and Woodrow Wilson. Of course she didn’t know that this ‘doctor’ was examining her for her mental health, but Alice hadn’t had anything to eat in three days and must not have been in her right mind either. I probably would have thought that she was crazy too. It’s no wonder she was sent to the psychopathic ward. Whatever happened to her? -Morgan M. | First I believe that Alice Paul had to have been one tough women to have gone through all that she did while being in jail; dealing with the disgusting conditions and then the scrutinizing men guards and doctor. The one protest she did come up with, the hunger strike, I didn’t exactly understand. She complained of having little to eat and it being “not a diet destined to sustain a rebellion for long,” (112) but then she starts a hunger strike. This must have only made her and the women weaker, and I don’t understand the logic behind that. At least with the food they were given they had something in them, but nothing after three days? It’s no wonder the doctor thought she was crazy, I know that I wouldn’t be able to think right if I was that deprived of food. Once the doctor had come in and Alice only rambled on about her cause and Woodrow Wilson. Of course she didn’t know that this ‘doctor’ was examining her for her mental health, but Alice hadn’t had anything to eat in three days and must not have been in her right mind either. I probably would have thought that she was crazy too. It’s no wonder she was sent to the psychopathic ward. Whatever happened to her? -Morgan M. | ||
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| + | My understanding is that all prisons during this time period operated under similar conditions. Also, I don't find it appalling at all that Paul was suspected of mental illness nor believe the continued questioning concerning President Wilson to be "convenient," nor do I agree with the conclusion that contemporary (then) men were frightened by suffragists. Firstly, perhaps my timeline is off, but my understanding is that the very presence of a prison psychiatrist was an indication of prison reform. And like Morgan mentioned, if it doesn't seem logical for someone to go on a hunger strike then it wouldn't have been too much of a stretch for a psychiatrist, confronted with a prison inmate, to come to the conclusion that she might not have all of her mental faculties. Not because she was a woman, but because she was in prison in the first place. Aren't we, so enlightened in our society now, susceptible to presumptions about the mental state of those who have been incarcerated? Just because Paul felt as though the prison warden and psychiatrist had "forged" her insanity doesn't mean much when we, AS HISTORIANS, trying to approach at subject objectively, that this is true without recourse to those prison documents and with a fuller understanding of the historical concepts of mental illness and if we want to get a more unbiased conclusion--what specific attitudes towards hunger strikes were during this time period. Additionally, I think that after the fairly recent assassination of President McKinley that such lines of questioning were fairly common. -schang | ||
==Open-Air Meetings: A New Suffrage Tactic, Florence Luscomb== | ==Open-Air Meetings: A New Suffrage Tactic, Florence Luscomb== | ||
