Akili Puller
Cheryl Waite
HIS215111
17 April 2018
Women in US History, Film Analysis 2
Margaret Sanger was determined to help women by providing necessary information to prevent pregnancy. In the movie Choices of The Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story, Margaret is fighting for women’s rights to control their own bodies by preventing pregnancies that are often times dangerous. Fighting against Comstock laws that ban the distribution of contraceptive information, Margaret works as a nurse in the early 1900’s and faces many obstacles in her journey.
During her time as a nurse Margaret witnessed women dying simply because they lacked the information needed to prevent pregnancy. When Margaret’s patient Sadie Sachs dies from trying to abort a pregnancy
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While in exile Margaret’s family suffered, her husband was put in jail for 30 days for refusing to give up her location, her daughter got sick and eventually died from pneumonia. Even after Anthony Comstock dies, Margaret’s fight is still not over. She returns from hiding, she is arrested and once again faces a five year prison sentence. Refusing to apologize, standing up for what is right and risking her freedom and her family, Margaret eventually prevails. With the overwhelming support of women, one of those women being First lady Edith Wilson. The District Attorney in Margaret’s case decides to drop the charges against her despite threats made by Anthony Comstock’s predecessor. Against all odds Margaret Sanger has won and in 1916 she opened the first Planned …show more content…
Based on what we’ve learned in class about Margaret Sanger and the women of this time period, I believe the film accurately represents the issue of women’s health but does not address other issues facing women in this time period. For example, during my research I came across some information that would suggest that Margaret Sanger was a racist. According to the journal article “Was Margaret Sanger a Racist” published by the Guttmacher Institute in 1985, “Linda Gordon, author of Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right, has argued that Margaret Sanger’s interest in providing contraceptives to black Americans was motivated by racism. Subsequently, many other writers have made the same charge, citing Gordon’s research and rationale”. (Valenza) While the Movie does a good job of portraying Margaret Sanger as an important and relevant leader in the fight against Comstock laws and Women’s body issues, it completely ignores the issue of race. Including the race issue would have made the movie more relevant to its time and more realistic as race was a big issue in this time
Dorothy Wardell’s article titled “Margaret Sanger: Birth Control’s Successful Revolutionary” explains what inspired Sanger ideas on contraception and what problems she faced while working to change the notions and laws on Birth Control. The central argument presented by Wardell is that Sanger’s efforts led to privileges for women’s bodies and health centers providing methods for women to act on these privileges (Wardell, 736). Although Wardell is effective in supporting her argument, it would be stronger if she included some historical context and evidence of Sanger’s opinion in her own words found in a speech of hers and in Family Limitation. Wardell begins by addressing that “…a definitive biography and assessment has yet to be written.”,
Abortion, like any other medical procedure, carries some risks. When one considers, however, that “the risk of death associated with childbirth is about 10 times as high as that associated with abortion” (“Know the Facts”), the threat of abortion suddenly does not seem as perilous. Additionally, contrary to popular misconception, abortion does not contribute to future infertility or development of breast cancer. It is therefore safer and more prudent to have an abortion than an unwanted pregnancy.
...still a vital part of world today. Planned Parenthood is not segregated to color or affluence and has definitely changed the world as we know it today. Margaret Sanger though a determined selfish women did not get everything the way she wanted it to be. She hung up fliers in immigrant neighborhoods just so the poor or colored would go to the clinic. She wanted these people to go to the birth control clinics so they couldn’t reproduce. Margaret believed that if you couldn’t support the family you already have you shouldn’t have more children and she was a strong believer that the inferior race should not be able to reproduce. All of Mrs. Sanger’s actions said more then what her voice said. Margaret Sanger was a powerful strong woman who was celebrated as an advocate of women’s rights; however her motives were for all the wrong reasons.
"A free race cannot be born" and no woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother"(Sanger A 35). Margaret Sanger (1870-1966)said this in one of her many controversial papers. The name of Margaret Sanger and the issue of birth control have virtually become synonymous. Birth control and the work of Sanger have done a great deal to change the role of woman in society, relationships between men and woman, and the family. The development and spread of knowledge of birth control gave women sexual freedom for the first time, gave them an individual identity in society and a chance to work without fearing they were contributing to the moral decline of society by leaving children at home. If birth control and Sanger did so much good to change the role of women in society why was birth control so controversial?
Margaret Sanger was the founder of The American League of Birth Control which later became Planned Parenthood and her argument in those times was that it was not fair for women who were from a lower class could not have access to Birth Control.
Both sources approach an issue from a different demographic, the married young housewife and the of age generation in the roaring twenties respectively. If we compare intent, we see Sanger's is a politically motivated piece seeking empathy compared to what appears to be a balanced study from New Girls for Old. Therefore the more representative source is that of the uninfluenced survey, while we can't discount that they are selectively chosen; in comparison to Sanger's selected testimonials are likely the most pressing and emotive letters written to her. This contrasting factor of intent also leads to their influence varying, as Engelman presents it was Sanger's pivotal activist role that when combined with the radicals, socialites and professionals that led to the successive progress of the birth control movement as one of the few women led social movements i...
Margaret Sanger’s monthly publication The Woman Rebel released its first issue in 1914, creating a nationwide dispute concerning the publication and distribution of birth control devices. However, Sanger’s initial goal went beyond simply legalizing the distribution of contraceptives; her aim was to create “radical social change, embracing the liberation of women and of the working class” (6, 1.120). In document one, the essay “Why the Woman Rebel?” Sanger makes a strong political statement on the social implications of legalizing birth control. Drawing heavily from the plight of the working class Sanger makes her case on the grounds that the legalization of birth control is the first step to the liberation of the disenfranchised working class at the hands of capitalism. The essay is a rebellious prose intended to inspire “revolt”, a call to arms for the case for birth control. Later in Sanger’s care...
Sanger organizes her argument by first presenting a series of questions that were sent out to “the most eminent men and women in the world.” These questions pertained to the opinions of these men and women on the topic of how birth control and awareness could potentially affect their society. She then talks about the
Margaret Sanger, a well known feminist and women's reproductive right activist in USA history wrote the famous speech: The Children's Era. This speech focuses on the topic of women's reproductive freedom. Sanger uses rhetorical forms of communication to persuade and modify the perspectives of the audience through the use of analogy and pathos. She uses reason, thought and emotion to lead her speech.
During the early 1900s, American nurse Margaret Sanger led the birth-control movement in the United States. She and others opened clinics to provide women with information and devices. Although frequently jailed, she and her followers were instrumental in getting laws changed. In subsequent years, laws against birth control gradually weakened, and more effective methods were developed.
Margaret Sanger was, at large, a birth control activist, but this speech was more about the questioning of birth control corrupting morality in women. People must remember, in the day and age where Sanger presented this speech, November 1921, women were considered very far from equal and much closer to servants or maids. In her speech, I saw that ethos was present in the sense that she gave herself credibility. Through Sanger’s detailed words and actions, and her statements including the presence of scientists and, or, professionals, the masses of listening people could infer that she was very well informed and solid in her statements. Though she presented herself as agreeable, Sanger was firm in her beliefs. In addition, Sanger says, “We desire to stop at its source the disease, poverty and feeble-mindedness and insanity which exist today, for these lower the standards of civilization and make for race deterioration. We know that the masses of people are growing wiser and are using their own minds to decide their individual conduct” (Sanger, par.15). To me, Sanger made herself appeal to the audience by using the word ‘we.’ In the practice of ethos, this focused on the author more than...
The Roaring Twenties were known as a time of economic boom, pop culture and social developments. This was a time when women began to break norms, they acted rebelliously such as wearing releveling clothing, smoking, and drinking. These women were known as “flappers” who wanted to change their roles in the 1920’s. Birth control activist, Margaret Sanger sought to change the world where women had access to a low cost, effective contraception pill. In “The Morality of Birth Control” Sanger battled opponents who claimed that contraception would cause women to become immoral. The author uses rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and fallacies to back up her claim while touching on issues in the church, advancements of women, and the source of disease in the world.
I think that May set out in her book to illustrate how valuable the fight to legalize the oral contraceptive (“the pill”) was in creating independence and ownership for women of their own lives and bodies. This campaign for women’s power should not be confused with that fought for during the Feminist Movement, although they occurred concurrently. Margaret Sanger spearheaded the fight for the pill, and did so through two world wars and one cold war – during a time of widespread poverty and global overpopulation. The effort to legalize the pill began as a way to provide women with the ability to have control over the size of their f...
The creation of a human fetus from reserved eggs and sperm is commonplace, today, but most of these are implanted in a woman's uterus where "nature takes its course" and single- or multiple-pregnancy may occur. Thus far, no one has complained about the deaths of fetuses that fail to survive this procedure or, for that matter, the sad fate that awaits children who are born to women in bizarre multiple pregnancies as a consequence of these techniques. Evidently, these lives were lost "unintentionally."
In today’s world abortions are being used as a gateway for unexpected pregnancies that are caused by many reasons, searching for a solution women tend to believe that an abortion is the easiest way to get rid of these undesired situations. In Sallie Tisdale’s essay “We Do Abortions here: A nurse’s story”, she describes the emotions and the rules that she as being a nurse in an abortion clinic has to deal with every day. Tisdale uses paradox, her point of view and metaphor to make the reader understand that choosing abortion, either way, will not have a happy ending.