A New Era: Post 2

I have two words for what I'm feeling right now.

Hidden. Figures.

There was SO MUCH in this movie that was inspiring, motivating, eye-opening, and BADASS... I'm pretty sure it's my new favorite movie, and not just because it turned my face into a fountain for basically the whole two hours. SPOILERS BELOW.

I love this movie because it tells the story of three black women in STEM jobs at NASA between 1958 and 1962, at the peak of the space race in segregated Virginia... Three smart, persistent, funny, and spunky women.

Katherine Johnson: "How can you be possibly ogling these white men?" 

Mary Jackson: "It's equal rights. I have the right to see fine in every color."

The work that these women did for NASA was the easy part of their jobs. As they were each promoted out of the colored computing room in the West Computing area, each one met with a challenge posed by NASA that would help John Glenn get to space and back. And each one was in a stark, white world where, as Mary Jackson notes, "every time we get a chance to get ahead they move the finish line." Where they were each forced to set a precedent to push forward for blacks, and for women...simply so they weren't ignored or treated like less than human.

They held all men accountable for any slips they made that discounted women, and especially women in STEM. Katherine finally broke down and blew up at a room full of educated white men because she had been running a half mile every day to use a colored bathroom. Mary delivered a kick-ass speech to a federal judge to get into a white-only high school for a con-ed engineering course that would help her become a NASA engineer. Dorothy was persistent about asking for a supervisor position, and when she got it, she brought all her computer room girls up with her.

"There are twenty, bright, highly capable negro women in the west computing group, and we're proud to be doing our part for the country. So yes, they let women do some things at NASA, Mr. Johnson. And it's not because we wear skirts. It's because we wear glasses. Have a good day." -Katherine Johnson

And all those breakthroughs came over time. In their positions, I'm sure every single one of those girls did everything they could to keep their jobs and do them well. You note that Dorothy is always respectful of her supervisor, who clearly isn't on her side...though not out of a vendetta for colored people. She just wasn't particularly supportive of them. I couldn't help but notice that during Paul's speech about elliptical to parabolic orbits, Katherine raised her hand every time she wanted to speak, but when Sam Turner, Paul's assistant, gives his input, it's by interruption...and he doesn't raise his hand. Even when Katherine interrupts right after, her hand is in the air. And when Mary Jackson delivers her speech to sway her court judge, she's dressed really nicely and speaks politely and eloquently, despite all the fire and frustration and fear I can only imagine she's feeling.

"You're quite welcome, Mrs. Vaughan." 

[Vivian Mitchell respectfully calling her by her last name for the first time]

Every single one of them reached a go or no-go point in their careers. I can't imagine how long Katherine was forced to run back and forth to the bathroom each day, or how long Dorothy had been asking for that supervisor position, or how long Mary had been preventing herself from thinking that she could be a NASA engineer. But once they each hit that point, they all did a lot of reflection and calculation and decided that they would go forward, but that they would not compromise or be complacent in certain small victories.

"I plan on being an engineer at NASA, but I can't do that without taking them classes at that all-white high school, and I can't change the color of my skin. So I have no choice, but to be the first, which I can't do without you, sir. Your honor, out of all the cases you gon hear today, which one is gon matter hundred years from now? Which one is gon make you the first?" -Mary Johnson

How long do you remain complacent? How long do you take other people's condescending shit just so that you can make a good impression? How long do you allow yourself to be looked over, or talked over, or just plain ignored? How many ideas have you raised that aren't accepted or even heard until they're repeated by the sensible man in the room? How many times will you let them do that to you before you hit your go/no-go point? How many men will get promoted because you didn't try harder to get yourself noticed?

Vaughan, Jackson, and Johnson faced a much crueler workplace than I ever have, and women's equality in the workplace is closer than it has ever been. But patriarchy is systemic. It's embedded in our vocabulary, in our colloquialisms, in our body language, and in our symbols and metaphors. The signs are much more subtle, but sometimes that makes it more difficult to identify and point out to incite change. How can you point out the inequality of a half-mile-long run in the rain to a colored bathroom if that run was an idea you had that your supervisor took credit for? Or if the injustice you're trying to right is a slight to your feelings or your pride that you could just choose to ignore...but should you?

Vivian Mitchell: "Despite what you may think, I have nothing against y'all.  

Dorothy Vaughan: "I know you probably believe that."

</end feminist rant>

But this film was about so much more than women at work. This film addressed some of the other pressing issues that women have in their careers today. Equal pay was mentioned, although that was through the colored lens, not the female one (I don't actually know if the former is a prevalent problem anymore). I appreciated how much the film shows these women being mothers in addition to STEM geniuses at work. There is such a stigma these days about being a mother and a careerwoman. If you're a careerwoman, you're neglecting your kids. But these women all managed to pull it off and were constantly educating their children in the process. Katherine obviously instilled in her girls that women could be astronauts...and taught them math. Mary wanted to protect her children from her husband's activism over civil rights. And Dorothy was intentional about passing on her civil rights opinion on to her two boys--again subtly subversive in doing so.

"Separate and equal are two different things. Just 'cause it's the way, doesn't make it right, understand?" -Dorothy Vaughan

But I don't think they would have been able to be so mentally strong in their careers had they not the support system they each had at home. Dorothy had her husband, Katherine had her mother. But I particularly liked Mary Jackson's husband in this role. Their relationship is fiery and full of disagreement about the politics of the day. But when Mary decides to take night classes on top of her already-demanding job to pursue her dreams, her husband is shows his support with a gift of fancy mechanical pencils. 

Likewise, I like how this film got away from the trope of the solitary genius. Each one of these women moved up the ladder due to their own grit, smarts, and persistence, but each of them still required a white male (or in Dorothy's case, a white woman) to give them the opportunity to prove their worth and shine doing it. These allies are so critical in providing opportunity that I think it's important to recognize their roles in stories of success. This is how social and systemic change starts to take place.

All in all, I'm quite smitten with this movie and with these three fantastic women, and I really want to be an engineer now. Mary Jackson's story really put my own into perspective. I quit the path to engineer because of a B in that introductory course in my first quarter of college, and Mary made me really wish I hadn't. 

This is not to say that I dislike my English degree. I think my pursuit of that particular passion has given me a critical perspective on the world and its art and culture that I would not have had otherwise. But--and this could just be the job that I currently have--I do so wish that it gave me that warm, fuzzy feeling of success that I get when I witness one of my students finally getting that "Aha!" moment we've been working toward for so long. I imagine that's the very same deep-chested feeling of pride that one would feel knowing that I had contributed to the heat shield that saved an astronaut from burning up on his way back down to earth. I want to be a part of something that gives me that feeling. 

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Thanks to the the "Who Run the World? Girls." playlist on Spotify for keeping this post-movie feeling alive long enough to complete this post.