On September 8, 2012 I attended the Honoring Women’s Rights conference in Salinas, California. One of the many inspirational speakers was a twenty-six year-old woman by the name of Emilia Fuentes Grant.
Grant spoke about an idea she had for a parody video to help educate young people on how women won the right to vote in the early 1900s. She explained that today’s youth culture lives on social media and has a short attention span. In order to keep their attention, they must laugh, be entertained and engaged in the material presented. She came up with an idea to use the Lady Gaga song Bad Romance as a way to help young women and men understand what women had to endure to gain the right to vote. The video’s title is Bad Romance Women’s Suffrage and simply put, it is awesome.
Bad Romance Women’s Suffrage, a Soomo Publishing creation, immediately went viral upon its release in March of this year and received a standing ovation and howls from the women at the conference.
It is important to note that the group created it solely for the purpose of education, not meant as a political statement. It is merely a coincidence that shortly before it’s release, Rush Limbaugh attacked Sandra Fluke calling her a slut and in part, helped to bring attention to the thousands of pieces of anti-woman legislation introduced by the Republicans since 2011.
Please take the time to watch this incredible video and share with the young people you know.
We learn best when we are entertained.
Women’s suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or marital status. The movement’s modern origins can be attributed to late 18th century France.
Alice Stokes Paul (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977) was an American suffragist and activist. Along with Lucy Burns and others, she led a successful campaign for women’s suffrage that resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.
Lucy Burns (July 28, 1879 – December 22, 1966) was an American suffragist and women’s rights advocate. She was a passionate activist in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Burns was a close friend of Alice Paul, and together they ultimately formed the National Woman’s Party.
Kimberley A. Johnson is the author of The Virgin Diaries and The Spokeswoman for Rock The Slut Vote, an organization standing up and fighting the war on women. Find her on Facebook, Twitter and “like” the Rock The Slut Vote Facebook page
