Rad American Women A-Z: A Historical Analysis

On April 20th, our class and many other classes from American Indian Public Charter School II walked to the library to listen in a meeting room to two exceptional female teachers. Not only teachers, these two women were the author, Kate Schatz, and illustrator, Miriam Klein Stahl of the book, Rad American Women A-Z: Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries who Shaped Our History . . . and Our Future!

Very Brief Overview

Within an hour, the two first introduced themselves. They also addressed Harriet Tubman, a woman, being on the newest $20 bill. While the author talked, the illustrator showed her black and white cut-out silhouette art on the projector. The author then read us some of her book. Each letter of the alphabet represented another woman

hero, whose last name started with that letter. She read stories of women such as Anita Hill, the Grimke sisters, and as she saw no female American heroes with a last name starting with “X”, she made “X” represent the different women in our lives that are very brave, strong, and have a great legacy, but still go unnoticed.
Schatz then opened up to questions, in which many students participated in asking. She concluded, and finally it was time to set out back for school.

My Truthful Experience/Thoughts
Although I sometimes find the voice of women annoying, the two captured our attentions, unlike the presentation by the author of Oakland Tales. There were many aspects of the presentation in which I liked. The two were also very engaging. Talking about her style of presentation, I also liked how she addressed the back row first. Because she is a teacher, she knows how any back row, rather it be in classrooms or assemblies, is like. Another quality I liked about the author is that she was affable, unlike the author of Oakland Tales.
Diving more into the content of her presentation, the author’s book, and the illustrator’s drawings, I liked how she showed that although many women blatantly participated in many women suffrage and rights movement, some men also played major roles in the movement too. You can’t give all the credit to only women themselves. I also appreciated how she used the letter “X” to describe all the many women out in the world that have worked hard and done great acts daily. Along with the fact that “X” is like the main variable, or sign showing an unknown value, I also appreciated it because I see my mom toil everyday, so I know just how hard unnoticed women have worked. Although I liked many things and although the presentation was great, I was somewhat unhappy about some different aspects of their presentation and book itself.
Throughout her presentation, I was cringing and facepalming in dissatisfaction at the fact that I came to learn about female heroes.

Yes, I am grateful for all the strong and brave women who stood up for their rights. I agree that women are equal to their male counterparts. Throughout the presentation, I was caught up in my own thoughts. “Don’t men deserve credit too? Why do I see so much focus today on women, yet some men are working harder than them? Women are equal to men, not greater than them. I see no books on American male heroes. You said you were writing about female heroes to show young teenagers and adults that they can make a difference. Won’t not showing heroes of males cause boys to feel somewhat discouraged? There are as much, or even more American male heroes that had an impact to our society in the past and in the present than there are female heroes. If men and women were equals, why segregate the two genders? The women's suffrage movements have passed. Today, both genders of heroes deserve to be in the same book.” These were some of the many thoughts I stormed through during her presentation. As Josie, Emily, Diane, Yucca, and Queenie are feminists, I am a defender of male’s rights. (Do not mistake me for a

misogynist.)
Before her Q&A session, I focused more on finding a question than listening to her “female hero” propaganda. I ended up asking her, “I agree that women can be strong and brave. But compared to Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton is corrupt and not honest. Is she an accurate representation of women today?” My heart was pounding and my voice was stuttering, but at least I pulled out the passionate feministic side of her, getting her somewhat flushed and getting her to reply rather aggressively to a poor young middle school student who just innocently asked a question. I held back my smile when she said, “Are you an accurate representation of the boys in your school?”, as I knew she acted before thinking for a second.
Cody and I throughout the presentation gave mutual adversarial expressions at her appraisal for woman. Also, when I asked my question, I received pep talk from the boys and laughter from the girls. Overall, the experience had just raised a more passionate and somewhat sexist side of me that I cannot fix. Although women do deserve credit, I am proud to represent the point of view of a man and to have spoken up against her presentation about woman heroes.