The Antisocial Socialist

The problem is not that it's supporting women's rights, it's that it's tone-deaf.

Let me summarise it for you. We (by "we" I mean people in the 21st century in general) view the suffrage movement in a way that's often extremely simplistic: the activists were great feminists, everyone else was misogynistic and terrible. The more common way of thinking of it is incredibly specific. Ask anyone to name important activists, and the women they'll think of will likely fit this profile: white, middle/upper class, educated. The way we think of it not only ignores that were WOC involved in the movement as well (example), but also the fact that racist and colonialist arguments and agendas were a part of it. Just like there were activists whose arguments were incredibly misogynistic, like "women are beings of incorruptible pure purity, we're in touch with ~feelings and convention, so we're the right people to uphold morality!".

That slogan was pretty tone deaf because the women we associate with it were not slaves. Keep in mind that slavery was not such a distant past, and neither was identured labour (common in the British Empire once slavery was abolished but there was still a demand for basically free work). Hell, it was even still a part of "pop culture" in the UK and Europe, not just in the US.

The controversy right now isn't just about the slogan in general, but about the t-shirts made to promote the movie:



None of these women are slaves.

I realise that there's an argument to be made about the entitlement to women's bodies, the lack of rights and voices that was a big problem during the time the movie is set and is often an issue now, etc.. Put it any way you like, it's not the same in any way as experiencing slavery. It's not the same as experiencing the slavery that used to exist or the slavery (human trafficking) that exists now.

It's not surprising that people are feeling like that movie and its promotion are throwing a large number of women under the bus and completely ignoring them and their issues. I don't know about you, but I like my feminism to consider all women and not just a select few.