Torches of Freedom | The Myths & Destruction of the American Family
Dedicated to Madie 1920-2005
This video is not meant to encourage dysfunction. It's to shed light on the influences behind some of the issues we see in the world today. If you are in an unsafe relationship or situation, Get Out as soon as you can. You are worth so much more than that
History tells us that during WWI, women were forced out of the home and into work spaces to take care of their families, sparking a movement for women across the country to have the same rights as their male counterparts...A little more research tells us about the Torches of Freedom campaign and a push for equality, fueled solely by the motive of greed. But unfortunately and keeping in tune with the rest of the beast system, what this movement sparked, still burns and destroys the families of today.
Hi, this is nykole and welcome to chroma film tv.
In today's video, I'll be visiting the torches of freedom movement and explain how many people were duped into believing the narrative and similar propaganda that still takes money out of the home and continues to line the pockets of the already uber wealthy members of society today.
And without further ado, let's get into it.
AS THE STORY IS TOLD...
1914-1919, Men were enlisted and being drafted for the war (WWI). During the time men were away at war and without the ability to care for their families as they once did, the women of those households had to stop being housewives and had to go into the workforce to meet the needs of their families.
As a result in this shift of roles, it became clear that the few jobs women were allowed to do, were not sufficient to cover the needs of the kids and the household bills and movements began in an effort to give women the equality they needed to be the leaders of their homes and care for their families.
At the time, women were just recently allowed to vote - were only allowed to perform certain types of employment roles and still weren't allowed to smoke in public as it was seen as socially unacceptable.
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-are-some-jobs-that-men-and-women-did-in-the-480850
In the 1920s, men worked in burgeoning industries such as automobile manufacturing. During this decade, job opportunities for women expanded, with women working as typists, secretaries, nurses, and teachers. Even so, professional roles such as doctors and lawyers remained almost exclusively reserved for men.
ACTUALLY....
At least, that's the version of the story a lot of us got. Yes, women got the right to vote - technically, you'd have to be allowed to enter a polling station to vote, but digressing.
National Geographic article about black women still not being able to vote
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/black-women-continued-fighting-for-vote-after-19th-amendment
And the smoking in public part, it wasn't necessarily seen as a big deal in every community, folks just smoked at home or they dipped snuff. The truth is, when the men went off to war, it left a lot of their positions available and needing money to take care of the household, women filled these positions.
As we know, unfortunately everyone didn't make it back home, and of the ones that made it back, some had lives that were changed forever, but for the ones that did make it back in tact, when they got home, they got their jobs back. For most women, the men's return home was a welcomed sight, but for others, it meant the beginnings of a fight for power and equality.
TORCHES OF FREEDOM
Upon this wave of new freedoms for women, someone saw an opportunity....
A tobacco tycoon by the name of George Washington Hamilton (hill is correct), took note of the movement in women's politics and saw it as a great opportunity to reach an untapped market, and get more of the average households income out of the family's hands and into his own pockets.
With the help of Edward Bernays, the father of public relations or as I call him, the king of propaganda, Torches of Freedom was born and spread across the country, inciting women to light up as a sign of their freedom and independence.
Long story short, the fight for women's rights through the Torches of Freedom campaigns had absolutely nothing to do with women rights, instead, it was all about devising a way to funnel more money out of the homes and the hands of working families.
As sinister as this disingenuous push for feminism was, it's still only tapping on the surface of the divisions we see today and within that tiny surface layer, and reminiscent of a line in A Scanner Darkly "knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too...". It shows a convoluted, misrepresented example of what the Average American Family actually looked like in those days.
WHAT GREAT-GRANDMOTHER TOLD ME
Being someone that was mostly raised by her great-grandmother, I had many talks and conversations with her and according to what she told me, she lived in a home with two parents that worked on their farm to make ends meet and after she grew up and got married, she still worked outside the home.
As I continued to research for this video, I discovered that my great-grandmothers story didn't just reflect the people that looked like us - it was closer to the actual reality for the majority of working class citizens.
Some groups did not participate fully in the emergent consumer economy, notably both African American and white farmers and immigrants. While one-fifth of the American population made their living on the land, rural poverty was widespread. Despite agricultural overproduction and successive attempts in Congress to provide relief, the agricultural economy of the 1920s experienced an ongoing depression. Large surpluses were accompanied by falling prices at a time when American farmers were burdened by heavy debt. Between 1920 and 1932, one in four farms was sold to meet financial obligations and many farmers migrated to urban areas.
THE HOUSEWIFE MYTH
In those days, there was no such thing as a simple housewife for regular folks. The women of working class families weren't simply women that sat at home looking cute - They had to work in some capacity, most times outside of the home, even if only part time, to help take care of the family.
There was a lot going on, life after War, the onset of the great depression and families, as well as whole communities had to work together to make sure everyone was ok. - Even the virtuous woman of the Bible worked outside of home, cementing the fact, that the images of the stay at home wife -only concerned with the latest fashions and her friends at the country club, was not the life of the majority of women - it was the life of the upper middle class and wealthy that could afford to live that way.
But of course, we know there's nothing new under the sun and as the cycle of this false narrative continues, the idea of what a wife was became skewed and over time, the value of a woman has started to shift from that of a virtuous woman, to one whose value is only measured by her beauty which has an unofficial expiration date.
DESTRUCTION OF THE FAMILY
due to these types of values and some other ingredients thrown in the pot, the family structure became strained and separated causing tons men and women to battle against one another for the seat of power, instead pulling together wth one another to create a powerful family structure.
Like everything else in this matrixy-upside down world we see today, this division between men and women isn't at all organic, it's another narrative that's been pushed to get more resources from the members of society.
In this beast system, a breakdown of the family is necessary for a number of reasons, with the father of lies being at the top, but a huge one is the funneling of resources. In many communities, it's a part of the culture for the family to work and grow their resources together. When a common goal is in place, it's much more likely for the family to pool their resources in order for everyone to live comfortably and have a better opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
But when the family has been dismantled, it's a lot easier to extract resources from the individual members. Giving large companies a way to profit off of each individual of the group, instead of the group as a whole.
A weaker family, means weaker offspring, which makes better consumers in the long run. After the value of the family has been lost, the next generation of broken individuals are more likely to look outwardly for happiness - and as they come across more broken individuals like themselves, they start to turn away from each other and more towards things that fills the voids that have been created from the broken structure.
Compound that, with movies, fairytales and quote unquote realty tv - what was once a very small insignificant group of extremely wealthy people has been morphed and portrayed as the majority or normal members of society. Making the people that are actually normal, regular working people feel inferior - sparking a need to use more of their own resources to feel validated and adequate. A moniker that's echoed and more detrimental today thanks to inflation and social media.
Torches of Freedom has done its part in making a mockery of the American family. The intent may have just been about money for Hamilton, but the result played a major role in the destruction of the family and society in general. What could be expected from a movement that infuses, the greek goddess of karma and the American dream -other than chaos? Well, what we got, a nightmare - and not just on elm street.
PAY ATTENTION
We can't always control the courses our families will take, but we can recognize when we've been swindled and start making changes that will not only benefit ourselves, but other members in our communities.
When we start to pay attention, start to notice trends including sways in the media and take note of the imagery that gets pushed to us in an effort to change our minds, habits and our way of thinking, we are better equipped to fight against the mental and spiritual darts thrown at us and more capable of recognizing our own faults allowing us to become better, by finding constructive ways of navigating through the crap that we have to deal with on a daily basis.
It's more than ok to have a views that don't align with the views of others, we just have to make sure that the views we have are truly our own.
If you would like links to the sources I used for this video, or if you would like a transcript, links will be available in the description box.
and on that note, have an awesome day, be good to yourself and good to others. Peace
LINKS & SOURCES
(My apologies, my notes were messy this week - some links aren't titled)
Library of Congress - Prosperity and Thrift (The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy 1921-1929
,
Poverty in the 1920s
memory.loc.gov
https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/coolhtml/ccpres07.html
American History USA
https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/great-farm-depression-1920s/
1929 Vintage Torches of freedom Images
https://www.vintag.es/2021/03/torches-of-freedom.html
WWI Archive images
https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/wwi/war
Life from 1886-1920 for women
https://mascotmoskovina.wordpress.com/of-workers-and-womens-rights/working-women-in-the-1910s/
The People History
Average cost of a home in 1920
https://www.thepeoplehistory.com/20s-homes.html
Torches of Freedom
Channel Ideology of Tyranny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL1PPGCJnuo&t=14s
Nostalgia Cafe
https://nostalgiacafe.proboards.com/thread/169/1910s-home
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106000636859&view=1up&seq=27&skin=2021
Babelhathittrust.org - google doc - average wage
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112044590112&view=1up&seq=45&skin=2021
ThoughtCo.
https://www.thoughtco.com/world-war-i-timeline-from-1914-to-1918-4148287
YOURSTORY
yourstory.com/2014/08/torches-of-fredom/amp/
https://yourstory.com/2014/08/torches-of-freedom/amp/
Enotes
enotes.com
Jobs for men and women in the 1920s
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-are-some-jobs-that-men-and-women-did-in-the-480850
Average income in 1915
Inflationcalculator
https://inflationcalculator.mes.fm/money-facts/average-household-income-in-1915
Income Statistics
Library Guides Missouri.EDU
https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1910-1919