Line #1 Film/IronJawedAngels


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Iron_Jawed_Angels_6376.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Suffrage has never been so ''sexy''.]]
3
4	->''"We're legitimate citizens. We're taxed without representation. We're not allowed to serve on juries so we're not tried by our peers. It's unconscionable, not to mention unconstitutional. We don't make the laws but we have to obey them like children."''
5	-->-- '''Alice Paul'''
6
7	''Iron Jawed Angels'' is a 2004 MadeForTVMovie produced by Creator/{{HBO}}, detailing the tail end of the American campaign for women's suffrage.
8
9	----
10	!! This movie provides examples of:
11	* TheAce: Alice is often shown to turn people to her side with just a well-chosen sentence, like: "A vote is a fire escape."
12	* ActualPacifist: The women in the film, and most of them in real life. The most violent act done is a woman throws a shoe at a window.
13	* AnachronismStew: The film's soundtrack includes, of all things, ''Music/LaurynHill'', although the song of hers used wouldn't come out for another 78 years after the film's events.
14	* TheAtoner: The congressman after reading his wife's journal.
15	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. Lucy gets a bruised eye, some girls are portrayed with cuts on their face after the parade, and they all show the effects of the hunger strike.
16	%%* BystanderSyndrome: It seems the congresswoman's wife suffers from this at first.
17	* CareerVersusMan: A man is introduced simply so he can be rejected as justification for this.
18	* ColdBloodedTorture: Alice's force-feeding (in which she has her mouth pried open by metal instruments and has a mix of milk and raw eggs shoved down her throat) is shot to depict the barbarism of the prison authorities.
19	* DeadpanSnarker: Alice.
20	-->"[Helen Keller] is blind and deaf! If she can find the hotel, so can you."
21	* DepartmentOfChildDisservices: Your husband can take your children away from you, and there's nothing you can do about it because you're a woman and he has law on his side.
22	* TheDitz: The congressman's wife plays herself off as such.
23	%%* EarnYourHappyEnding
24	* FailureToSaveMurder: The death of a woman during state-to-state campaigning is considered this by Alice.
25	* FanDisservice: There is one and exactly one scene with all of the women naked and some of their butts visible...as they're wet, shivering, and standing in a freezing cold prison. It's very obvious that the nudity is meant to be more demeaning than arousing.
26	%%* FieryRedhead: Lucy Burns. TruthInTelevision.
27	* ForceFeeding: Happens to Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and a few other suffragists during their prison hunger strike.
28	* GenderIncompetence: A major theme is {{discuss\|ed}}ing and {{def\|ied}}ying this trope. Specifically, in regard to the participation of women in America's political affairs. The suffragettes passionately argue that one's sex doesn't correlate with intelligence and common sense. The rest of society begs to differ.
29	* GenderTraitor: Alice states that women who refuse to fight for their rights are this.
30	* GodwinsLaw: Nominally averted, since UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler is still a no-name Corporal on [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the Western Front]]. However, one of the angry sailors at a protest yells something to the effect of "MAYBE YOU'D RATHER GO TO GERMANY?!"[[note]]He might have been surprised how many suffragettes, even back then, replied with a BluntYes.[[/note]]
31	%%* GoGetterGirl: All of the protagonists.
32	* GoodIsNotNice: Alice can be downright mean, as of course, can NAWSA.
33	* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: The shoehorned-in romantic subplot can feel like this.
34	* HeroicBSOD: After [[spoiler: Izza's death, Alice takes a break.]] It, of course, becomes more of a TenMinuteRetirement.
35	* HeroicSacrifice: Alice putting herself on the front lines is a form of this.
36	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were a real life example of this.
37	* HistoricalBadassUpgrade: While Alice did some amazing things, many of the things attributed to Alice in the film were completed by Lucy.
38	* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: Averted in that the women who were heavier remained about as heavy in the movie.
39	%%* HotterAndSexier
40	* ImminentDangerClue: The man throwing the beer bottle during the parade scene. The congressman's wife takes this as a sign, and leaves just before the fight breaks out.
41	%%* KnightInSourArmor: The women in NAWSA come off as this.
42	* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Alice is told she has to know when to do this. She ignores them.
43	* LineInTheSand: Knowing anyone who joins the picket line in front of the White House after war has been declared will be imprisoned, Alice asks for volunteers and stresses that this is a choice.
44	* LongHairIsFeminine: Played with. Lucy and Alice have very long hair, but rarely wear their hair down. Instead, the hair is bundled so high up that it comes across as a bob. Under a hat.
45	* MakeAnExampleOfThem: It is implied that if they get their hands on Alice, they will try for the maximum sentence they can, to make an example of her. The first words out of the mouth of the arresting officers, the first arrest scene, is "Alice Paul?"
46	* MaleGaze: Ultimately averted. While the film does feature nude women, a female masturbation scene, and two girls kissing, all of them are treated fairly nonchalantly, and are more implicit than explicit. (The nude women are seen from the back only, and the two girls kissing are barely on the screen.)
47	* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: While she was sympathetic to the NWP the whole time, it's implied that the congressman's wife's mistreatment is what made her decide to join them fully and openly.
48	* MiscarriageOfJustice: The women are sent to a workhouse for 'obstructing traffic.'
49	* NervesOfSteel: All the women. Especially those who stayed around after they started getting arrested, knowing what would happen next.
50	* NotAfraidToDie: The movie makes distinction between suicidal ideation and this, when they try to get Alice committed for her hunger strike.
51	* OjouRinglets: Seen during one of the 'preparatory montages' as a potential hairstyle choice for one of the girls, before they go to a high class event.
52	* PatrioticFervor: Things only get worse for the women when WWI starts.
53	%%* PragmaticHero: The NWP near the end.
54	* SlidingScaleOfGenderInequality: Live in a world of Level 3, Level 5 being the goal, with Level 4 being an acceptable stepping stone only.
55	* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: The congressman's wife ignores this, and refuses special treatment from her husband.
56	* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Alice is shown as having played since she was a kid.
57	* SpitefulSpit: As the crowd gathered from one of the women's protests grows more hostile, with various men shouting at the women, one of them spits at a woman's face, [[{{Squick}} with the following shot showing the spit landing dangerously close to her mouth]].
58	* SoundtrackDissonance: Intentional in the case of Alice's force-feeding scene, which is set to the imprisoned women singing "Will the Circle Be Unbroken".
59	%%* StayintheKitchen: Of course.
60	%%* TranquilFury: Alice.
61	%%* TheExtremistWasRight: Of course, Alice was more effective than NAWSA.
62	%%* TookaLevelinBadass: The congressman's wife.
63	* TruthInTelevision: Though it does invent a few characters, film is pretty accurate historically; there really was, for an example, a senator who voted "yes" at the last second because of a note from his mother. Entire scenes were copied from the history books, like the 'night of terror' where they were beaten, refused medical treatment, and Lucy was handcuffed standing up. At least one of the other women did stand in her position.
64	* TropeTrigger: Every time Alice and Lucy 'flip for it' Alice loses.
65	%%* UndyingLoyalty: All of the women in the prison.
66	* VoiceOfTheResistance: Alice's description of her being force fed was implied to be the only communication they managed to get out while imprisoned. In reality, Lucy managed to get a network going to keep many letters going out, until they caught onto it and sent her off to a different jail.
67	* WeWinBecauseYouDidNot: Attempted and failed by the National Women's Party. They tried to boycott Wilson and any democratic congressman who didn't support them. They fail.

Context Film / IronJawedAngels