Remember Victoria Woodhull from your U.S. History classes? I vaguely recall my textbook briefly mentioning her in some catch-all section about other female rabble rousers of the 19th century. Well, in case you missed the one completely inadequate sentence about her, now there’s a whole movie dedicated to her life, achievements, and general badassery.
Did you know she was the first woman to run for president? In 1872, no less? Yeah, that’s right, before women could even vote for her. But before that, she used the profits from her days as a Wall Street broker to found a newspaper that published plenty of unladylike articles about suffrage, gender equality, birth control, prostitution, and sex ed. If BUST had been around back then we totally would have put her on the cover.
But back to the movie — America’s Victoria, Remembering Victoria Woodhull, directed by Victoria Lynn Weston, previously aired on PBS and is now available on DVD. So why are we telling you this now? Because today is Ms. Woodhull’s 171st birthday! So add America’s Victoria to your Netfilx queue and celebrate by engaging in a little free love and short-skirt wearing (both things Woodhull strongly advocated). We think Victoria would approve.
photo courtesy Newsweek.com
