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A.R., Female, Age 24



Exhibit: Fort Smith in Fact and Fiction

These posters are one of the first things you see when walking into the museum. I find it interesting that between the two there is only one woman pictured and she is sexualized. Both of these movies came out in the late 60’s. When the movies were produced they had the option to give women a story as well, but from the look of these posters I would say they did not.


Exhibit: Women Behind Bars

Near the very back of the museum they had this exhibit “Women Behind Bars.” I completely looked over this exhibit at first. If you notice at the top of it is a picture of a group of men. I noticed the men and just assumed that’s what the entire article was over until I went back and actually read the entire thing.


Exhibit: Lady Desperado

All of the women that are in the exhibits who are named are named because they are criminals. Each one who is named their brother and father are also named. This exhibit is about Belle Starr. It never states what she is famous for. In this exhibit it gives a description of Belle Starr’s appearance. In any exhibit speaking about a man it does not give a description of their appearance.

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 8, 2019 at 2:07 PM

    Hello! I am a ranger at Fort Smith National Historic Site. For some more background and information, True Grit is a fictional story where the main character is a young woman named Mattie Ross. She is pictured in the True Grit poster. It is unfortunate that in Hang 'em High, the female character is displayed in a sexual manner, that is interesting to note. Also, it is unfortunate that many of the women's stories related to Fort Smith were not recorded as frequently as the stories of the men. However, in this museum, there are exhibits on the first floor about Anna Dawes, a journalist who used her powerful talents to write an article that moved the government to appropriate money for the second jail, so the inmates in jail would have better living conditions. Let us know if you have any questions! Thank you for visiting, and very interesting blog about our site!

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