Coming soon to a parade near you: Amelia Earhart
It’s the Fourth of July weekend, and those of you in climes where it isn’t 470 degrees outside may be planning to attend a parade. (Those of you where it is 470 degrees and you’re still planning to attend a parade — god help you. Really.) At any rate, while you’re at the parade, take stock of the balloons. Who are the characters? How many of them are female? Any?
Parades are one of those things that, like currency and stamps and statues, we don’t really think about. We’re awash in male imagery and role models, but we’re so used to it we don’t notice. Fish can’t taste the water, and all that. That’s why EVE is tackling this stuff: to change the silent messages our kids absorb.
But back to balloons. EVE is kicking off a new project to introduce a line of parade balloons featuring “great American women,” with Amelia Earhart as the first entry. From the blog post:
A couple of weeks ago I promised that we had two big announcements coming, both related to Amelia Earhart.
Well, here’s the first one: EVE is sponsoring a giant helium balloon of Amelia Earhart to appear in parades all over the country! Actually the balloon will be a replica of her famous red Lockheed Vega, with an oversized Amelia in the cockpit.
The Amelia Earhart balloon is going to be the first in a series of parade balloons featuring American heroines, which we’re developing with StarBound Entertainment, one of the top balloon suppliers for parades all over the country. Here at EVE we’ve talked about the way character balloons are overwhelmingly male; the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, for example, has only had 10 female balloons in its entire 85-year history. Our “great American women” series will bring heroines to parades all over the country. Can you imagine how cool that will be for families and kids? Can you imagine how inspired little girls will be?
“Mom, who’s that?”
“Amelia Earhart! She was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic! She was the first person ever to fly solo over the Pacific!”
Read more about it here, watch the slideshow, and check out the press release we issued this week.
We need to raise the money to finance the balloon, so we’re asking people to chip in $99 — that’s in honor of Amelia Earhart’s Ninety-Nines, the organization she founded in 1929 for women pilots. Our goal is to raise $9,801 (that’s 99 people x $99 each). Donors will be inducted into EVE’s 99 Club and have their names listed on the Wall of Fame (unless they want to be Howard Hughes or something, in which case we promise not to tell).
EVE has a little fundraising widget you can put in your sidebar, which I’ve already done. Now let’s spread the word!
14 Responses to “Coming soon to a parade near you: Amelia Earhart”
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Grace says:
Yes, Amelia Earhart, a pioneer and trail blazer, more than deserves the honor. But while I am in the process of going through my budget and deciding about whether to make a donation, a name that comes to mind is the one of Abby Sunderland from Southern California, who may go into history as the youngest FEMALE to try a sailing solo trip around the globe. What I find poignant is how she was chastised for being “ill-prepared,” her parents found to be irresponsible for letting her go, etc. However, when her brother (who was 17 at the time) did the same thing, I don’t remember hearing about their neglectful parents. Double standard, anyone?
Whenever women do something that it could be seen as heroic or courageous in men, they are either considered “crazy” (Benazir Butto in 2008) or in the case of Abby, pitied as a victim of child neglect. Perhaps for many people, women and men alike, the adventurous and socially transgressive acts of those who don’t have testicles, make them feel diminished and resentful. And because of that they have to find a reason to minimize or discredit the merits of those who dare to defy their socially prescribed “destiny.”
July 3rd, 2010 at 9:47 pm EST -
Violet Socks says:
You are so right. That’s why it’s so important to emphasize these positive role models for girls. The stuff they’re being exposed to is just soul-destroying. They need heroines.
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Swannie says:
<3 Amelia
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Tabby Lavalamp says:
I have a slight disagreement about Abby Sutherland in that I criticize her parents for letting her brother sail solo around the world as well, even though he was fortunate enough that his attempt ended successfully. Any parent who lets their minor children no matter what sex attempt such a thing is wildly irresponsible.
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Grace says:
I understand the concerns about allowing people under 18 y/o of either gender to sail solo around the world. But I also think that each case should be assessed individually, and outsiders like all of us shouldn’t be so quick in condemning other people’s choices and decisions. Why? because as outsiders we aren’t really able to discern how other individuals, couples, families, or even whole societies really are. We can only make a guess, and we can be wrong because we will never have all the facts.
Interestingly, when it comes to recruiting people to “fight for their country” and risk death in the process, where is it that military recruiters go to? Easy to guess…high-schools, where many students are still under 18. So, where is the public outrage then? Another interesting fact is that by law minors can become emancipated at 16. And so again, how and by whom is that determined and decided? And by which parameters? Only by assessing each person individually, I would reckon.
I am sorry if it offends other people’s sensibilities but I still stand by my position, which is that Abby Sunderland is a courageous and determined young woman and no criticisms of her parents should take this away from her. I wish I would have got the guts to do something like that when I was her age. Sadly, the worst thing that could happen is that she will hesitate to take risks in the future because of fear of failure.
About Violet’s comment of needing more role models for girls, there has been a movie out there for a while, “Winter’s bone,” that depicts a 17 y/o girl from rural Missouri as a heroine and incredibly resilient human being, who dares to do the things that all the older adults around her are not capable of doing. Worth seeing it.
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tinfoil hattie says:
Grace, I’m with you. People have been shocked that I let my 13- and 9-year-old ride their bikes across the street to pick up some groceries. Whereas I looked at it as, “O, thank goddess, WE DON’T HAVE TO DO ALL THE SHOPPING ANYMORE!” They love it.
I can’t imagine what I’d be subject to if I decided my kid could sail around the world alone.
I think maybe a lot of people view children as “belonging” to their parents, whereas I take the position that it’s our responsibility to guide them along toward becoming well-adjusted, empathic, responsible human beings encouraged to fulfill their dreams and potential.
Of course, I’m also a crazy feminist, so I have lots of nutty ideas.
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Ciardha says:
Not sure how to do that on my live journal blog but I think it’s a really cool idea. If I csn’t figure out how to put the fundraising link in (my html abilities are so pathetic! I will write a post linking to their website. Thanks for letting us know about this.
Our generation that went to public schools was better informed about women’s history than other generations and those that didn’t go to public schools of our generation, all because during the peak of the second wave during the 1970’s enough pressure was put on history textbook makers to include special profiles on a few historical women. We reaped the benefit of that tiny concession to women in elementary and junior high school American history textbooks. Just that minuscule effort gave us enough to profoundly change the lens we viewed history from. Our generation is the generation of women I most hear say- I find history fascinating.
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Grace says:
tinfoil hattie, thanks for your feedback, especially coming from someone who has children. I agree w/you that people and society view children (but especially girls in my opinion) as “belonging” to their parents. And just to see how arbitrary the number 18 is in determining when someone stops being a minor under the law, there used to be a time before the Vietnam War when that number in the U.S. was 21, and it still is though, if only for the purpose of being able to purchase alcoholic beverages.
The bottom line is that if Abby would have been able to “succeed” as her brother did, nobody would have bothered to question her trip or her “unconscionable” parents. I like the way she defied criticism when she said: “I ‘ve crossed two oceans and two capes. The questions about my age should have been done months ago. My trip didn’t end because of something I did wrong” (LA Times, July 4). You go girl!!
By the way, I like crazy, nutty feminists because I am also one of them.
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iforgotmyname says:
“I‘ve crossed two oceans and two capes. The questions about my age should have been done months ago. My trip didn’t end because of something I did wrong” (LA Times, July 4). You go girl!!
Thanks for that quote. She says almost exactly what I was thinking about the situation and it’s good to know she feels the same way. She could have been 20,30,45; it would not have made the boat’s mast any stronger. She sailed farther than many or probably most sailors ever do. Haters stop.
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tinfoil hattie says:
Crazy, nutty feminists are my favorite people!
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monchichipox says:
I love the whole story about Amelia. I also get a little sadness in my heart because I tie her so closely to Joni’s song….
A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea like me she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia it was just a false alarmThere are only a few songs that I’m tied to like I am to Amelia.
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monchichipox says:
And as far as Abby is concerned. I’m sure glad I had parents who saw it as there duty to teach me how to fly and shove me out of the nest. Never making me feel guilty for not being under their roof while I was traveling around. I know so many young women who feel more and more guilty with each step they take away from home. Fly (or sail) my little birdies fly.
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lambert strether says:
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HeroesGetMade says:
I was just in Amelia Earhart’s hometown of Atchison, KS yesterday and am happy to report that they are very proud of her. There’s the Amelia Earhart bridge, highway, park, stadium, etc. It could be that she’s the only person of national prominence that could possibly put them on the map, but I get the distinct feeling that the Kansans are not the least bit ashamed of their pioneering women. I went to school there for the first 12 years of my education and can remember more than one field trip to the house she grew up in, so this is not a recent development.
When I hear reports that people have a hard time finding the historic sites associated with famous ‘first’ women, I’m a little puzzled sometimes, though I don’t doubt their experiences trying to unearth women everyone should know about. I wonder whether attitudes vary towards the adventurous women with the geography? My aunt by marriage who grew up less than 20 miles from Amelia Earhart is also a Flying 99 and was a WAVE in WWII. AE was an inspiration to many women who wanted to do much more than ’sit there and look cute’ as AE was told to do when she wanted to set about breaking all those records.
