{"id":2354,"date":"2014-05-13T08:58:16","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T06:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/schspin.wordpress.com\/?p=2354"},"modified":"2021-11-24T20:57:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T20:57:55","slug":"naehmaschinen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schspin.stieve.com\/gb\/2014\/05\/13\/naehmaschinen\/","title":{"rendered":"Sewing Machines! We need Sewing Machines! – Rights, not Privileges! It’s that easy."},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Films about Sewing Women<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Sewing Machines! We need Sewing Machines! – Rights, not Privileges! It’s that easy. <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Today\u2019s focus is on two films about sewing women that are based on historical people and actual incidents. The films are no documentaries but fictionalized so of course a lot of the plot has been made up. But there are distinct differences: In Film A the characters and the depicted time gain greater depths by this and in Film B the leading lady and her achievements are reduced.<\/span><\/p>\n

MADE IN DAGENHAM <\/a>(UK 2010, German title : WE WANT SEX) tells the story of 187 women sewing machinists<\/strong> at Britain\u2019s largest automobile factory \/ Dagenham who in 1968 protested successfully against being regraded as unskilled and who fought for equal pay<\/strong>. Two years later this industrial action led to the Equal Pay Act.<\/span><\/p>\n

The TV movie MARGARETE STEIFF <\/a>(D 2005) is about the life of south German sewer of soft toys and company owner Margarete Steiff<\/strong><\/span> (1847-1909). The film starts when she is 10 years old and ends with the 1903 toy fair in Leipzig where Steiff<\/strong> had her international breakthrough with \u201e55 PB\u201c, the world\u2019s first movable toy bea<\/strong>r (,Teddy Bear\u2019).<\/span><\/p>\n

Made in Dagenham. UK 2010<\/span><\/h3>\n

“I got brought up by my mum, me and me brothers. She worked all her life, and she paid my aunt Lil to take care of us during the day. And it was hard. Especially as she was getting less than half what the blokes in the factory was getting, for doing the same work. But there was never any question that it could be any different. Not for her. Someone has got to stop these exploiting bastards getting away with what they\u2019ve been doing for years.” <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This, in the film MADE IN DAGENHAM, is the answer of foreman \/ union steward Albert Passingham<\/strong> (played by the great, sadly recently deceased, Bob Hoskins<\/span>) to the question why he is so passionate about the sewing machinists\u2019 industrial dispute at Ford Dagenham car plant.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film takes place In 1968, when 55,000 male<\/span> and 187 female<\/strong> workers<\/strong> <\/span>were employed at the car plant. The women sewing machinists produced the covers for the car seats. When a regrading of the workers led to the women becoming officially unskilled and at the same time receiving less pay, even though their work was qualified and they had to account for two years\u2019 sewing experience, they called for an immediate stoppage and demanded equal grading and equal pay with the male colleagues, this a first in Britain\u2019s history. This stoppage that resulted in a longer strike and industrial action, some at times reluctant union officials, who wanted to put the women\u2019s demands to the end of the line, unsolidary workers, the miserable work place, the meeting with Labour Secretary of State for Employment Barbara Castle<\/strong><\/span>, as well as the finally negociated result \u2013 the machinists were regraded as semi-skilled and their wages were raised to 92 % of the men\u2019s<\/strong> \u2013 all this is true to the facts<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Quite impressive! It\u2019s always nice when a Goliath (in this story a big, capitalistic enterprise) is brought to his knees by a clever David, or rather Davina. And if in the course of this action the colleagues and husbands of the Davinas learn something new it\u2019s a bonus.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Nigel Cole<\/span>\u2019s social comedy all protagonists with the exception of Secretary of State for Employment Barbara Castle<\/strong> (Miranda Richardson<\/strong><\/span>) are made up and along with them their sub stories: we get to know Rita<\/strong> and her family and their financial problems and her son who is caned by his school teacher, shop steward Connie (Geraldine James<\/strong>) whose elderly husband is a traumatized war veteran, Lisa (Rosamund Pike<\/strong>), a historian with a University degree, who is in the role of housewife and mother as well as ornamental wife of the Ford factory boss (her son is being caned at school as well, she starts a petition which leads to his dismissal) and many more stories of private and professional dreams of the machinists, wrapped in the fashion, hair-styles and music of the changing society of the swinging sixties. I talked to representatives of<\/strong> trade union TUC<\/a> and the library collection<\/strong> of trade unions\u2019 history<\/a> at London University<\/strong> who both emphased the fact that the REAL Dagenham ladies had looked completely different,<\/strong> far less glamouros for a start. The machinists\u2019 leader Rita O\u2019Grady<\/strong> did not exist, however the real Rose Boland<\/strong><\/span> can be called the driving force, \u201ebut then it’s never just one person, is it<\/em>\u201c.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Reproduced<\/a>

Reproduced by kind permission of the Financial Times<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Originally the film\u2019s titel was to be WE WANT SEX, based on a true anecdote: the machinists had painted a banner with the phrase \u201eWe want sex equality<\/em>\u201c, however they did not revealed the whole length of the banner, so the fourth word was missing. However the title was changed to MADE IN DAGENHAM, which is a wise decision since the other title would have led viewers in a direction which had nothing to do with unions\u2019 history or rights for women. Unfortunately they chose the exact \u201ewe want sex\u201c title when the film came to German cinemas, in a German dubbed version. This is unfortunate for the above reason and also because the play of words does not make any sense in German. I have no idea why they did not choose a German title, maybe along the lines of \u201eDie Autofrauen von Dagenham\u201c (\u201eThe Car Women of Dagenham\u201c).<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally I would like to point out certain parellels between machinists\u2019 leader O\u2019Grady and Secretary of State Castle<\/strong> (\u201eWe ain\u2019t politicians, we\u2019re working women \u2013 and so are you<\/em>\u201c), who even own the same cheap dress from Brenninkmeijer. Both had to fight against male prejudices and paternalism, both had to find new ways. \u201eThat risk you were talking about, I am going to have to take it<\/em>\u201c, as Barbara Castle<\/strong> <\/span>says to a US Ford representative who had threatened to move the car plant to another country if the demands of the women were met. I have no idea if this is a historical fact, but in fiction it is of course very nice to see politicians stand up against a big private enterprise.<\/span><\/p>\n

MADE IN DAGENHAM. UK 2010. Director Nigel Cole, Script William Ivory. Casting Director Lucy Bevan. With Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson, Geraldine James, Rosamund Pike, Andrea Riesborough, Jaime Winstone and others<\/span><\/p>\n

Margarete Steiff. D 2005<\/h3>\n

\u201eA cripple will never find a husband, let alone find work<\/span><\/em>.\u201c<\/p>\n

This is what mother Steiff<\/strong> (played by Suzanne von Borsody<\/strong><\/span>) says to 10 year old Margarete<\/strong> in the film.<\/span><\/p>\n

Margarete Steiff<\/span> <\/strong>(1847-1909) suffered from polio from the age of two, both legs and the right arm and hand were affected and nearly completely immobile. She learns to write with her left hand, trains to become a sewer, buys the wirst sewing machine in her town (Giengen \/ Brenz, in the south of Germany), founds a felt clothes shop, invents high class soft toys, the Steiff animals, and turns her family business into a global player of the toy industry. When I saw the film for the first time some years ago I was really surprised, having owned Steiff animals all my live I did not know that they were named after their inventor. I thought they were called Steiff animals because they were stiff (German: steif) and firm. Making a biographical movie is not easy, especially if it spans over nearly 50 years as in this case. The film starts in Margarete\u2019s childhood (there she is played by Annika Luksch<\/strong><\/span>) and ends at the Leipzig toy fair of 1903, when Steiff was 56 years old. The actress playing the grown-up, Heike Makatsch<\/strong><\/span>, was 33 years old at the time of shooting. On the next photo we see Margarete Steiff<\/span><\/strong> in 1895, as a 48 years old.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Margarete<\/a>

Margarete Steiff and Employees. Approx. 1895. Photo: Margarete Steiff GmbH.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Steiff\u2019s biography is really impressive. A women with a poor background and a disability, a woman in the 19th century, when education and job opportunities were even more different for women and men than today. Her motto \u201eOnly the best is good enough for our children<\/em>\u201c is quite remarkable in times when children were caned and beaten legally in schools and families. Of course (and unfortunately) the story was changed a bit. In the film Margarete is younger, thinner, more beautiful.<\/strong> But first and foremost: a love story involving travelling salesman Julius<\/strong> is made up. Why?<\/span><\/p>\n

I was talking to someone from Steiff\u2019s public relations staff who said that \u201ethis is what people want to watch, so this way the film will get a larger audience<\/em>.\u201c It\u2019s not that the love story isn\u2019t well done, it is, and the scene where Margarete<\/strong> and Julius<\/strong> (Hary Prinz<\/span>) meet for the first time on a train is quite charming, there is a good chemistry between the two of them and the dramatic arc first meeting \u2013 separation \u2013 surprise reunion \u2013 falling in love \u2013 separation \u2013 reunion \u2013 break-up works quite well. Add to that jelous younger brother Fritz<\/strong> (played by 4,5 years older Felix Eitner<\/span>) and there you have real personal drama. But it is quite weird that this made-up love-story, or rather Julius<\/strong>, is triggering all Margarete<\/strong>\u2019s crucial actions as well as causing the majority of turning points in this film story.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the film Margarete<\/strong> met Julius<\/strong> on the train as she was travelling to Vienna to get a treatment for her legs.<\/span><\/p>\n