Reflections on Reenactments

When I first learned that we were going to be discussing reenactments in my women’s studies senior seminar, I first thought “why?” I didn’t understand how reenactments are at all related to women’s studies. But as I further looked at what reenactments are and what they do, I soon learned that they are very relevant. Usually when I think about the word “reenactments,” I think of reenactments of certain battles or other specific events in history. But upon further research I realized that reenactments can include a wide variety of situations. They can be a depiction of everyday life in historical times, a retelling of the events that happened in a crime scene or car accident so that people know more accurately what happened there. Reenactments can be powerful tools in showing people what history was like (or not like). Since reenactments are such powerful tools, we must examine how they are done. Often times history in inaccurately depicted; it is idealized and simplified. The history we learn about the U.S. for example often leaves out the injustices done to many people in this country. These include injustices towards women and non-white ethnic groups. That is where reenactments relate to women’s studies. We must reexamine how history is taught, including reenactments which claim to provide accurate portrayals of how life was in historical times. From this we can rediscover what was left out of or history classes and learn about the real experiences or groups left out of those classes, such as women.

In our class we had to find a local reenactment group. Most of the groups I found in my Google search were concerned with reenactment of Revolutionary and Civil war battles. I found one group called Colonial Women. Their site was a work in progress but said they are a living history group concerned with portraying the lives of common women in the 17^th century. I really wish there was more information on the website because this group sounds a lot different then the other ones I found, in that it focuses on women. I will have to check back later when the work on the website is finished.