Casual Friday: A passion for history, women's rights and Elvis

Amy Canfield is very open about the passions in her life.

Far from the stodgy image most people have of historians, the Lewis-Clark State College history professor is a vocal supporter of women's rights, their history as activists and all things Elvis. And while women's rights and her love of Elvis Presley might seem contrary, Canfield has a strong argument that the two are intertwined.

Craig Clohessy: You're opening an exhibit this weekend with one of your classes titled, "Woman Redefined: Women's Activism History," at the Lewis-Clark State College Center for Arts & History. You have a love of history. You also center quite a bit on women and activism. Why is that?

Amy Canfield: Those aren't separated out in my mind. History has been made by people who have been willing to shape it. ... Things get done because someone sees a problem, or a group sees a problem, and they take actions to fix it. Women have always done this. It's getting more attention now, but so many events in our history wouldn't have transpired without women. You can't study women's history without studying activism. You can't study history without studying women - they're half the population or more.

CC: Expanding on that, there's been the "#MeToo" movement, with people sharing stories on social media of sexual misconduct, and we're seeing women come forward about sexual harassment in the workplace. What has made it the right time in history for these women to have the bravery and the strength to step up and say 'this is wrong'?

AC: Numerically we're seeing women coming forward now. Women have always come forward. Their voices have been dismissed or ignored or they've been told they were lying. We've got records of this going back hundreds of years. This is nothing new. Anita Hill in 1991, I would say, is really the beginning, coming after the second wave (of the) feminist movement where there were all of these changes, and then we go through a backlash in the '80s. She's the driving force and as we look at it now, everything that she went through in the '80s when it occurred and then in 1991 during the confirmation hearings (she accused then U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment). We're seeing it all play out again. I think bringing her up is really important because we're not seeing as many women of color come forward now and there have been a lot of studies on why the "#MeToo" movement hasn't heard as many of those voices. And I think it ties into power. Women, historically, haven't had as much power. Women of color have had even historically less. But why we're seeing more now, I mean it's 2016, 2017, in a nutshell. Everything that happened within the election. ... We definitely heard sexism in that election, and as a society, I think we've struggled with how to pay attention to that. In 2017, we've seen it snowball where the first women came forward. This is just good timing, where Time magazine came out with their Person of the Year (the 'Silence Breakers,' those who shared stories of sexual harassment and assault). A few people came forward and they were starting to be listened to and starting to be believed. I think that's empowered other people who have felt the victim shaming, who have hidden it away, now they're seeing people ... willing to listen and it's getting more powerful because of that. And power is the issue ... Power has been what's played out. Which is why women's activism fits in so well with all of that. Who has the power?

CC: Will the exhibit at the Center for Arts & History look into some of that? Tell us about the exhibit.

AC: The students chose their own topics. They had to fit it in under women's activism. Their own interests drove (them). We had some students that wrote about women and abolition because women were the most important parts of that abolitionists movement, outside of the freed people that were speaking. But still, Sojourner Truth (an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist of the mid-1800s) fits in with that. When we think about abolition we think about men most often, but they (women) were doing so much behind the scenes. Women in suffrage, obviously. One student chose to focus on the Salem witch trials and what that reveals about women's activism. Honestly, those witch trials were a backlash against women's activism. Women were becoming too powerful in the community and this was a way to keep them down.

CC: Elvis. You are obsessed with the King of rock 'n' roll. Why?

AC: My dad used to be a DJ, then became a cop. His favorite music was from the '50s and '60s. ... There is no music in the '50s and '60s without Elvis' voice, so I became enamored of his music. And then when I hit ... about junior high or high school, that's when it started to go more into Elvis as a person. ... The more I studied history in college and as a grad student, it just heightened. Our house is all Elvis. I love him, especially 1950s Elvis when everything is changing for women and for young people, he crystallizes a lot of those ideas. It's just this new exciting point. My husband (Lewiston Tribune reporter Joel Mills) is very tolerant of my obsession.

CC: Anything else you'd like to add?

AC: There are things I'm really passionate about and people know that about me. Our oldest daughter's middle name is Presley, after Elvis. Our second daughter's middle name is Alice, after (American suffragist) Alice Paul, and I think that demonstrates two of my biggest passions: Elvis and Alice Paul, but larger women's suffrage and women's activism. It's really hard for me to sort these out - professional interest, private interest. Just who I am as a person. We owe so much to these different people in our past. And as a historian, it's really easy for me to incorporate into my life. But, I see women doing such amazing things all the time. In our community, we have some really strong, powerful women. I see it here. I see it nationally.

---

Clohessy is managing editor of the Tribune. He may be contacted at cclohessy@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2251.