Activism in The Facts of Life (inspired by Federal court)

Some of you may have noticed that I've been posting much more regularly in 2015. Indeed, I intended to have a weekly post, and the way my schedule works out, it's on Thursdays. I have quite intentionally reserved my Thursday  mornings to work on Cousin Geri, so I can get new posts up by Thursday afternoon.

on Wednesday night, however, I learned that there were oral arguments in federal court this morning for United States v. Johnson a case regarding the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. As an animal rights activist, I find the AETA to be completely overbroad, antithetical to the purposes of the First Amendment, and the product of big agri-business money going after unpopular activist groups, but this isn't a political blog.

The point is, since I went to the oral arguments in this case yesterday morning, I've been delayed. But only temporarily. I've also been inspired.

Welcome to our discussion of activism in The Facts of Life.

I often amuse people with the fact that I can relate just about anything to the show. How to throw a party? There's a Facts of Life episode about that. Irresponsible use of credit? Yep, got it. Affairs, teen pregnancy, over-40 pregnancy? Check, check, and check. Privacy, authenticity, alcohol abuse, celebrity obsession, cancer . . . you get the picture.

The closest thing the show has to an episode asking any question about animal rights, though, is the one in season four where Mrs. Garrett's mentor from France comes to visit. There is a squirrel loose in the cafeteria and there is some conflict between Jo trying to build a trap to exterminate the little guy, while Tootie defends him as "one of God's creatures." It's not a very good episode.

But that doesn't mean that there weren't moments where show had some political gumption. 

In season one, the character Molly was meant to be a feminist activist. In episode one, she chides the headmaster for referring to them as "girls" as opposed to "women," a sentiment I am fully behind as an adult female but which might have been a bit precocious for a girl in middle school or high school. She also sings a song in a later episode about air and water pollution. According to Molly Ringwald herself, she was supposed to have been the fourth spotlight girl in season 2, but that spot went to the new character Jo instead. 

I've often spoken about how I think the show was groundbreaking, and brought to the forefront a number of progressive issues. When I write recaps, though, I sometimes cringe at the ham-fisted way some of the episodes treat those issues. They mean well, but the treatment of serious issues is sometimes cliche.

I've realized however, that even if the explicit treatment of issues occasionally got a bit silly, the real progressive strength of the show was in its showing, not telling. Natalie was clearly the heaviest of the four focal girls after season 1 - people in the outside world called her "the fat one" back then - but the show never made her weight an issue, and she never had any trouble getting dates or boyfriends (I haven't done a one-to-one comparison yet, but it's possible that Natalie had more boyfriends than Blair over the course of the series). Jo was gender nonconforming - and people in the outside world still think she and/or Nancy McKeon are gay - but every time assumptions were made about her it was for the purpose of the show debunking them. Furthermore, she moved into a personality where she wore her hair down and dressed more in a stereotypically feminine way without fanfare, and even after that she continued to play sports, have mechanical skills, and wear socks with flats when other shoes would probably have been more appealing visually.

It was consistent, if not wise.

And of course, the show featured Geri Jewell, actress with cerebral palsy, one of if not the first recurring character with a disability on a major television show. What I'm positing is that the show itself was often activist, even if the girls usually weren't. 

But the girls had their moments too. In season three, when Eastland bows to pressure from conservative parents to take certain books off the library shelves (including Ms. magazine, by the way), Natalie writes an editorial, and when her efforts get her kicked off the paper, she and the others organize an awareness campaign to parents, culminating in a community-wide protest to the squeaky wheels who wanted the books off the shelves. We never do find out what happens, but it's nice to see Natalie's advocacy in action.

Jo, a student regent at Langley College, certainly is in a place to make some waves. We only see the effort once, in season five, when she is elected to the board with plans to address real issues and finds out that it's more about scratching each other's backs and talking about football. She uses her platform to oppose a new scoreboard that a donor is planning to provide, arguing that the money would be better used for scholarships. She is strong and relentless enough to get the donor to settle for a smaller scoreboard, using the rest of the money for scholarships, but she pushes too hard and loses it all, learning an important lesson about politics. It was an important lesson for me, anyway. It's why I still struggle with the tactics of many activists and with my own place in the activist community.

Finally, we have Natalie's effort against the mayor of Peekskill in season seven. She thinks his priorities are all wrong and actually considers running for mayor herself! Meanwhile, Blair is at the helm of the incumbent's campaign, emphasizing the importance of political engagement.

Even more important than a decent haircut.

The show certainly didn't have any obligation to make any of its characters activists, indeed, in many ways the show's purpose was to spotlight the mundane, every day "Facts of Life" that teenage and young adult girls faced in the 80s. Undoubtedly, the show was genius about that. Furthermore, that the show came as close as it did to those activist moments deserves appreciation in itself. Social messaging was not exactly the priority of 80s sitcoms.

Finally, I return to one of my favorite things about this show: the consistency of the characters. The one most frequently identified with activist causes is Natalie. The journalist; the one who eschewed going straight to college out of high school so she could get some life experience. The one who first lost her virginity. This package works; the character makes sense.

If you've been reading this blog for any period of time, you know I'm all about Jo. I sometimes live my life according to a "WWJD" philosophy - what would Jo do, that is. But I've also always had a soft spot for Natalie - she's definitely my "second favorite" character to the extent that one ranks such a thing; in any case, she's up there in my estimation. I hadn't previously considered that her commitment to action and unpopular causes might be a reason for that. I still surprise myself.