Message from “Hidden Figures” and why it Matters

Name:HUM 2020

5/2/2019, Viewed From https://moviesanywhere.com/movie/hidden-figuresDate:

650 words

(1) what is the message of the film as a historic presentation of this group of women, and why does it matter?

Films have the capacity of giving an image of what happened in the past. A good refection of science in the past is the reality and documentary film “Hidden Figures”. The historical drama released in December 2016 features women who played a great role in NASA in helping the USA to fly the first and corresponding spaceflights. The space race among nations was getting intense and at the period of 1961 and 1962 America was trying hard to have a successful spaceflight. The period was characterised by racial segregation which was taken to the work place. The three women who pioneered and gave the most significant efforts in having the first successful spaceship to fly and return were all African Americans.

The film gives a message that intelligence is not determined by race or gender. The people of color were discriminated by the laws that were in place during the time. At the NASA station based in Virginia, there were a lot of things that separated the blacks and the whites. They could not take food from the same cafeteria, stay in the same neighborhood, drink from the same water fountain, use the same restrooms, attend the same school, visit the same beaches, and receive care in the same hospital (Shetterly, M. L., Conkling, W., Freeman, L., & Shetterly, M. L. 2018). We see Katherine struggling even after being accepted to work with the other whites she could not use the same restrooms and had to move a very long distance to relive herself. Also, she was forced to drink from a coffee pot written colored yet she was the only black and the only woman among the workers except for the secretary who was a white woman.

It was racism all over, Mary who as good engineering skills, after being summoned by a team of engineers led by Zielinski she is asked to get certification. Everyone knew that this was next to impossible since a college that offered the certificate was purely segregated and only whites were allowed. Dorothy on the other hand is waiting for a promotion to be the supervisor, which she genuinely deserves and the senior administrator rubs it on her face that it will not happen which the main reason behind this was because she was black.

The film matters because black women paint the picture of failed early achievements which were due to racial segregation where no one thought black people would come out as intelligent apart from the domestic jobs and manual jobs which they performed best. The women who were able to go to college would assume teaching as the best profession. In “Hidden Figures”, the women who managed to do well in mathematics were given a lot of work and worked as “computers” for the mathematicians at Langley.

Leave alone the three elites being black at least if they were male then they could have a say in the society but now these were females who tried to work with men from the white community. The untold story of women who pioneered rocket science is very important to the kids of the hood. Many children from the colored community will grow up knowing that such careers are not linked to them but rather they can do acting, rapping and sports which is not true (Shetterly, M. L., Conkling, W., Freeman, L., & Shetterly, M. L. 2018). Despite the three women being discriminated and underpaid, their hard work at NASA station bore fruits since it is their calculations that managed to help land the first astronaut to move round the earth safely.

Conclusively, the film gives a good reflection n of the past and the position of women in the society. From “Hidden Figures,” we get to understand that one being a genius is not linked to ethnicity, race or gender. It makes women feel proud to have participated in significant change making events in the field of science.

Reference

https://moviesanywhere.com/movie/hidden-figuresShetterly, M. L., Conkling, W., Freeman, L., & Shetterly, M. L. (2018). Hidden figures: The true story of four Black women and the space race.