I went back and looked at the Susan B. Anthony situation again, and they lied in this scene
CLICK HERE FOR IMPORTANT CONTEXT.
I’m posting this in the group section because it’s short and straight to the point.
I went back and looked at the Susan B. Anthony situation again, and that Powerpuff Girls episode is honestly manipulative in that one scene.
Here’s why.
The episode frames it like this: “She broke the law, and the government wanted to go easy on her because she was a woman.”
Then it treats that like it’s a bad thing and says she demanded to be jailed to be treated equally.
That narrative is not what actually happened.
In real life:
Susan B. Anthony voted in 1872 and was arrested.
She went to trial and was found guilty.
The judge didn’t even let the jury decide—he forced a guilty verdict. (Wikipedia)
She was fined $100 and refused to pay it. (National Archives)
She was not jailed, and the government chose not to push it further. (Wikipedia)
There is no solid evidence that she asked to be jailed.
What actually happened during her arrest makes more sense:
She refused to go meet a random official alone in his office and insisted on being arrested properly. That’s not someone asking for punishment—that’s someone protecting themselves and demanding normal procedure.
Why the episode feels manipulative
The show changes the story to push a message.
It makes it sound like:
Letting her off easier = sexism
Wanting equal punishment = the “right” thing
But that situation never actually happened like that.
In reality, this was a woman:
Voting for her rights
Being punished for it
Refusing to accept that punishment
Turning that into “she wanted to go to jail” twists the meaning completely.
The logic problem
The episode’s message doesn’t even make sense when you think about it.
Why would someone:
Fight for the right to vote
Then fight to be jailed for doing it
That goes against basic common sense. People protesting unfair laws usually don’t want punishment—they challenge it.
This is a kids’ show, so the idea that they did this in a show geared toward kids both male and female, especially in a little girl centered show, is insulting.
I do believe women should be punished equally for grievous crimes. I do not believe the show should distort an activist's story like this; especially in a context where the so-called "feminist" is portrayed as evil, unreasonable, a misandrist, and downright nasty.
If they wanted to teach “you shouldn’t get special treatment just because you're a girl,” they could’ve done that without using a real historical figure and lying about what happened.
Instead, they:
Took a real case
lied about what happened entirely
Not only that, but it makes early feminists seem unreasonable because both little boys and girls are gonna be confused. They'll think "Why would she want to be arrested? It's a good thing they don't arrest her because she fought to vote!"
