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“Squeaky Fromme on the stand during the penalty phase of the trial of Charles Manson in 1971 by Howard Brodie.”

#courtroom sketch #howard brodie #squeaky fromme #1971 #1970s #fave art

welcome to i have far far too many thoughts about sondheim's assassin's hour (the 'i just got cast in the show so the too-many-thoughts levels are hitherto unforeseen' edition) and recently i've been thinking a lot about the female assassins -- more specifically how the female assassins are treated differently by the proprietor himself from their male counterparts, and why.

because here's the thing: the proprietor's goal is, on a most bare bones level, to encourage political assassination, yes, but if you dig even slighter deeper it's a lot less specific. the proprietor wants the assassins to kill presidents because what he truly, truly wants is to foster and build upon the cyclical nature of violence on the biggest scale possible, and in the united states, very few scales are bigger than the presidency.

violence begets violence begets violence (sort of, we'll get to that) and when someone kills the president, or attempts to (the first act of violence) it, generally, historically brings about a wave of outrage and rage upon the assassin themselves, with the populace spreading the story, and adding themselves in, through embellished actions, such as in 'how i saved roosevelt', or through emphasizing their emotional connection to the event (a second act of violence, in itself, both physically, ex. czolgosz immediately being beaten half to death by the crowd after he shot mckinley, and verbally), but, in everyone constantly discussing the assassination, even just to curse the assassin's name, it will, eventually, bring the story to someone who will take inspiration from it, seeing how infamous it made the gunman, or the potential of their own impact, and try to mimic it (a third act of violence, that resets the cycle).

so, okay, that's a lot of words that has nothing to do with the women in assassins, yes, i know, but think about 'everybody's got the right', and how the proprietor talks to all the potential assassins. he's encouraging, he's offering them options, he's convincing them this is exactly what they need to do to get what they want.

except, notably, for four people. he didn't need to convince booth, booth's actions are what created him as a concept, and the assassins convince oswald themselves. the two of them bracket our story, they're different, that makes sense.

but the other two are fromme and moore.

he actually doesn't even seem to realize they could even be here to participate (pointing them to carnival rides before his own booth), and once he does, he actively discourages both of them. it's weird, it's distinctly different, it's kind of misogynistic. (and, yes, sondheim has his moments, but when the other two main female voices in the show are emma goldman and the housewife in 'something just broke', ostensibly the two most grounded characters present across the board, that feels like one hell of an oversight), and it's really telling.

because think about it!! if the proprietor wants these assassinations to happen so that they inspire more violence in the future, the women aren't going to get him there. overall, women are rarely the ones inspired by other's like them doing violent shit to do their own violent shit. it happens, sure, but not on the same scale as it does, specifically, with white american men.

once the two of them get their guns, the proprietor isn't going to stop them, violence is violence, but it's a waste of his time to put on the same song and dance to convince two people who just simply won't bring about the same societal shift, who will just become a quickly, quickly passing story about how crazy women are when they're on their periods or going through menopause or something. even now, the only time people bring up squeaky fromme is to mention the psycho girl in the manson cult who tried to kill the president for charles manson. if she succeeded, that wouldn't change the narrative. people would almost certainly still talk about the man behind her motives more than her. moore was always gonna be a crazy old lady (even though she was only 45 at the time), her succeeding would probably just make the jokes more lasting.

(it feels worth mentioning too, that, while the proprietor is sort of tongue and cheek making fun of all of them during his pitches, his most outwardly mocking verse is directed at zangara. an immigrant. all the other, as i said before, white american men, get him at his smoothest and most encouraging.)

just,,.,. i think it's so so fascinating, even if it wasn't intentional on sondheim's part and i'm reading way too deeply into things (as is my favorite past time) because, in real life, the two of them aren't any different than the other assassins. moore came so close that it was ruled if she had her own gun, then she would have succeeded, and fromme's entire life had really been outlined in violence and an urge to follow a 'higher calling'. (most versions of the script even call for the proprietor to hand hinckley back his guitar and pat him on the shoulder encouragingly before 'unworthy of your love' while not even acknowledging fromme, when, objectively, that song is drawing a direct parallel to their two motives. if he's being encouraging to hinckley that this is the right path to go down, it seems practically like a no brainer to encourage fromme in the same breath. but he doesn't.)

this is obviously not me saying it's good they tried to kill ford, it isn't, they aren't fucking girl bosses or whatever for trying to assassinate someone. but, it should make them the perfect targets for the proprietor. they certainly don't fit in the world that the balladeer wants them to. and yet, neither version of the american dream presented to them really has a space for them.

because, honestly, when has it ever?