Her Socialist Smile

 Helen Adams Keller was an author, disability rights advocate, activist and lecturer who lost her eyesight and hearing both at the age of nineteen months. She had learned to read, write and speak with the help of her teacher Anne Sullivan and can even talk to others using the Tadoma method. Hers is not a name unknown to the world. She has been a worldwide wonder due to what she has managed to achieve despite her disability. Her autobiography 'The Story of my Life' was the spatula that helped stir the coming generations' attention towards her. She was renowned as an author and disability rights activist but one version of her that most of us(at least most of those I know) rarely paid attention to was that of the socialist she was.

If I'm being honest, to know that Helen Keller was a socialist itself was brand new news to me let alone how much she expressed it. Hers was no idle claim of being a party member but rather one that she made clear of to the world around her. She worked and spoke actively for the women's right to vote and was welcomed by women all over the world with open hands. She also made no shortcomings in showcasing her public dislike or liking to the ruling party/ reader. For example she has commented on Dr. Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, in a public speech saying, " Mr. Wilson is an old-fashioned Democrat… but the future belongs to a much greater class--the new-fashioned democrats ". She has also praised the leader of England, Mrs. Pankhurst, saying that she is a great leader. 

Initially it was considered that she was being used by the opposition to showcase their views via the mouth of a respected personality because she was considered vulnerable to exploitation. She dispersed the idea saying, " My blindness doesn’t shut me out from a knowledge of what is happening around me. True, I have never been a captain of industry or a strike breaker or a soldier; neither have most people. But I have studied about them, and I think I understand their relation to society. At all events, I claim my right to discuss them". She wanted for the world to consider her not as a deafblind author but rather as a human with humane thoughts and demands. When her stands grew firmer and more openly spoken-of, the misconception of her being a puppet may or may not have been removed.

Upon watching 'Her Socialist Smile' I felt that Helen Keller might have been, by far, the greatest despiser of capitalism (who isn't though) that I have known. She was a people's person and her words said that it hurt her deeply to see the people get hurt- " I have gone through ugly dark streets filled with small children whose little grimy faces already look old… This seems to me the most deplorable tragedy of our modern life". She had her own thoughts and views and was adamant in upholding them. She considered herself a thinker and it bored her to be with those in whom thought was infantile. She even had strong views on the college she studied in, Harvard, saying that it wanted to teach only about war and cruelty and not the pursuits of peace.

'Her Socialist Smile' is one that does not bore the viewer as it is packed with soothing ASMRs and a very subtle narrator's voice. One thing I can guarantee you is that after watching it, you shall not think of Helen Keller as only a deafblind author anymore as there were times while watching that I myself forgot that she couldn't see or hear and was left marveling at her brilliant mind!

- Fathima Naushad