Hidden Figures, 2016

November 17 2022 | ADAM GURTH

This film, Hidden Figures, was released in 2016, set in the early 1960s when segregation and racism ran rampant. The movie introduces a young version of our main character, Katherine G. Johnson, played by Taraji P. Henson. This scene demonstrates how brilliant Katherine is as she is shown presenting a math problem to a class of kids much older than her. Then the movie brings us to the present day, introducing modern-day Katherine, and her friends Dorothy Vaughan portrayed by Octavia Spencer, and Mary Jackson portrayed by Janelle Monáe. The three of them are stranded on the side of the road due to a broken-down car, as they make repairs, they spot a police car driving towards them with its lights on. The three immediately switch from friendly banter to super serious as the cop approaches. When he arrives he asks for their ID and is shocked to see that they all worked for NASA, after a bit of awkward conversation Dorothy fixes the car and they get a police escort to Langley. They arrive at their segregated west computing building strictly for black people. They all had low-level jobs at NASA until Al Harrison, played by Kevin Costner, needed a person who was excellent at calculating advanced mathematics. Harrison sent Vivian Mitchell, played by Kirsten Dunst, to find a “computer” in the west building. A computer is someone Katherine is chosen for this to help Al Harrison with the Friendship 7 Space Program. From the moment she arrived, she knew she had to prove herself because she was black and a woman in a world run by white men. So she worked harder than everyone else in the room while getting paid less and working longer hours.

Throughout the movie, Katherine is constantly going above and beyond to prove her worth. She also had many societal obstacles making her efforts much harder. For example, her office was now in the East Computing Group which is an all-white building so to use the bathroom Katherine had to run across the NASA Langley campus to use the bathroom. She has to take this half a mile trip each day in an enforced dress code of heels and a skirt. She also had to drink the coffee cup that had an improvised piece of tape on the coffee copy machine. Another major setback for her was not being allowed to join the daily meetings to get the everchanging information about the capsule and other variables for space flight. Katherine uses old information for her calculations and then immediately has to scrap it and redo the math with today's information, then repeat. Also, for each report Katherine created she's unable to put her name down for credit for her hard work. She finally got fed up and took her complaints to Al begging him to allow her to attend the meeting. She was the only African American woman in the conference room, however, she impressed everyone at the meeting after mathematically finding the landing coordinates for the capsule.

Dorothy Vaughan was the supervisor at the West Computing Group at NASA. She has been asking for a promotion for a very long time and she denied it over and over and over again. Dorthy needed to adapt to survive; she took initiative and secretly learned how to use the brand-new IBM computer. She also went through with her employees how to operate and use the machine. She knew as both African-Americans and women they would be the first to be let go when the computer takes over. Dorothy’s hard work and planning paid off, she was asked to oversee all IBM operations. She would take the job if she could bring her “girls” along. After NASA agreed she marched her crew into the all-white building to take over the IBM operations. In this film, she is constantly taking a proactive approach to job security and pushing the boundaries of racism and sexism in the workplace. She has a deep understanding of how to get ahead and stay ahead of the competition. She constantly pushed and asked for a promotion and better working conditions and jobs for her female American employee.

Mary Jackson was a genius aerospace engineer working for NASA. Her job was to help prepare the Friendship 7 capsule for space. However, in order to keep this job she needed to take an engineering class. The problem she faced was trying to sign up for this class in a segregated schooling system and was a male only class So she had to fight her way through the court system and NASA to get this job. She had to convince the judge to go to be the first American woman to attend its Aerospace class. She finished her class and continued her invaluable work on Friendship 7 Space Capsule by constantly improving and refining the life saving heat shield.

Aristotle defines two different types of virtues, intellectual virtues and virtues of character. I believe these three women in Hidden Figures are excellent examples of Aristotle's beliefs. Katherine, Dorothy, and Mary, are strong, intelligent, women and they constantly want to learn and explore new ideas. They are women of science and engineering, they dedicated their lives for the betterment of society. Leading the charge in mathematical breakthroughs and bursting through racist stereotypes.

Furthermore, the second virtue that Aristotle defines is the virtue of character. He believes that these characteristics cannot be taught by anyone. Aristotle says a virtue of character provokes "doing the right thing, at the right time, towards the right person, for the right reason,. Throughout the movie, the main characters are constantly doing what they think is right. They also never give in to atrocities against them. Instead, they continue to break the boundaries of sexism and racism because they believe science doesn't care about the color of your skin or what your gender is. Science is science and through hard work and dedication they changed how NASA looked at different colors and genders. There is a scene in the movie when Al is using a sledgehammer to knock down the "colored" sign over the bathroom. He purposely destroyed NASA property to allow Katherine a closer bathroom in her building.

These women were real people who made real impacts on the world. Down below are a few articles further explaining the things these women achieved.

Additional Resources:

The Incredible Women of Hidden Figures

NASA's real 'Hidden Figures'

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