Nearly a hundred years since it was first proposed in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has yet to be written into the U.S. Constitution. When the vigorous second-wave feminist movement in the 1970s reached its peak, it was infinitely close to this. The target, Phyllis Schlafly, showed up. In Hulu's latest 9-episode miniseries, Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett starred as the famous anti-equality grassroots leader. In such a film and television work that tells the history of women's rights, the big bad has successfully portrayed himself as a charismatic anti-hero, tough, smart, cunning and inflammatory. Surrounding Schlafley are representatives of the second feminist movement: Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug, and Jill Ruckelshaus, among others.
"Equal rights" and "anti-equal rights", the two flowers of the feminist battlefield, The gradual social and economic recovery after World War II triggered the baby boom, and a large number of women had to stay at home to take on the responsibilities of raising children and running the house. Oral contraceptives had not yet appeared, abortion was considered illegal, and "housewives" were almost the only job options for most married women.
By the middle of the last century, the worldwide popularity of Beauvoir's "Second Sex" awakened feminism in the United States. She believed that women must have self-determination of fertility and a job in order to be liberated; the United Stateswas The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first oral contraceptives in the 1960s; Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique became the second wave The direct trigger of the feminist movement
In 1971, Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Sheri Chisholm, Bella Abzag, Jill Rackelshouse, and others co-founded the National Women's Suffrage Group (The National Women's Political Caucus), which aims to help women participate in political activities and elections; in 1968, Shelley Chisholm became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress, and in 1972, became the first black presidential candidate , representing the Democratic Party in the presidential campaign; the same year, the U.S. Congress passed the Affirmative Action Act. It seems only a matter of time before the Affirmative Action Act can be formally written into the constitution as long as more than three-quarters of the states, or 38, ratify it.
However, a movement called STOP ERA quietly emerged. In the play, its promoter, Phyllis Schlafly, was not interested in feminist issues at first. She is an expert on Soviet issues and nuclear weapons. Her insights and positions on these issues are her bargaining chips for political status. However, she was ambitious and ultimately failed to be elected to Congress. In a casual conversation, she learned from a friend of the affirmative action that is sweeping the United States and the panic it has caused among some conservative women—many women think that once men and women are equal, women will be drafted into the army and sent to Vietnam to fight in the war. With her keen political sense, Schlafly caught the smell of gunpowder and believed that the feminist battlefield was promising. She immediately contacted women from all over the country through the contacts she had accumulated over the years, and organized a rival STOP ERA group. STOP is short for Stop Taking Our Privileges. She believes that affirmative action groups' demands for women's property rights, work rights, equal pay for equal work, and legal abortion are targeting them as "housewives," depriving them of the privilege of wanting to be housewives and to play the roles of wives and mothers with peace of mind. "Stop Taking Our Privileges" became their slogan.
In the process of uniting and strengthening STOP ERA, Shlafley used the means of blurring the focus, fabricating rumors, manipulating the media, and creating divisions to instigate panic among women. The toilets will no longer separate men and women, women will be drafted into the army, and eventually every woman will find herself not only finding a job but also working two jobs at the same time (both taking care of the family and going out to earn money), even claiming that the ERA is an attempt to subvert traditional American family values and then upend the entire country. Sound familiar? That's right, Trump has inherited Schlafley's tricks of playing power and can be called a replica of Schlafley. In fact, Schlafly herself also supported Trump when she was alive. Although she died before Trump was elected in 2016, the book The Conservative Case for Trump, published after her, strongly endorsed Trump.
Under Kate's interpretation, even if we don't agree with Schlafly's political position, we can still feel her extraordinary speech ability, strong appeal, and distinct personal charm, and she also uses the politician's sophistry with ease. When the talk show host questioned the unfoundedness of her inflammatory remarks after the show, she deftly shifted the conversation to the US-Soviet issue. She tore a gap between women and women, splitting a huge gulf between them, allowing women to target themselves, making the ERA community begin to realize that women are nothing but an imagined community, and that's just the beginning. Women, an imagined community?
Of the co-founders of the suffragette group, only Jill Rackelshouse is a Republican. The rest are mostly Democrats. Most of the ERA group are also Democrats, but the organizers want to make the most of it. It is possible to win bipartisan support, reach a broad consensus on the issue of equal rights between the two parties, and try not to choose a position between the two. But ERA spokeswoman Gloria Steinem has a great deal of affection for Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, even publicly declaring him the best white male candidate. Betty Furth Ridan hopes that the political participation group can fully support Sheri Chisholm's election for president, which was strongly opposed by Bella Abzag. The pragmatic Bella, with her many years of political experience, believes that women's rights alone are not enough. The only way for women to win a seat in the White House is to have pro-feminist Democratic candidate George McGovern elected president and build a close relationship with him in order to get as many women as possible into the cabinet government, and to achieve this, The goal was to withdraw another Democratic candidate, Shelley Chisholm, who had just won the party's primary election, so that her delegates would switch to McGovern to avoid the spread of votes.
Facing the dissuasion of her friends who had formed the "National Women's Suffrage Group" together in the past, Sheryl Chisholm felt disheartened and decided to break with the group and continue to run for president. As the first black woman to be elected as a presidential candidate, in addition to fighting for women's rights, Shelly's bigger goal is to speak up for the black community, which is an issue she cares more about; Gloria was in London when she was 22 years old. Having performed an illegal abortion operation, she knows the pain. Legalizing abortion is her most urgent demand. McGovern used this as a bargaining chip to reach a private agreement with Gloria and let her help win the votes of women in California. The old politician's few words easily provoked the internal relations of the feminist group. Gloria, who originally planned to support Shelley's election, turned to the McGovern camp, which also led to Shelly's election defeat. As soon as McGovern got enough votes, he switched from a middle ground to opposing legalizing abortion, at which point Gloria finally found herself being counted.
When she asked Xie Li to apologize, Xie Li said: "Power does not give in to anything." If we don't pursue true equality ourselves, we will always beg men, pick their teeth, and exchange women for empty promises." As Gloria told Betty on the plane, "People always try to alienate women, and it's just another tactic to take our rights away." Ironically, it's not just men who alienate women; it's them themselves. The ERA movement had a huge backlash among the "housewives," and Jill Rackelshouse wanted to send the message that the ERA wasn't targeting them, but another extremist blunted, "We're targeting them." It's them! " On the Illinois ballot, the ERA, led by Gloria, and the STOP ERA, led by Schlafley, formed two opposing female forces. "A large number of women are afraid that once they pursue equality, they will become hostile to men and lose their love and protection." Schlafly was well aware of this, and used powerful political sorcery to instill fear in them. The ERA, with its external repression and internal division, is powerless to disenchant itself.
A woman without a country Each episode of "Mrs. America" is narrated with a character as the theme, resembling a character biography, from "Phyllis Schlafly", "Gloria Steinem", "Sherrie Chisholm", In the fourth episode "Betty Friedan" that just aired, the producers tried their best to present and restore the historical scene from the perspective of different characters, so that the audience could see the contradiction and complexity of each character. Although these women from different positions, political parties, races, and statuses are constantly competing and colliding with each other, they all face some subtle female survival dilemmas.
To win the generous donations of patrons, Schlafley had to wear a bikini and pose in various provocative poses at fundraising parties; to give herself a chance to be elected to Congress, she traveled thousands of miles to Washington to lobby, but she had to be on the same night.She rushed home to take care of her children. When she finally returned home, exhausted and planning to take a good rest, her husband wanted her to fulfill her "duty" as a wife. After the protest was invalid, Schlafly had to compromise and let her husband fade away with a blank face. own clothes, pressing down on yourself. While discussing nuclear weapons with lawmakers in Washington, Schlafly was about to speak out, but the men pushed her aside and asked her to take notes. After participating in the talk show, the congressman leaned over and secretly chatted with Schlafly from time to time in the dressing room, and Schlafly could only hide it with an embarrassed smile.
And even as radical as Bella Abzag may be, she "shamelessly" admitted to Gloria that she was chosen as the ERA spokesperson because she has a beautiful face and men are willing to listen to her. The sponsor even bluntly said that because he saw Gloria's long legs, he agreed to sponsor her to publish the feminist magazine "Ms." Even the soft drink commercials on TV are full of great malice towards women-"When I'm wearing a red pants suit and my husband doesn't notice, that's not a good thing, so I'm watching my calorie intake..."
The paradox is that although Schlafley constantly promotes traditional family concepts and calls for women to return to the family, she is engaged in non-stop political activities across the country to build her political reputation, which is why Betty attacked her hypocrisy in the debate. She asked her sister-in-law and black maid to help take care of her six children, but she mediated the movement and expanded her personal political map. She doesn't care or care about women's rights. Women's rights are just a tool for her to plunder political assets, but she has gradually grown into a model of women's rights by suppressing women's rights.
The STOP ERA movement led by Schlafly boosted the conservative forces in the United States, led to the rise of the Republican Party, and the election of the far-right Reagan as president, completely changing the political map of the United States. At the end of the third episode of Shirley's defeat, the background music played the popular song "Battle Hymn of the Republic" during the American Civil War. This fight for equal rights is another civil war in the United States, with heads held high. Shilafli, who is like a high priest, burnt the pioneer of women's rights on the altar of equality.
The ERA's voice in the play about women's property, work, marriage, and childbirth has always been echoed and has never been fully answered. Today, we look back at the defining moment of the feminist movement and the feminist pioneers that stirred the United States half a century ago. Each of them was like a trapped beast, slashing and slashing in the blind spot of history, hitting the wall everywhere. How do we sum up this debacle? Will we repeat the same mistakes when the Me Too movement brings feminism to the forefront again?
At the end of the fourth episode, the always at odds with and conflicted Gloria calls Betty Friedan to thank her for writing "The Feminine Mystique" and awakening her feminist awareness. Women may be more divided than we think, but women are also more connected than we think. These countryless women may one day find the promised land flowing with milk and honey.
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