Hollywood report: Phyllis Schlafly and Mrs. America

Make sure to let us know what you think... we now have comments turned ON below the article!

FX on Hulu recently premiered a new series called “Mrs. America.” The series is a hit piece on Phyllis Schlafly, set during the 1970’s in the midst of the struggle to adopt or reject the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment), and the important women on either side of the campaign.

We all know that Hollywood isn’t interested in history – unless it gives them a way to portray the right as the villain. So just how bad is “Mrs. America”?

Phyllis Schafly stands up to radical feminism

The ERA was sailing to ratification in the early seventies when Phyllis Schlafly and her fellow activists rose up to stop it. They argued that the ERA would take away privileges they already had, such as not being drafted in a war. They also argued that there were already federal sex discrimination laws so a constitutional amendment was not needed.

In a stunning blow against the trend of the times, Schafly succeeded in killing the ERA.

The ERA is being talked about again, with Congress passing a bill affirming it, and the state of Virginia ratifying it, bringing the total to 38, the needed number to then become the 27th  amendment to the constitution, that is, if it hadn’t expired.

Mrs. America

The arguments for and against the ERA should sound familiar as they are the same now as they were back in the 1970s.

The setting is based on true events and people but the creator did take the liberty to fictionalize some events and characters.

Before each episode begins there is a disclaimer of sorts:

This program is based on actual events that occurred during the political struggle and debate over the Equal Rights Amendment. Some characters in the program are fictional and some scenes and dialog are invented for creative and storyline purposes. 

That last sentence is important to remember as the series unfolds, pitting conservative homemakers against feminists. As you can imagine, the storyline is designed to denigrate the homemakers and to lionize the heroic founders of the feminist movement.

The Schlafly family was not consulted in the making of this series

In fact, Schlafly’s family was not consulted during the creation of this series. Dahvi Waller, the creator, said she wanted to craft her own version of Schlafly. According to the Daily Caller Anne Schlafly Cori, Schlafly’s daughter said:

The maker purposefully excluded Schlafly’s family from production. Dahvi Waller said she did not wish to hear any first-person accounts of Schlafly because “she wanted to craft her own story.

Waller portrays Schlafly as overbearing, overly ambitious, preening, willing to compromise with racists, and degraded by her husband. A fictional best friend is included in the story to provide a disapproving presence as Schlafly supposedly compromises to get what she wants.

Go here to hear an interview of Schlafly’s daughter Anne Schlafly Cori and a rebuttal of the portrayal of Schlafly in Mrs. America.

Cori described the mother that she knew:

My mother was first and foremost motivated by her deep faith in God, and that formed all of her opinions and actions. And she had a really loving marriage and a true intellectual partnership with her husband. And that was one of the reasons why she was so successful, because she had this incredible security at home. They portray my father in really the worst possible light. They portray him as an insensitive brute.

One has to question the decision to cast Cate Blanchett as Schlafly because she makes Schlafly look good when the screenwriters are trying to make her look bad. Assuming that writers wanted Schlafly to appear as a shallow one-dimensional person, they failed. Blanchett’s performance is compelling and sparks admiration anyway. In fact, her performance is so good that it is imperative that one study the real Schlafly before embracing  Waller’s and Blanchett’s portrayal.

The real Phyllis Schlafly

By the time the ERA became an issue in the 1970s, Schlafly was a seasoned veteran in politics. Schlafly received a master’s degree in political science from Radcliffe College, the female affiliate of the all-male Harvard University, and had run for Congress twice. She also helped Barry Goldwater win the Republican nomination in 1964 with her self-published book “A Choice Not an Echo.

Schlafly was an amazing debater, amiably wrecking her opponents with facts and a smile. Many examples of her grace and wit under fire are available on Youtube. Episode 4 of Mrs. America includes her debate with Betty Friedan, the author of the Feminine Mystique, in which Friedan became so angry she called Schlafly a witch and wished that she could burn her at the stake.

Final thoughts

After four episodes and a lot of research, it has become abundantly clear:

  • That Schlafly viewed the ERA as an assault on the family and felt it her duty to fight against it. She was championing women, women who chose to invest themselves in their families. She was happily married and believed that being a mother was an “honorable vocation.” She believed that women had the best of both worlds, home, and career and that women had the freedom to choose their destiny. She believed that the majority of women did not want to be treated like men. She presciently believed that the ERA would be used to push for a  gender-free society. She believed that feminists denigrated and looked down on homemakers (they still do). She believed that the ERA was dangerous and would strip women of their privileges and subject them to the draft.
  • That the writer portrays Steinem and the other feminists as considering abortion to be the most important part of feminism, under the guise of the ERA which did not include abortion. As Steinem would explain it, abortion is the right for a woman to control her own body, the right to “terminate” an unwanted pregnancy. In episode four, this “right” was so important, Steinem tried to get the Democrats to include abortion in their platform at the 1972 Democrat National Convention which ultimately failed. The women who wanted the ERA to pass claimed that they believed in equal rights for men and women, but they really wanted unequal rights. What they really wanted the “right” to do was kill their own babies, a “right” no man possesses.

This series hinges on the push to ratify the ERA, which did ultimately fail thanks to Phyllis Schlafly and her grassroots movement. Together they took the feminists by surprise and ultimately defeated the ERA after thirty states had already ratified it and Republicans and Democrats had endorsed it along with Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter. Her accomplishment, with the aid of many homemakers like herself, was and is impressive.

In a time of renewed interest in the ERA, knowing what took place in the original push to ratify it is instructive as enough states have now ratified it. Mrs. America may be heavily biased toward feminism, but it is a fascinating glimpse into the politics of the 1970s, stirring more study of the events and people that shaped our world and politics, today.

Watch this Eagle Forum video to learn more about Schlafly:

Here is the real Phyllis Schlafly on the defeat of the ERA:

Warning: there are sexual situations in this series that will be offensive. Watch the trailer for Mrs. America:

470 Responses

  1. I keep listening to the news broadcast lecture about getting boundless online grant applications so I have been looking around for the top site to get one. Could you advise me please, where could i get some?

  2. Hi, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam comments? If so how do you protect against it, any plugin or anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any help is very much appreciated.

  3. Hey There. I found your weblog the usage of msn. This is a really smartly written article. I will make sure to bookmark it and return to read extra of your helpful information. Thank you for the post. I’ll definitely return.

  4. Hi there! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any trouble with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing a few months of hard work due to no backup. Do you have any solutions to prevent hackers?

  5. I have mastered some new issues from your web-site about computers. Another thing I’ve always imagined is that computer systems have become something that each family must have for several reasons. They provide convenient ways to organize households, pay bills, shop, study, pay attention to music and also watch tv shows. An innovative solution to complete all of these tasks is a notebook computer. These computer systems are portable ones, small, highly effective and transportable.

  6. I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I don’t know who you are but certainly you’re going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!

  7. I haven’t checked in here for some time because I thought it was getting boring, but the last several posts are good quality so I guess I will add you back to my everyday bloglist. You deserve it my friend 🙂

  8. hey there and thanks on your information – I have definitely picked up something new from right here. I did alternatively experience several technical issues the usage of this website, as I experienced to reload the website lots of instances prior to I could get it to load correctly. I were thinking about in case your web hosting is OK? Now not that I’m complaining, however sluggish loading instances occasions will sometimes impact your placement in google and can harm your high-quality ranking if advertising and ***********|advertising|advertising|advertising and *********** with Adwords. Anyway I am including this RSS to my email and can glance out for much more of your respective fascinating content. Make sure you replace this once more very soon..

  9. Very good blog! Do you have any recommendations for aspiring writers? I’m hoping to start my own site soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you advise starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m totally overwhelmed .. Any recommendations? Thanks a lot!

  10. Hi there! I could have sworn I’ve been to this website before but after checking through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyways, I’m definitely glad I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back frequently!

  11. Thank you, I have just been searching for information approximately this topic for a long time and yours is the greatest I’ve discovered till now. However, what about the conclusion? Are you certain concerning the supply?

  12. Thank you for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbor were just preparing to do some research about this. We got a grab a book from our local library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such excellent information being shared freely out there.

  13. Thank you, I’ve recently been searching for info about this subject for a long time and yours is the greatest I’ve found out till now. But, what about the conclusion? Are you sure in regards to the source?

Leave a Reply to http://thetrailblazingnews.com health Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Popular