- The Mrs. series America paints a portrait of Phyllis Schlafly, who in the 1970s created the “Stop Era” campaign, Era designating the Equal Rights Amendment, an amendment for equal rights for women and men.
- We also come across the figures of feminist author Betty Friedan, journalist Gloria Steinem and Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress in 1968.
- "There is a direct thread between 1972 and the current state" affirms Judith Ezekiel, professor emeritus in feminist studies, who lived this period.
"Understanding the enemy reveals specific ways to fight it," wrote essayist Tzvetan Todorov in 2015, calling on people not to "dehumanize" those they want to defeat. While Hollywood the Democrat is still deeply marked by the victory of Donald Trump and the rise of the extreme right in the United States, this could well be the purpose of Mrs. America , a series broadcast since April 16 on Canal + Séries, which explores the figure of feminist activist Phyllis Schlafly, played with wonderful coolness by Cate Blanchett. Phyllis Schlafly fought in the 1970s to prevent ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. And she succeeded, in the face and in the beard of a movement yet powerful, which took a long time to realize the danger.
The interest of the series is also to show the variety of part of the feminist movement. Figures recognized as Betty Friedan, who wrote a major work in the history of feminism, The Mystified Woman , and whose series shows the declining star during these years. Popular like Gloria Steinem, journalist founder of Ms. Magazine and author of a recent My life on the road , who here learns the harsh reality of political combat. But also forgotten, erased, like Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress in 1968, candidate for the democratic nomination for the 1972 American presidential election, played with passion and determination by actress Uzo Aduba.
Similarities with Donald Trump
But it is the brilliant and twisted figure of Phyllis Schlafly who is at the center of this story, claiming that women are "made to bear children" and that feminists "hate life". However, the activist was not very happy at the start with the idea of getting involved against the women's liberation movement. But since her husband refuses her the right to expatriate to Washington DC, and her party gives her little credit on nuclear deterrence issues, which interest her more, the very right-wing author will feel that there has a place to be if it wins the battle against ERA.
And for that, she does not hesitate to lie, claiming that feminists want men and women to be the same or that they demand unisex toilets, which was perfectly false. "It was a common practice, when she was given figures that contradicted what she said, she dared to say that she was just a simple housewife," says Judith Ezekiel, professor emeritus in feminist studies and African American women. A common point with Donald Trump, who also qualified Schlafly as heroin at the time of his death.
Mrs. America , a metaphor for talking about today? Certainly for Judith Ezekiel. "There is a direct thread between 1972 and the current state," she told us by phone, confined to Ohio, a state where fervor for Donald Trump manifested very early. “In 1972, the movement cared very little about ERA, we believed that it was going to pass and that it was not the most important question. Few people saw the rise of this extreme right, we thought it was a hint of the past, we did not think it was a breach that would lead to the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 ... “Continues the researcher. A blindness which suffered also the American left, at the time of the rise to power of Donald Trump ...
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- Cate blanchett
- Feminism
- Discrimination
- Culture
- Canal Plus