JOIN US'Mrs. America' is a period piece about the present
One of Disney+ Hotstar’s recent imports is a show that could be called a period series about the present.
A proposed legislation in the early 1970s ensuring equal rights for American men and women is all set to create a new future.
Called the Equal Rights Amendment — with the apt acronym ERA — it has bipartisan support in both Houses, the approval of Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter, and seems to simply be a matter of common sense, when a conservative woman whips the housewives of the country into a panic that if the legislation is passed, their daughters are going to be drafted into the army and they will lose alimony and childcare. The fear is not based on logic, so it easily triumphs the truth.
The influence of this woman is so monumental that even in 2020, this law has not been passed.
'Mrs. America', with Cate Blanchett as its spectacular anti-heroine Phyllis Schlafly, is about both those who won and lost the battle, and the surprising ironies on either side. The title cards of the 9-episode show run against the tune of Walter Murphy's 'A Fifth of Beethoven', which is a disco instrumental rendering of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony -- a coming together of classism and modernity.
The voices on the conservative side are easier to count because the hierarchies are well in place. Only the voices of those at the top are heard; the voices from the bottom do not rise as the women keep pulling each other down like crabs in a bucket. The result is that the conservative side appears more ordered, and Phyllis gets to give the wrong impression that she speaks for all the Mmes of the country.
The liberal nest is cacophonic. Where every voice counts, there are too many to be counted; not to mention the fact that feminism itself is evolving. A decade ago, in the 60s, it was enough to speak for heterosexual women’s rights, a stand embodied in the person and writings of Betty Friedan, who wrote ‘The Feminine Mystique’. Those pioneers are feminists still, but they have had to pass on the title of ‘radical’. The next generation, Gloria Steinem’s, maybe more open to lesbian rights being treated as women’s rights, but sitting in one of New York’s East Side offices with outdoor carpeting, some of them do not see the privilege of being white.
‘Mrs. America’ skims gracefully around an easy mistake someone talking about the conservative-liberal divide could make: looking at the other side as brainwashed, foolish or both. Not that characters in the series do not indulge in this fallacy, just that the show doesn’t.
Much before her interest in the woman's place in society, Phyllis was a defence expert and a critic of Henry Kissinger. But being an expert in the area does not mean that men around her will not ask her to take notes as she “probably has the best penmanship”. She soon discovers her unique selling point: denying the rights the feminists are fighting for because the American family is a sacred institution. Her points resonate to this day: what the series does not mention is that Donald Trump had praised her commitment to family values in the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election; probably her last political gesture before her death that year was endorsing Trump.
However, the piece de resistance of ‘Mrs America’ is Phyllis’ transformation. From being asked to start a bakery, she becomes one of the most influential lobbyists in America, the sort of power the feminists would like women to have in the world. "Mr Phyllis Schlafly", as he painfully jokes at one point, unwittingly becomes a homemaker who has to get used to seeing people take the Mrs’ opinion more seriously.
But how does a woman of the world advocate that women stay at home with a straight face? The show says Phyllis did that by making sure the cracks are not visible to those watching. She privately dubs her son a pervert for being a homosexual; she alienates her daughter and namesake, who ends up changing her name; and she gets her sister-in-law, treated like a second-class person for being a spinster, to be a foster mother to her kids.
'Mrs America' is not unoptimistic, but it complicates the notion that history is a soothing progression from ignorance to wisdom. History is not a straight line but may do a few loop de loops on the way. In 2020, the fight for the ERA is back on track, but it remains to be seen if the spirit of Mrs Schlafly still haunts the US' democracy.