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The "Mrs. America" project was launched in 2015, during the 2016 US election campaign. The producers and screenwriters envisioned that, at a point in history when the first female president was elected, it would be a wonderful historical echo to introduce a story of a female politician who had historically opposed women's equal rights with men.
The representative of the Liberal Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, has always supported the feminist movement, and has publicly declared that she will not choose to "stay at home and bake cookies" or simply "stand by her husband"; this statement has angered many housewives and conservatives, and These people are the main force of Phyllis Schlafly, the protagonist of "Mrs. America".
Ironically, however, history repeats itself again, beyond the expectations of left-wing liberal Hollywood, and the election of conservative Trump. Under the shock, the production team felt that the appearance of this series was more necessary, because "Mrs. America" is very important. It vividly shows the failure process of the ERA in the 1970s, what kind of "political legacy" was left, and how it has long-term affected the current social map.
Very "wonderful" historical echo
The failure of the ERA and the failure of Hillary Clinton are indeed very wonderful historical echoes: after half a century, the liberal elite twice lost to their own Pride and Prejudice. In the first episode of "Mrs. America", representatives of the feminist movement celebrate together in the office that the ERA has been approved by 30 states, raise a glass to celebrate "We have achieved so much in just one year", and look down on the table "Schlafly Tabloid" - This arrogance makes the liberal elite, accustomed to mocking conservatives, ignore this stubborn and hugely populated conservative force.
However, even after experiencing the third wave of feminist movements led by third world women, queer groups, and minority women, we are surprised to find that this "pride and prejudice" has never changed: the 2016 The presidential election declared the bankruptcy of the long-held elitist stance of the liberals, and Trump finally won the election and became president of the United States against the backdrop of polls showing Hillary Clinton ahead.
This wonderful (and difficult) echo of history is vividly and delicately displayed in "Mrs. America": the "equal rights" ideas promoted by elites for a long time are difficult to convince ordinary people, and even conservatives (housewives) in turn. Feeling degraded, offended and deprived of one's own identity, this pent-up dissatisfaction and anger kept accumulating, and finally pierced the liberal elite's illusion of ideal politics.
A feminist's anti-feminist appeal
Beautiful, delicate, master of law, good at using political power, expressing her political demands clearly... Phyllis Schlafly should be an advanced feminist representative, but she is an anti-feminist icon.
Missouri, where Phyllis was born, is a conservative Catholic state, and Phyllis grew up as a staunch conservative and fanatical right-winger. Oppose the legalization of abortion.
I don't feel discriminated against, I feel like some women always blame sexism for their failures instead of admitting they didn't try hard enough. —Phyllis Schlafly
A fun fact: In 2009, the eldest son who was in charge of managing Phyllis's foundation was discovered by the media to be gay (this has been explained at the beginning of episode 3 of "Mrs. America"), but Phyllis still said to the media: Impossible, my Like me, my son doesn’t support same-sex marriage. Those are fake news—the term “Fake news” is exactly the same as Trump. Phyllis really deserves to be the Republican predecessor who endorsed Trump’s platform before his death.
Phyllis is a victim of the marriage system and the rules of patriarchal society, but she is also a vested interest : if the ERA passes, she will lose the oppression and restrictions of patriarchy, but also the protection and support of patriarchy; she Couldn't support myself and my mom (at least Phyllis thought so). Although Phyllis's views on nuclear issues and war have been affirmed by many people, she has never actually participated in the discussion of nuclear issues in her life; she has been anti-feminist all her life and changed the course of the feminist movement, but the highest praise she received It was "an infantryman in Reagan's barracks".
However, what is even more ironic is that Phyllis leads housewives to the political stage to express their demands. She runs the anti-ERA organization "EAGLE" and even participates in elections. These are actually very feminist behaviors; moreover, following the core members of Phyllis They have gradually grown from unconfident housewives to regained confidence and strategizing working women, all of which have a very "feminist" core, and are also recognized by feminists - in fact, Phyllis's anti-feminist The organization is actually more "feminist" than the liberal feminist organization, because when the liberals are still considering whether to rely on male politicians and use the votes of female candidates to play the game, Phyllis has led an all-female team, wielding the women's movement The banner is chanting women's own demands - to a certain extent, Phyllis Schlafly may know better than liberal elites that to defend women's "rights", women can only rely on their own strength.
Stigmatizing feminism, conservative sophistry
Phyllis was able to leverage the army of housewives who had no interest in politics at the time, using a sophistry: stigmatizing women's rights. She declared to these conservative women that "feminism is to let your husbands leave you", "feminism is to let your daughters die in battle", and "feminism is a group of women who can't get a happy marriage by themselves. pulled into the same quagmire"...
"Defining" women's rights first, then attacking her own definition of "women's rights" - this is Phyllis at its best, because she subtly harnessed the power of the then humble housewives and their fear of losing their breadwinner , exploiting the contempt of housewives in front of feminists, women's fear of war, and conservatives, especially religious people, against legalizing same-sex marriage.
Feminism, as defined by Phyllis, does not actually cause feminists to panic: what she calls "feminism cannot be married" is exactly what Gloria hopes (many feminists actually have happy families with their daughters) Participating in a rally), she said that her daughter would die in battle, and Betty asked back on the spot, "Isn't losing a daughter the same as losing a son?" She said that losing a financial support is even more irrelevant for working women - Phyllis's words can The threat is only to conservative traditional women, and it is to the "right audience" that she makes these points.
Meanwhile, "Mrs. America" shows the dilemma of conservative women through Eleanor Schlafly. Eleanor, Phyllis's husband's sister, is over forty but still unmarried. When Phyllis wanted to find a divorced man for Eleanor, he was opposed by her husband Fred, because Fred, a successful man, "matched his heart" and decided that the divorced man looked down on his "old maiden" sister, even though Eleanor still Much younger than that man.
Coincidentally, there is a very similar plot in "Parents' Love": when An Jie was connecting Dehua and Laoding, he was also opposed by her husband Jiang Defu, a man from Shandong, China, and a conservative lawyer on the other side of the ocean, Fred, Almost at the same time in history, they made the same judgment. They all believed that their own sisters, as "older leftover women", had been seriously devalued in the marriage and love market, and were not even worthy of an older divorced/widowed man. (Interested friends can search for " Buddha 4 " in lychee/podcasts/small universe, and listen to our open mic for "Parents Love")
In the name of liberalism, break down the "liberal prejudice"
Cate Blanchett revealed in an interview that her mother once asked her: "How can you play such a role?" At that time, the big devil replied: "Because you just asked me this question, I want to know What a person she is."
Rather than portraying Phyllis Schlafly as a villain, "Mrs. America" presents her contradictions and complexities—and the character is real because of it. As a feminist, even if I have a pre-set position before watching the show, it is difficult for me to hate Phyllis when I actually watch it.
Thanks to the superb and accurate interpretation of the great devil, Phyllis presented in front of us is a full-fledged character who is brave, intelligent, strong, suffering, and entangled: I can't agree with her point of view, but I can see her clearly These views do have their growth and development of the soil. The traditional family values that Phyllis believes in and implements are not deliberately misinterpreted or dwarfed in the play. What we see is a happy family; but at the same time, we also see the real dilemma in her life, This kind of embarrassment is still commonly faced by traditional housewives in the past and even now.
"Mrs. America" isn't whitewashing the antihero either. It's not the kind we see in Maleficent, where a traditional villain is actually a member of a soft-hearted underdog, nor is it like Arthur in The Joker who takes advantage of the protagonist's suffering and flaws to Build personal charisma - while creating anti-heroic characters, these films also emphasize a stubborn and unified view of right and wrong, that is, no one will actively choose "evil" - this unified view of right and wrong is a kind of "Liberal Bias". Just as feminists rose up to attack Papi Jiang, it was to criticize her behavior that was inconsistent with the "feminist symbol" with liberal bias. Although they are under the banner of advanced feminist consciousness, their behavior is to besiege women's free choice, and to act "prejudice" in the name of "liberalism".
On the contrary to all of these, "Mrs. America" shows a very complex reality. In this complex reality, even Phyllis himself is deeply in the dilemma of "evil", but he still actively chooses "evil". This shows how strongly "liberal prejudice" this way of looking at "evil" is.
In recent years, each of us can feel populism and nationalism on the rise, racism is fighting back, patriarchy is fighting back, liberals have continued to be suppressed by conservatives, and scolding on various online platforms has intensified. Bai's speech environment spread rapidly around the world.
It is against this global background that "Mrs. America" was launched as an anti-feminist work, vividly depicting that under such a seemingly big issue, each character has its own real flaws and complexities. It is difficult for us to make a simple black-and-white judgment, which leads to reflection on "black-and-white"-this is the most valuable part of "Mrs. America " .
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