Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Mrs America

21 replies

JellySlice · 09/07/2020 17:32

Did anybody watch this?

OP posts:
HollowTalk · 09/07/2020 17:38

Yes, I did. What did you think of it?

It reminded me that, when I was young, it was seen as a "nice" thing if women didn't believe in women's liberation. The comment made by Cate Blanchett about feminists being women who couldn't get a man to marry them was certainly one I'd heard when I was young. I know my mum used to justify herself getting much lower wages for the same (teaching) job as my dad, even though she had higher qualifications than him. Even now she will justify unequal salaries - men need to keep a family, women work for a bit of extra money - that sort of thing.

There was a hell of a lot of cognitive dissonance going on in the homemakers' minds last night, didn't you think?

JellySlice · 09/07/2020 17:57

I haven't actually seen it. I saw a listing for it just now, and wondered whether it was worth catching up on.

OP posts:
HollowTalk · 09/07/2020 18:00

I enjoyed it. It made me realise I'd never spelled Betty Friedan's name properly, too! It was good to see all those activists like Gloria Steinem, too. It made me realise how little has been done on film about that wave of feminism.

Floisme · 09/07/2020 18:19

It's a fascinating period and about time it had some coverage.
I've only watched the first episode (recorded the second).

I didn't think it covered the actual politics very well. I came away still unclear about what the Equal Rights ammendment actually was and what it meant.

Cate Blanchett was very good I thought, and her character was satisfyingly complex: a conservative wife and mother, sharp as a tack, ambitious. Although we'd have crossed swords, I liked her and I thought Gloria Steinham, Betty Friedan et al patronised her at their peril. I don't know if this is an accurate portrayal but it was believable.

Good to see Jeanne Tripplehorn on a screen again - I hadn't seen her since Basic Instinct.

CaptainCorellisPangolin · 09/07/2020 18:26

I watched the first two... And then another three episodes on iPlayer. Am loving it.

With regard to "But Gloria Steinem's quite pretty, she could easily get a man to marry her." I've heard terrifyingly similar stuff from young women even in the last few years. Not necessarily about Gloria Steinem, but people still seem convinced that Feminists are just angry because men don't like them.

veryvery · 09/07/2020 18:44

I think it was interesting on how the arguments were polarised.

I think it was understandable that the privileged middle class housewives and mothers were genuinely worried about losing a way of life which served them well enough. They had servants, help with running the house and looking after the children and had some protection in law with regard to divorce and alimony payments. They were probably very fearful of being drafted with regard to the very recent Vietnam war. I could see how the 'equal rights' which were being fought for were less relevant to them.

Not to say that a woman in a different situation would not, justifiably, feel very differently. If you were a single mother, or just single or widowed or stuck in an awful marriage or in a low income family 'equal rights' would mean a whole lot more. Literally a life saver.

I think feminism, still, is polarised, unfortunately. Now, still, any work, that is seen as that which is traditionally stereotypically 'woman's work' is still undervalued. If it is paid, the pay is comparatively low, if done for free it is generally not respected. (A point which was touched on in the series where the woman who was a housewife was not asked to speak at all about what she did). And here on MN this is reflected by the sniping that occurs within just about every SAHM versus WOHM threads.

XXSex · 09/07/2020 19:22

Is it suitable for children? 13 years old.

xsquared · 09/07/2020 19:39

I'm intrigued by this and will watch this next.

Good to see Jeanne Tripplehorn on a screen again - I hadn't seen her since Basic Instinct.

She was also in Sliding Doors as the OW and Mickey Blue Eyes as Hugh Grant's love interest, which were both after Basic Instinct.

Deliriumoftheendless · 09/07/2020 19:42

Can anyone remember a TV drama about 70s feminism - possibly about Spare Rib? Quite a while ago? It’s really bugging me.

Floisme · 09/07/2020 20:07

She was also in Sliding Doors as the OW and Mickey Blue Eyes as Hugh Grant's love interest, which were both after Basic Instinct.
Ah right, but they were during my lost years when I couldn't stay awake for a whole film.

Delirium I do vaguely - it was fictionalised but one of the characters was clearly meant to be Germaine Greer?

XX The first episode featured a sex scene but it wasn't explicit (at least not as I remember). Not watched beyond that but as it was screened after 9.00 and it deals with a time of growing sexual liberation I guess there could be more.

veryvery · 09/07/2020 20:10

Is this the series, Delirium?

Seen 'Big Women'? Watch it here on All 4:

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/big-women?cntsrc=socialshareeiosbiggwomen

Deliriumoftheendless · 09/07/2020 20:16

Ah! That’s probably it- will have to check it out properly but we’ll done!

Deliriumoftheendless · 09/07/2020 20:16

Well done stupid phone!

veryvery · 09/07/2020 20:19

No problem, I remember watching it a few years ago when it was first on the channel 4 player.Smile

pearlkent · 09/07/2020 20:22

I don't recall the series Delirium is asking about, but this thread has reminded me that I keep meaning to ask if anyone remembers a 1980s programme called 'Watch the Woman'?
It was on Channel 4 I think and was hosted by Jenny someone (not Jenny Eclair), sort of a magazine-style feminist programme. I was in my 20s at the time and I really enjoyed it - I even sent off for the t-shirt (grey with turquoise writing).

Also, I remember seeing the film of The Women's Room around the same time, after reading the book.

Wish these types of programmes/films were made these days...

HarryHarry · 09/07/2020 20:26

I haven’t seen it but from reading about it, it sounds very interesting. The title character had a very successful career in her own right as well as having 6 children and (unsuccessfully) running for Congress. She disagreed with feminism because she thought women wanted to blame sex-based oppression and inequality for their “failures” when they simply hadn’t tried hard enough, but she also just saw fighting against it as a way to carve out a niche for herself in politics. She sounds fascinating.

I was watching Douglas Murray on something (I’d never heard of him until today) and he said something about how everybody in our society is aiming downwards, as in we all want to claim oppression and victimhood, and we all like to be outraged and offended and insulted, which I found quite thought provoking. Even if the Mrs America character was wrong, she was at least more optimistic and positive about being a woman than we are today!

Wauden · 09/07/2020 20:38

It's very good! I thought that the acting by everyone was very good indeed. Gobsmacked at how manipulative Phyllis was and how it worked, eg the part where she and team handed out home made bread loaves! Exasperating that the trick turned the vote against the ERA.

For such an intelligent person, she has some massive blind spots, inc that women need to stay at home to do the housework whereas she has a full time maid, at least! And slagged off her friend for being single, as if it's a disease.

Agree that I could have had some explanation of what the ERA proposed.

OMG it is so recent.

transdimensional · 09/07/2020 22:51

@XXSex

Is it suitable for children? 13 years old.
I've only seen the first episode so far, but from what I've seen so far, we'd let our 13-year-old see it if he was interested, which he's not. On iPlayer it said it might be unsuitable for under-16s, but the only thing in the first episode was one f-word, and he already knows that word anyway, plus it occurs in 12A films. At www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/mrs-america they say age 15 but that's erring on the conservative side I think.
stumbledin · 09/07/2020 23:10

There was a thread about this on FWR www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3962192-Mrs-America-US-womens-liberation-history-or-a-period-drama-that-denies-a-movement-and-elevates-individuals which I hoped would be more about the politics.

And there is one on telly addicts more about the drama (and politics!) www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/3962625-Mrs-America

MyPersona · 10/07/2020 08:15

I’m really enjoying it, also interesting in the context of women’s rights in America even now.

@XXSex I don’t think so, not 13. It comes with a caution for sex and language. It’s a pity because there’s an excellent teaching opportunity on consent in the first episode where Phyllis eventually lets her husband have sex with her when she doesn’t want to because he just won’t respect her saying no.

Angryresister · 10/07/2020 11:00

It was clear that Phyllis was a clever ,steely woman , impressive in her networking and organising skills , prepared to put in the woman hours stuffing envelopes. She could not acknowledge the dissonance in what she achieved versus the more general women’s liberation movement. She seemed to be aware of how she as a women was treated both in the personal and political . The workers she employed in comparison to a movement that included figures like Shirley Chisholm and Angela Davis, was telling.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.