Phyllis Schlafly, the conservative activist who died not four years ago, is already getting her own TV show. That sounds exciting, except it’s just a chance for Hollywood to portray her as the devil.
Schlafly may not have been right about all things, but she was right about one thing: Women in America don’t need the Equal Rights Amendment. In FX’s new show Mrs. America, that will just be one more reason to vilify her.
The Equal Rights Amendment, which Congress passed in 1972 and 35 of the necessary 38 states ratified before the 1982 deadline for enactment, would ensure that men and women are seen equally under the law: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”
That sounds pretty progressive, but it could have far-reaching effects that have nothing to do with “equality.”
The ERA wouldn’t just prevent women from being discriminated against, which is primarily the job of the 14th Amendment. The ERA would mean men couldn’t be discriminated against, and that will look less like the equality feminists hoped for and more like a giant step back.
If the Equal Rights Amendment is passed, the U.S. could draft women into combat and send them to the front lines just as men are, workplaces may no longer make accommodations for pregnant women, and all preferential treatment for women could disappear in the name of equality.
The amendment would also check off a few boxes on the liberal wish list. It could “codify Roe v. Wade,” something Democratic candidates have been promising to do, and make bathrooms, jails, and homeless shelters gender-neutral.
Fortunately, the now-expired ERA will face an uphill legal battle, even if it is finally ratified by Virginia this year. The amendment won’t be codified by the federal government any time soon, which is why feminists, Hollywood, and Schlafly haters will keep telling you that it’s really just about equality and that it’s incomprehensible that it was never enshrined in the Constitution decades ago.
But even conservatives who, unlike Schlafly, never made outlandish comments about the atomic bomb being “a marvelous gift that was given to our country by a wise God” oppose the Equal Rights Amendment. In all likelihood, they, too, will be portrayed as villains in Mrs. America.
Hollywood has little interest in telling the truth about conservatives, especially Schlafly. In the latest season of the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, characters call Schlafly a “monster” and “Satan.” The brief subplot involving her seems intended only to virtue signal, and it even peddled in what PJ Media called a “debunked anti-Semitism smear” against her.
When Mrs. America premiers on April 15, it may treat Schlafly more fairly. Perhaps it will also show understanding toward her fellow conservatives.
But if the trailer is any indication, you shouldn’t hold your breath.
