Free Republic

'Mrs. America' tries to paint Phyllis Schlafly as cold and unforgiving, but the conservative icon my grandmother and I knew was nothing of the sort. My grandmother was in a Daughters of the American Revolution Chapter with Phyllis Schlafly from 1965 to 1990. A few years before she died, I had the privilege to intern for Mrs. Schlafly. So, during quarantine, as we watched the FX series “Mrs. America” together, we became filled with growing frustration and disgust at seeing the woman we had known misrepresented and defamed. What is most striking about “Mrs. America,” however, is how little it...

As the inevitable, real-life defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment neared, Mrs. America focused on the made-up defection of a devoted conservative woman. It also used a host of negative characterizations against the same woman (Alice, played by Sarah Paulson). The next to last episode, “Houston,” was about the Women’s Convention that took place in 1977, but focused almost entirely on how the convention affected fictional characters Alice and Pamela, bringing them a kind of liberal enlightenment. By focusing mostly on Alice, who was not a real person, show creators were able to invent a story of her coming to...

Just as has happened in our economy dominated by finance capitalism, feminism brought outsized benefits to a few in exchange for the suffering of many. Starring Academy Award Winner Cate Blanchett as conservative firebrand Phyllis Schlafly, Hulu series “Mrs. America” has been getting awards buzz. While the writers are too skilled to give a one-dimensional portrayal of Schlafly, nonetheless the broader agenda of the show is clear: to anathematize Schlafly, build up the feminists who opposed her, and ultimately, to push for a new Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). “Mrs. America” is effective propaganda against Schlafly and conservative ideas because it...

Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly remains a heroine to many conservatives. Clearly, she is not to the makers of Mrs. America, which debuted on FX on Hulu Wednesday. From the start, Schlafly is shown pretending. She pastes a smile to walk a runway in a red, white and blue bikini at a Republican fundraiser. Once she’s safely facing backstage, the phony smile is dropped. Throughout the first three episodes, Cate Blanchett’s portrayal makes Schlafly seem intelligent, but also cold and desperate to have a voice in the male-dominated political universe. In multiple scenes she becomes annoyed when others try to...

Feminist matriarch Betty Friedan may have never actually called Phyllis Schlafly “The real wicked witch of the [women’s] movement,” but that’s certainly how Mrs. America is portraying Schlafly in the new series. In “Betty,” Wednesday's fourth episode of the FX on Hulu show, the fight between feminists and STOP ERA is raging in 1973, just after the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade. The feminists are so elated by the court ruling legalizing abortion, Friedan (played by Tracey Ullman) is the only one of who sees the grassroots conservative efforts as a growing threat. It’s a threat she’s determined...

When Betty Friedan’s book, “The Feminine Mystique,” was published in 1963, it outlined legitimate grievances of women feeling isolated and unfulfilled in their homes. Referring to the problem as “this nameless dissatisfaction for women,” the original manuscript for Friedan’s book did not mention abortion or contraception. Her book was passionate, and it inspired women, but it did not indict them for motherhood. Rather, Friedan called for this new brand of feminism to be a pro-family movement. Unfortunately, sexual liberation and misandry became the forefront of the movement, and this trend continues today. Women like Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown (who...

To Hollywood, Schlafly was either a confused victim suffering from a chronic case of Stockholm syndrome or a purely evil, power-hungry denigrator of women — or both. In Hulu’s recent biopic “Mrs. America,” the fourth episode of which was released Wednesday, Hollywood attempts to depict the two sides of the women’s liberation movement. This again only proves how much it misunderstands conservative women.The miniseries tells the story of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), highlighting high-profile female proponents and opponents. Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, and others are among the featured proponents, while Phyllis Schlafly and her band of activist...

My mother Phyllis Schlafly made quite a name for herself in the fight over the Equal Rights Amendment, but here are a few little-known facts about her. 1. She was painfully shy. It was easier for her to speak at a podium to a huge crowd than to engage in small-talk with one person. She spent her life trying to conquer her shyness. 2. She had a keen sense of humor and used humor to score debate points. She once sang “Bella’s Bunch is Coming to Town” to the tune of the Santa Claus version. 3. She recited the rosary...

Michelle Malkin thumps producers of new film demonizing conservative icon Anti-patriot hatred never rests. Hollywood has launched a new character assassination vehicle targeting the late great Phyllis Schlafly. "Mrs. America" debuts on FX on Hulu this week with liberal actress Cate Blanchett starring as the traditionalist Catholic conservative activist who defeated the so-called Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and went on to helm the influential Eagle Forum until her death at 92 in 2016. Blanchett, who also served as executive producer on the project, denies any bias against Schlafly and points to the entire movie staff's refusal to speak...

With the revived push for the Equal Rights Amendment has come a revived push to cast Phyllis Schlafly as a historical villain. These are revisionist efforts informed by ideological bias more than fact. With the revived push for the Equal Rights Amendment has come a revived push to cast Phyllis Schlafly as a historical villain. These are revisionist efforts informed by ideological bias more than fact. Enter “Mrs. America,” FX’s flashy new prestige offering starring Cate Blanchett as Schlafly. Last month, I interviewed Anne Schlafly Cori, daughter of the late conservative activist, about the six-episode series, which premieres on Hulu...

Unable to defeat Schlafly in life, cultural elites in Hollywood are now attacking her posthumously in the brazenly dishonest 'Mrs. America' series.> Liberal cultural elites have had it out for Phyllis Schlafly since she defeated the Equal Rights Amendment in 1979. Now, producers of the FX/Hulu series “Mrs. America” have hypocritically done to Schlafly exactly what the women’s liberation and Me Too movements complain “the patriarchy” does to women it cannot control: rape and defile them. The so-called Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA, was a perfect Hollywood cause. It allowed supporters to appear pro-woman, while Hollywood knew the amendment posed...

On Thursday FX released a trailer for its upcoming series on Hulu Mrs. America about conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly’s fight against radical feminists and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the 1970s. You can tell, based on the video and coverage of it, where sympathies are supposed to lie. When Cate Blanchett’s Schlafly character warns, “The Libbers [Women’s Liberation] want to create a sex-neutral, feminist, totalitarian nightmare,” audiences are meant to take it as a ridiculous joke instead of the astute prediction it truly was. In the preview, Schlafly is played as cold while the feminists are shown as cool....

Alleged spy Anya Chapman and dad Vasily Kushchenko worked for a high profile Russian PR firm. The 4 Vlast (the Forth power) is the owner of the Mrs. World-Russia brand. In fact Vasily Kushchenko is listed as contact person for the Mrs World-St. Petersburg edition of the pageant. The President of Mrs. America and Mrs. World pageant is an American: David Marmel. Here is what he said at a press-conference before the event in St Peterburg: I am Russian by origin; my father and mother were born in Russia. Although I grew up in America, I always felt like I...

TUCSON, Ariz. — A Mrs. America contestant from Tennessee spent about 15 hours in a hospital here after being bitten by a rattlesnake at a hotel. Christina Ryan of Franklin said she caught sight of a spider on an outside staircase at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort while walking to a rehearsal last Sunday morning for this weekend’s competition. She jumped away from it and a rattlesnake bit her right foot, just above her toe. As time went on, Ryan said the pain got worse. She spent about 15 hours in the hospital and received 10 vials of antivenin before being...

TUCSON, Ariz. -- They gulp chardonnay, eat cheeseburgers and fries, and stay up past 10 p.m. Sometimes they play dress up, and have pajama parties with champagne and strawberries. This is not your ordinary beauty pageant. The title of Mrs. America will go to one lucky housewife here tonight, and stick-thin, cello-playing, Vaseline-lipped, breast-taped babes need not apply. "We're all adults," Brenda Cullen -- Mrs. District of Columbia and the mother of six -- said over lunch. The 38-year-old petite blonde, who works as a personal trainer and is married to an internist/pediatrician in Washington, added, "You don't need a...