Issues@Hand

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Above, Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly

July 2020 – Mrs. America, a six-episode series on FX on Hulu, negatively portrays the late conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly and the long battle (1972-1982) she fought against passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, a federal amendment that would have had detrimental consequences for women and the nation.

Sandy Rios, host of AFR’s Sandy Rios in the Morning and personal friend of Schlafly, said the film has an “insidious and ignorant twist” on her character, making her appear “devious, manipulative, selfish … flirtatious when it suits her, ingenuine about her own family life, ambitious, and arrogant.”

In contrast, Rios described Schlafly as “feminine and gracious to the core,” with “fierce intellect and unflinching ability to see through confusion like a laser.”

Schlafly’s extensive work purifying and strengthening the conservative movement for decades before her death in 2016 earned her the unofficial title of “First Lady of Conservatism.”

afajournal.org, 2/17; afa.net, 4/21/20