S01.E08: Houston

[ElectricBoogaloo]

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Alice, Rosemary and Pamela cross into enemy territory at the National Women's Conference in Houston, where they come face to face with feminist leaders.

Promo:

Original air date: 5/20/20

[Roseanna]

Well, Alice really experienced awakening. After failing in the TV interview because she had only learned to repeat Phyllis' words without checking information and thinking through herself, she met women of different ideas face to face and, although first horrified that a religious older woman was a lesbian, began to question why their group must oppose all demands of feminists when they in fact approve some (like working). Why wouldn't one seek for a common ground? That's a really basic revelation: no society can function without it. 

The best (and most hilarious) part was Alice singing "This land is your land, this land is my land". This song is remarkable because it completely lacks nationalistic pride and instead speaks of sceneries and thus includes all.

It was really horrible to see that Alice's friend couldn't book a flight ticket because his husband controlled all money, couldn't travel to a other state without her husband's permission and most of all, didn't have enough physical and/or mental resources to have "another baby". Phyllis completely ignores that there are real problems, and great ones, even among materially well-to-do suburban wives. 

Phyllis becomes more horrible in every episode. She is a typical queen bee who can't help to put down other women ("you must fix your make-up"). Not to speak of ignoring the facts when they don't suit to her agenda (the gallups were just wrong, she didn't bother to explain why). 

Instead, Gloria Steinem behaved quite nicely, not only complimating Alice for the color of her dress and ignoring her stained eye make-up) but letting all groups to say equally their own grievances and ideas. And Betty Friedan rose above her prejudices by speaking against the discrimination of the lesbians because that was against their constitutional rights.    

[teddysmom]

I loved this episode.  I knew the older woman would end up being pro ERA.

Sarah Paulson is such a good actress, she just nails this part. Her awakening to the fact that the ERA was not going to hurt women, but help them.  Valium and booze, not a great idea. 

I had to listen to Marc Maron podcast with Cate, I was really starting to hate her, she's so good as Phyllis. 

 

[Night Cheese]

I loved this episode! I don't know if the show gets better with every episode or I just love it more and more with each hour I get to spend with it. For a series that is filled to the brim with powerhouse actors, getting to see so many of them carry their own 50+ minutes has been a delight. I feel like I've learned so much about the real women portrayed in this series (I surprisingly had never even heard of Phyllis Schlafly before), and am happy to know more about even the minor players from this era. 

Early on I suspected there would be a storyline about one of the stop ERA women seeing the light and switching sides and I was very much unsurprised that is was Sarah Paulson's character. I loved her walking hazily through the convention center, stumbling upon just about every faction of women that the stop ERA women love to loathe. I jokingly said "I wonder if she ends up sitting around and getting stoned with someone" and laughed when she accidentally grabbed the hash brownie. Then I cringed at the thought of hash edibles on top of gin drinks and valium. Sleeping in until noon seemed about right after all that. I wonder if they will revisit the other woman not wanting to have another child because Alice being a devout catholic is not only strictly pro-life, but presumably anti-birth control. Or maybe that little scene was just meant to show that she was a woman supporting another woman, like so many of the other women in the convention hall. Whether it's revisited or not, it was a touching moment and decidedly un-Phyllis-like.

I'm sad that next week's episode is the last (and perhaps even more sad because I know the outcome and where we stand now forty years later), but am looking forward to binging all the episodes and taking in anything that I may have missed before.

[bmoore4026]

Well, Sarah Paulson finally gets to shine this episode.  I loved how repulsed she acted toward the woman at the bar who revealed that she was for the ERA when just seconds before they were laughing and talking about their lives.

Alice thought she was Phyllis' protege when it was Rosemary who became the ruthless one.  Well, she always was ruthless but she's not hiding it anymore.

Alice's breakdown/bonding with the ERA women was an amazing sequence.  God, how many hours was she out that night?  All the activities she did.  Wasn't expecting a nun to be there on the ERA side.  That surprised me.

Also, I read somewhere that lavender balloons dropped from the ceiling when Freidan said she wasn't going to stand in the way of the sexual preference item.  Why didn't they do that?

Seeing the ERA women so jubilant, so assured in their victory at the end made me sad.  All those buses of Evangelicals coming and Phyllis there to great them like Darth Freaking Vader.  I know Alice is just a fictional character, but I hope she turns on Phyllis in the final episode.

I'm dreading the final episode because we all know what's going to happen.  But this isn't a story with a happy ending.  This is history.  And I'm going to watch anyway.

Edited May 21, 2020 by bmoore4026

[Roseanna]

17 hours ago, teddysmom said:

Valium and booze, not a great idea. 

And "Pink Angel"!

I start to wonder how many of those "happy" housewives were drinking in secret. 

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

4 hours ago, Roseanna said:

And "Pink Angel"!

I'm pretty sure the drink the ordered was a Pink Lady. But yeah, hearing her talk about how her husband said a few drinks to smooth down the edges was the way to go made me think about how many functioning alcoholics there were back then. 

[BrownBear2012]

Each week we are privy to the one of the best ensemble casts to grace our television sets...every actor nails it in their particular role. Alice watching the group of women with Gloria Steinem talking over strategy and agenda with Gloria going around the circle asking each woman if they approve was enlightening to her. Phyllis Schafly just gives commands and barks orders...no one dare question her or offer alternatives without being admonished in a passive aggressive way. Anyone else notice the Confederate flag flying when the bus unloaded with Phyliss and her evangelical disciples?

[IndyMischa]

7 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I'm pretty sure the drink the ordered was a Pink Lady. But yeah, hearing her talk about how her husband said a few drinks to smooth down the edges was the way to go made me think about how many functioning alcoholics there were back then. 

I thought it was a Pink Hawaiian? But maybe I just need a vacation! 😂 

[tennisgurl]

They could have called this one Alice in Wonderland, with Alice on this often surreal journey through this seemingly magical world where nothing makes sense to her. I called Alice jumping ship from Phyllis and the Stop ERA movement awhile ago, so seeing it all play out here was great to watch. Coming face to face with the "evil lesbian commies" that she has been fighting against, and realizing that they are actually fighting for things that she can get behind, can be very nice and friendly people, that many of them are truly hurt by what the anti ERA women have said, have people not unlike her among their ranks (I totally knew that the Christian lady she was chatting with at the bar would turn out to be Pro ERA) and are really making some valid points about problems women are having, its all making her rethink things. Why are they even fighting the ERA anyway? What is this even all about, Alice? God I hope she tells Phyllis to shove it next week. 

I mean, even Woody Guthrie is a socialist! Come on Alice, this land is your land, this land is my land? I even felt rather bad for Alice during that interview, and while a part of me is always happy to see someone who is clearly talking out of their ass taken down, she just looked so miserable, like a lilac deer in headlights, and Phyllis and the other women were so cruel to her, she was just so unprepared, its obvious that she has just been puppeting what Phyllis has been saying, and when someone asks her what she thinks, she just falls apart. Poor Pamela, it sounds like she has a really terrible situation at home, she cant even cross state lines without her husbands permission, and the increased sympathy Alice showed her was really sweet. 

Plus, Phyllis is showing her true colors, a petty mean girl who likes to feel like the smartest person in the room, even if it means tearing other women, even her own friends and family, down. 

It was also fun seeing so many characters back again, even if it was just for a scene or two, and seeing them from the point of view of this sort of everywoman. Phyllis is this larger than life intimidating shadowy figure, Gloria is a glamorous celebrity, Bella is a tough and deeply intimidating overlord, its like "oh yeah, these people are super well known personalities." 

[Roseanna]

8 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Plus, Phyllis is showing her true colors, a petty mean girl who likes to feel like the smartest person in the room, even if it means tearing other women, even her own friends and family, down. 

It's probably due compensation. Phyllis does to other women what men have constantly done to her although men's tactic is mainly just ignore her. Which isn't actually surprising because she isn't only highly intelligent but hopelessly limited by her ideology and can only think inside the box (the Communists are totally evil, so no agreements even about nuclear arms limitation aren't possible).  

Although I don't like Phyllis, I find her a fascinating character because snubs she has experienced from men with less intelligence but still in positions of power could have made her another Betty. Why did she not? Some of the reasons may be that she is totally ignorant of her true motives and especially anger inside her whereas Betty began to analyse why educated women like her aren't contented as full-time housewives in suburbs. On the basis of what we have seen earlier, Betty isn't a "nice" person and but that doesn't lessen her achievement: her book help many women to start to seek for a life of their own choosing.    

 

[Snewtsie]

20 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Phyllis is showing her true colors, a petty mean girl who likes to feel like the smartest person in the room, even if it means tearing other women, even her own friends and family, down. 

I'm divorced now, by my husband's mother was a replica of Phyllis. Everything, not just the smug condescending attitude but also the hair, the clothes, the home decor, even the exact clock in the kitchen area. This show has been chilling for me to watch, especially with the parallel of knowing "a real-life Phyllis" who was a part of the Stop ERA movement. I now see she modeled herself after Phyllis. Your description of her could not be more spot on - a very petty mean girl who gets her power by tearing down others.  God, I'm so glad to be divorced now....  I'm sorry, I know that was my own personal tangent. I just felt the need to share.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Eucharist

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

What’s Fact and What’s Fiction in Mrs. America Episode 8

[txhorns79]

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They could have called this one Alice in Wonderland, with Alice on this often surreal journey through this seemingly magical world where nothing makes sense to her.

I was mixed on the episode.  I thought they spent way too much time on a fictional character's drug induced enlightenment, when the time could have been better focused on the conference itself.   

I did like seeing the contrast between Phyllis' and Gloria's leadership styles.  I also kind of enjoyed Rosemary just openly being a bitch about sharing rooms.  I loved her claim that she couldn't share a bed because she slept "t-style."  It may have just been the acting, but it made me laugh because I think everyone knows someone like that.       

[MoreCoffeePlease]

I've never been the biggest Sarah Paulson fan, but I have always considered her an excellent actress. This episode shows why she has won multiple awards, and will keep winning. Wow. She was amazing. The range of emotion and the subtle changes to her face.

On the drive to Houston Alice took the wrong turn because the other lady said "Right" when she really meant "correct" ... I always make sure to say "correct" in that driving situation. 😉