Mrs. America Review: Phyllis (Season 1 Episode 1)
On Mrs. America Season 1 Episode 1, “Phyllis,” Cate Blanchett takes on the titular role of the series and the premiere episode as Phyllis Schlafly begins her fight against the Equal Rights Amendment.
Our introduction to this main character encapsulates the crux of the feminist issue. We do not meet Phyllis, but rather “Mrs. J. Fred Schlafly” clad in a patriotic bikini, raising money for a white male candidate’s political campaign.
There is much more to Phyllis than this, we learn, but like all women, she can’t escape the pitfalls of misogyny just because she chooses to ignore it or excuse it.
Phil Crane (James Marsden), the politician she helped fundraise for, patronizes her, tells her to smile, and engages in inappropriate and unwanted touching. You can see that it bothers her, but she internalizes it, turning it into fuel for her support of the very thing that oppresses her.
Blanchett does a good job of expressing this, mostly with her eyes, conveying how Phyllis absorbs and processes these aggressions, and the contradictory nature of it all. It’s the kind of expressive subtlety that wins awards.
In the span of one scene, Phyllis says she has not experienced discrimination and then is told to take notes on the meeting in which she has the most knowledge out of any of the other men in the room. And she also makes sure to firmly correct the secretary when she mistakenly calls her Ms. Schlafly.
Phyllis: It’s Mrs. Schlafly. I’m married.
This is hard to watch in a two-prong kind of way—it’s awful that she is treated this way because she is a woman and it’s awful that she doesn’t see that she can push back against it. If this show wasn’t based on a real figure and true events, this could be the origin story of a bad ass women’s rights activist.
It’s rather tragic that the real story is the other way around.
Being dismissed or looked at as something trivial is a hallmark trait when one is on the receiving end of sexism, or any kind of prejudice for that matter. On Mrs. America Season 1 Episode 1, “Phyllis,” all parties are guilty of dismissing and trivializing certain groups.
Phyllis is dismissed for being a woman but she, in turn, trivializes the women’s issue, saying “I don’t know what all the fuss is about. I mean, there are so many more pressing issues, like national security.” The feminists first write off Phyllis’ opposition campaign as just some silly housewives making a fuss, and this becomes a major detriment to their cause.
Conflicting dualities like these come into play quite a bit, giving the weighty subject matter of feminism—with all its virtues and problems—a layer of complexity.
One sub-storyline deals with this in a personal way. Phyllis assures her sister-in-law, Eleanor (Jeanne Tripplehorn), that there is nothing wrong with being an older unmarried woman with no children.
She does a 180 at a women’s luncheon with Eleanor present, using that particular status to make jabs at Gloria Steinem (Rose Byrne).
Phyllis: Maybe that’s the liberationists’ goal, I mean, after all, their hero is Gloria Steinem, a single, childless woman nearing 40, but she is the sort of miserable, pathetic woman they aspire to be. She wants some kind of constitutional cure for her personal problems. And perhaps that is why the liberationists are trying to sow these seeds of discontent among we happily married women. They want us to join them in some new sisterhood of frustrated togetherness because none of them can find a man who wants to marry them.
This speech is chilling and Blanchett’s delivery is so good, but it’s the cuts to Eleanor in the audience that make it truly devastating. The hurt and embarrassment on her face as the other women cheer and laugh give it that emotional punch to the gut.
Mrs. America Season 1 Episode 1, “Phyllis,” is a strong kick-off to a powerful story that takes place in our own complicated history.
What did you think of this episode of Mrs. America? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Mrs. America airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on FX on Hulu.
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Erin Allen
Erin is a former script supervisor for film and television. She's an avid fan of middle aged actresses, dark dramas, and irreverent comedies. She loves to read actual books and X-Files fan fiction. Her other passions include pointing out feminist issues, shipping Mulder and Scully, and collecting pop culture mugs.