On Women’s Equality Day, actor Parvathy Thiruvothu took to social media to recommend a show to her fans. The actor recommended Mrs America, a series airing on OTT platform Hotstar as the first of many recommendations she plans to give as part of her hashtag #WatchWithMeWednesdays.
Mrs America, starring Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Uzo Aduba and others, is a mini TV series and a dramatised version of the political movement for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the United States in the 1970s.
It follows two factions of women and each episode highlights a particular person or movement in history. While one of the factions is fighting to get the ERA approved, which would grant equal rights to women and men in the Constitution, the other faction of conservatives are seen opposing this amendment.
The latter faction offers Mrs America its most pivotal character in the form of Phyllis Schlafly, deftly portrayed by Cate Blanchett. Schlafly is an anti-feminist figure who leads to the ‘Stop ERA’ and who sees the movement as a threat to the lives of suburban homemakers. The pro ERA camp is represented by well-known figures of the Women's Liberation Movement, such as activists Gloria Steinem (played by Rose Byrne), former Congresswoman Bella Abzug (Margo Martindale) and politician Shirley Chisholm (Uzo Aduba), who became the first Black woman elected to the US Congress and the first Black candidate for a major party's presidential nomination.
Posting a long caption on Instagram, Parvathy wrote, “Gloria Steinem once said “Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That's their natural and first weapon. She will need her sisterhood.”
Coinciding well with Women’s Equality Day today is #WatchWithMeWednesdays and I urge you to start watching this phenomenal show called “Mrs.America”!
This show is loosely based on the movement that rose in the 1970s to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The uncanny similarities to the story unfolding right before and around me left me spellbound!
This story is a great reminder of the fact that the future lies entirely on what we choose to do each and every day, and what happens when we don’t choose to be on the right side of the history; Of what happens when you let the patriarchal powers play you against one another well enough to keep you shackled. Of how no matter what, the force of the movement shall never stop! There is so much to unlearn, to be able to rebuild a better world!
Brilliantly written and executed with such stellar and gripping performances, this show is on my encore list forever!!”
The show, produced by FX, is created and co-written by Davhi Waller and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Janicza Bravo, Janicza Bravo and Amma Asante.