#phyllis schlafly era

[antis-hero]

"[The Equal Rights Amendment] will prevent us forever from making reasonable differences between men and women based on factual differences in childbearing and physical strength. ERA will force upon us the rigid, unisex, gender-free mandate demanded by the women's liberation movement, and it will transfer the power to apply this mandate to the federal government and the federal courts, where average citizens have no control."

-Phyllis Schlafly

From The Power of the Positive Woman, 1977

[helloparkerrose]

[rugessnome]

wikipedia tab history

phyllis schlafly (🤮) -> bustier -> Einstein problem -> Shawnee

[historybizarre]

From today’s vantage point, many of the anti-feminist ideas Schlafly espoused sound extreme. But it’s worth thinking about why so many people found her message compelling.

In a 1991 paper, Susan E. Marshall looked at the popular support for Schlafly and other antifeminist activists over the previous two decades, starting with their successful fight against the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.... Schlafly’s Stop ERA project, which later transformed into the Eagle Forum, was an inseparable part of New Right ideology, which blended “traditional values,” economic individualism, and anticommunism.

[blacklezrage]

How do I get my friend to read rad leaning material without scaring her away? I’m 18, a lesbian, and she’s my only lesbian friend. I love her very much and want her to be happy with herself as a lesbian and young woman. Radfem content helped me when I was sexually assaulted and realize that being a woman isn’t a horrible curse. She feels estranged from womanhood and has grown to resent other women because of her experience with being bullied by them. In high school, she would be pushed out of the locker room by the straight girls bc they thought she would “perv out” on them. She’s lost friends when she came out, her mother is also very homophobic and has called her a dyke more than once and makes fun of her for not being as girly. She’s also very hateful towards her body because she thinks having a bigger chest makes her look sloppy, slutty, and saggy and has hinted at “chopping them off”. I remember feeling hateful towards by downstairs area because porn made me feel like my vagina was ugly because my labia wasn’t bleached pink and tiny. So I think rad leaning content would help, but she’s been reading more trans content which I think would harm her if she ever decided to chop her boobs off instead of learning that they don’t make her sloppy and that there’s nothing wrong with having breast that aren’t perky like in porn.

i was putting off answering this because to be honest, i'm still struggling to get my best friend to see the value of being a womon (and breaking up with her shitty bf), and i didn't want to give you bad advice, but i guess something is better than nothing

i'm not going to lie. my work with my friend has been less "here's this book to read" and more "why do you think you're feeling that way?" and "is this something you believe or is it something you feel people want you to believe?" the thing i think helped her the most was me creating a space where she can be away from men and can speak her mind without being afraid of being judged. also incredibly important was helping her start the healing process between her and her mom, but that isn't feasible with every womon obviously

she had absolutely no idea of any feminist history (and she and i are both usamericans), so before i recommended any books to her, i recommended her "Mrs. America," which is a single season show following the fight to ratify the ERA in the 70s. it features fictionalized versions of womyn like Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisolm, Gloria Steinem, and Phyllis Schlafly (renowned anti-feminist, but whoever wrote the show at least understood the gist of Right Wing Women). this helped her (a) realize how important the rights of womyn are and how easily they're taken away and (b) that (second-wave/radical) feminists weren't just a group a man-hating racist white ladies like everyone online claims

it wasn't until after all that that i recommended her the book Dietland by Sarai Walker. it's fictional, but in my opinion, it offers a great beginning into radfem ideology. it follows a fat womon who's waiting to live her life until she's skinny as a sort of coming-into-her-own story, but then it takes a turn into some wild (but very much connected) areas including:

womyn's separatism

exploring same-sex attraction

anti-porn activism

an anti-beauty book called "Fuckability Theory"

and a feminist terrorist group

she actually just borrowed my copy of Anita Diamant's The Red Tent (also fiction), which is a feminist retelling of Dinah, a character from biblical canon. i actually don't remember the book that well (only read it once) but i really enjoyed it, and i actually think that book made me want to go to womyn's land badly enough to actually go

one of the biggest books that helped me personally was Soraya Chemaly's Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger (i read that alongside Brittany Cooper's Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower which is more of a memoir, so i'd recommend Rage Becomes Her first). these were basically the first two rad-leaning (although Eloquent Rage isn't necessarily radical feminist) books i read and they lit a fire under me. they both helped me realize how much negative energy i was directing toward myself and helped me gain back my ability to speak up and be unafraid

Audre Lorde, imo, is essential lesbian reading, so i'd recommend Sister Outsider, as well. it's a collection of essays, so it's a great start into her works and worldview

i think Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie is also a good starting point (if she hasn't been indoctrinated to be afraid of her), but i've only read We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele (A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions)

i had a moment of courage and sent my friend a request on goodreads, and now whenever i'm reading a radfem text, she usually asks me about it and will sometimes add it to her reading list

i've definitely been where your friend has been, and i'm sorry to hear she's dealing with so much pressure... i think even more important than the books is for you to continue to support her and be there for her and listen to her, everything she says. help her stop apologizing, help her take up space, help her find her voice. make sure she knows that her unique experience/perspective matters. but also, don't be afraid to disagree with her. it may take being challenged for her to realize what she really believes

[betty-bourgeoisie]

I know this is very random, but could you talk about ERA and why it hasn’t been brought up again?? Like it’s 2023 and I’m so confused about it

Oh boy can I!

So the short answer is that constitutional amendments have time limits attached to their ratification. After the ERA passed through congress in the 70s they had 7 years to get three fourths of the states to ratify the amendment.

And they were on track to get all of those ratifications! Until Satan's evil twin, Phyllis Schlafly, decided to stick her nose in it and organize conservative housewives to protest the ERA.

It had been basically unopposed up until that point, but conservative women, along with many conservative politicians who were willing to use their protests as an excuse not to ratify, shut it down in a number of states and it missed its ratification deadline.

There's a push right now to remove the time limit on the ERA altogether and ratify the amendment, since a number of states ratified after the time limit was up. You can learn more about that here and here.

Honestly, I recommend watching the miniseries Mrs. America if you're interested in learning more about the history of the ERA. It's a fictionalized account of what happened, but it hits all of the important beats, and it's definitely more entertaining than an academic paper (and it has great cinematography!)

[t4tails]

who was going to tell me conservapedia was started by andrew schlafly aka phyllis schlafly #1 conservative housewife against the ERA's son 😭

[steelplatedhearts]

tonight I went to a christmas dinner with a woman who stealthily stuck an “ERA NOW!” sticker on Phyllis Schlafly’s back at the RNC in the 80’s, she’s my new hero

[eddysocs]

Mrs. America OC Masterlist

Name: Waverly Thorpe

Face Claim: Mimi Keene

Love Interest: Gloria Steinem

Fic Title: Woman's World

Plot Summary: Waverly Thorpe is every bit a feminist, yet she doesn’t see the point in going to rallies and protests when it all seems like such a colossal waste, the words of passionate and empowered women still falling on the deaf ears of the government. Then she attends a speech with a friend and it changes her life. To hear Gloria Steinem speak ignited the fight within her and she decided to actively join the movement. She even goes to track down Gloria after her speech and is subsequently welcomed onto her team, and into her life.

Name: Yvette Holcombe

Face Claim: Lynda Carter

Love Interest: Phyllis Schlafly

Fic Title: Lavender Haze

Plot Summary: A strong proponent of the ERA, Yvette Holcombe keeps most of her hard work behind the scenes. In fact, Yvette is almost like a spy of sorts. She gathers information from Phyllis Schlafly and her gaggle of housewives because she’s able to blend in, act just like she’s one of them, and none of them are the wiser. She can’t stand any of them, and Phyllis in particular irks her. So she digs. She digs through Phyllis Schlafly's life, trying to find…well, she doesn’t know what, but she knows there’s something she’s keeping buried. Something that will bring her down for good.

[musicalsiphonophore]

So we’re doing second-wave feminism in history

(Not in much detail, mind, but it interests me so I have been googling)

I really really REALLY despise - and I mean DESPISE, I rarely feel this strongly about people - Phyllis Schlafly.

more or less single handedly stopped ERA going through. (ERA sounds great to me and was so close to going through but she stopped it!!!!)

was very significant in initiating the modern conservative arguments of “traditional family values”

overall:

👎

[antis-hero]

"Section 2 [of the ERA] is a big grab for vast new federal power. It will take out of the hands of the state legislatures and transfer to Washington the last remaining piece of jurisdiction that the national politicians and bureaucrats haven't yet put their meddling fingers into. This means every type of law and regulation that pertains to differences between the sexes—including marriage, marriage property law, dower, inheritance, divorce, child custody, prison regulations, protective labor legislation, insurance rates, and abortion regulation—will become the province of the federal government. Why anyone would want to send the Washington politicians, bureaucrats, the judges all that new jurisdiction is difficult to understand. They cannot cope the problems they now have."

-Phyllis Schlafly

From The Power of the Positive Woman, 1977

[arcadianforests]

im going to preface this with i dont think that women, collectively, are more "responsible" for misogyny then men

but phyllis schlafly really put her whole pussy into bigotry, is probably the most influential misogynist of the modern era, and a great innovator in authoritarianism

and her achievements still are given to her male contemporaries like faldwell and reagan

[joanlattanzio]

The more distant” white women are “from the benefits of and investments in traditional heterosexual marriage, the less likely they are to support Republican presidential candidates,” i.e., candidates of the party more likely to support traditional white heteropatriarchy. It has long been true that some of the most energetic opponents of women’s political advancement have been . . . women. Back in the nineteenth century, anti-suffrage campaigns were led by women, and of course the campaign that defeated the ERA in 1982 was led by a woman, Phyllis Schlafly. This dynamic repeated itself in focus groups leading up to the 2016 election. Jessica Morales, a left-wing activist who worked for the Clinton campaign, remembered those groups. “In every focus group for two years basically, always white women, some college-educated, but most not, would say things [to us] like, ‘I’m not sure if my husband likes her. He’s gotta like her for me to vote for her.’ ‘It doesn’t really matter to me that she’s the first woman president.’ ‘Is it really that historic?’ A thing that people don’t realize is that we knew that non-college-educated white women were the problem.” Morales believed that these women were the crux. “It’s them basically deciding to be on our side and not be Phyllis Schlafly. And the answer is that of course we lost because these women have never chosen our side, ever. Never, ever, ever.

Good and Mad - Rebecca Traister

[claudia1829things]

Favorite Episodes of "MRS. AMERICA" (2020)

Below is a list of my favorite episodes from the FX/HULU limited series, "MRS. AMERICA". Created by Dahvi Waller, the series starred Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Emmy winner Uzo Aduba and Sarah Paulson:

FAVORITE EPISODES OF "MRS. AMERICA" (2020)

1. (1.08) "Houston" - Conservative housewives and activists Alice Macray, Rosemary Thomson and their young companion Pamela cross into enemy territory at the National Women's Conference in Houston, where they come face-to-face with feminist leaders.

2. (1.03) "Shirley" - Shirley Chisholm makes a historic run for United States President in the 1972 presidential elections, while fellow activist Gloria Steinem struggles to play politics at the Democratic National Convention in Miami. Conservative activist leader Phyllis Schlafly takes her new anti-ERA organization national.

3. (1.09) "Reagan" - Gloria, along with fellow feminist activists Bella Abzug and Jill Ruckelshaus put pressure on the White House to act on their proposals from the National Women's Conference. Phyllis prepares to leverage her political victories as the 1980 presidential election draws near.

4. (1.04) "Betty" - Author and mother of the modern feminist movement Betty Freidan makes it her personal mission to take down Phyllis in a public debate against the advice of her colleagues.

5. (1.05) "Phyllis & Fred & Brenda & Marc" - Married liberal activists Brenda and Marc Feigen-Fasteau come to terms with her pregnancy and experimentation with another woman, while debating traditional couple Fred and Phyllis Schlafly on television. The Schlaflys come to terms with Phyllis’s campaign and return to law school.

[evilelitest2]

It boggles my mind how some women can be anti abortion. Like I can't wrap my head around it. They don't support paid maternal leave ? Universal childcare? Universal healthcare or expanded medicade or reduced hospital costs? Affordable housing? Reform foster care or make it easier for same sex couples to adopt? Or hell even to adopt the baby themselves. Like unless they offer to help raise baby it's none of their business yet they make it theirs until it's born then fuck you you're a wellfare mom

There is a subset of women who are really invested in maintaining patriarchy.  I mean the Equal Rights Amendment was destroyed by some truly vile Fundamentalist, led by Phyllis Schlafly who is a nightmare of a human being if you ever met one, she gets made fun of in the Handmaid’s Tale  Her son Andrew Schlafly founded Conservapedia btw.  

[pretzelogic1]

Phyllis Schafly advocating for the defeat of the ERA even though she’s a woman