The most important ERA battle in history is happening NOW. EME is in Federal Court in Massachusetts fighting to affirm our victory in Virginia and ensure adoption of ERA as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Department of Justice will be filing a response to our lawsuit in a matter of days.
Yet the dominant media landscape says NOTHING about our fight. Not in the news. Cable or network. Not on daytime talk shows. Or even soap operas. No drama series or sitcoms. Hell, we’d take a reality show! Nope. Nada.
Instead, they’ve put millions of dollars and our biggest stars into a television series that incorrectly declares the ERA dead as of 1982 thanks to the work of Phyllis Schlafly and her ilk. Hmmm. Well intended or not – that’s not going to work for us, folks.
Mrs. America, a new nine-part original FX series will premiere on Hulu on April 15th, starring Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly. In the press materials provided by the studio, the creator states that Schlafly’s work taking down the ERA was the start of the “culture wars,” giving the anti-feminist far, far too much credit and putting an odd twist on the fight of 40 years ago.
The overall focus on Schlafly and the false idea the ERA died in 1982 is dangerous propaganda that distracts public attention from the far more important story we are trying to get out now so the American public can understand and support EME’s case that is quickly moving forward in Massachusetts Federal Court.
This Mrs. America campaign spontaneously began among a small cadre of filmmakers and media activists who were deeply concerned that the series could have a very negative effect on the massive amount of work that everyone’s been doing across the country since 2016 to get the last three states ratified. Everything written about the series, so far, makes NO MENTION of the present-day status of the amendment, instead The Hollywood Reporter review mistakenly says the ERA is “comatose but not entirely dead.”
We are more than disturbed by this disinformation because, as you well know, nothing could be further from the truth!
PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE THE LETTER BELOW AND DEMAND MEDIA ATTENTION ON THE ACTUAL ERA, PRESENTLY AT A CRUCIAL MOMENT IN HISTORY
https://docs.google.com/
EME urges you to help us with this campaign by signing and sharing the letter ASAP. We are collecting signatures until SUNDAY – then we will go to press with this and launch the social media campaign.
More to come stay tuned….
With love and gratitude,
Kamala, Natalie and the EME Team
