Alton, Ill. — Episode five of the FX/Hulu limited series, Mrs. America, once again rewrites history in a deliberate effort to defame Eagle Forum founder and President, Phyllis Schlafly.
The episode released this week centers around a debate about the Equal Rights Amendment between two couples, Fred and Phyllis Schlafly, who opposed the Amendment and Marc and Brenda Feigen-Fastau, who supported the Amendment. The debate happened, but not as Mrs. America producers depicted.
The episode portrays Phyllis Schlafly as intimidated by the prospect of debating Mrs. Feigen-Fastau because she is an attorney, and falsely depicts Phyllis as changing the terms of the proposed debate so she could bring her attorney husband as backup. During the debate, Phyllis is shown as stammering and unprepared, ultimately resorting to making up a case name to support her point, which provokes chastisement from her female rival and from her husband following the debate.
It is clear that Mrs. America producers reviewed the actual debate on “Tomorrow with Tom Snyder,” because they got Phyllis’ outfit just right and use some of the same unique phrases Phyllis used in her very clear, non-stammering opening statement, like her stating that ERA would impose a “doctrinaire equality” on men and women.
However, a review of the actual debate shows that it was Brenda Feigen-Fastau, not Schlafly, who was called to task for being unable to offer factual support for her shocking claim that lending institutions would only give women between the ages of 25 and 44 credit based on half of their salary unless they could prove that they had been sterilized.
In the real-life debate, a smiling, jovial Fred Schlafly, who, in Mrs. America is depicted as silent and sullen throughout the debate, challenged Ms. Feigen-Fastau to name one institution that would ask a woman if she was sterilized. Feigen-Fastau stated that there was a bank in Queens, but she would not name it. Host, Tom Snyder, weighed in saying, “If there is any institution in this country that does that, that becomes a major news event.”
“Liberal elites in Hollywood lied about Phyllis during her life and they still could not beat her,” said Eagle Forum President Eunie Smith. “They will similarly fail in their efforts to defame this remarkable woman through Mrs. America’s mean-spirited revision of history.
For more information about the real Phyllis Schlafly, please contact Eagle Forum or visit https://mrsamerica.org.
