On the Basis of Sex
It took me quite a while to watch On the Basis of Sex. First for superstitious reasons. Then because I thought it was going to be a dreary film, and I was not up for dreary. Finally, I just sat down and watched it. Not only was it not dreary, but I found this film to be another important film to watch.
Mrs.
Ruth Ginsburg (Felicity Jones) is in law school. Harvard law school, to be exact. A school where Ruth is one of the very few
women who have been allowed to enroll.
The dean, Erwin Griswold (Sam Waterston), makes it very clear he thinks
little of the women who have enrolled.
He believes their spots in the school should have gone to men. The professors are not far behind with these
beliefs.
Still,
Ruth pursues her law degree. She also
purses the degree of her husband, Martin (Armie Hammer), when he is diagnosed
with cancer. During this time, Ruth goes
to Martin’s classes, goes to her classes, cares for Martin, and cares for their
baby daughter, Jane. And still, she gets
little to no respect from Dean Griswold and the other professors.
Nor are her efforts taken into consideration when she asks for a transfer to Columbia University. Martin has received a job in New York, and Ruth wants to go with them. To finish her studies, she would have to transfer. Dean Griswold refuses to go along with the plan, but Ruth goes anyway. She earns her degree from Columbia.
Finding a job after graduating is impossible, though. No one will hire her. Each law office has a different reason. Some are because she is a woman. Other times it’s because she’s Jewish. I’m sure for some places both were a problem. Eventually Ruth accepts a job as a law professor at Rutgers University. Their single Black professor has left, and they believe hiring a woman for the position will be an equivalent diversity-appearing replacement. I think they need a new definition of diversity.
For
years Ruth works as a professor and struggles with her students. Not just with the men who have problems
seeing women as equal, but also with the women themselves. They are out changing the world, as she
wanted to do.
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Changing Times/Artwork by Kate Dorsey |
Jane (Cailee Spaeny), now a teenager, has a problem with this as well. She skips school to go to women’s rights rallies, and looks up to Gloria Steinem. She doesn’t see her mother as someone doing anything for the cause of women. This makes Ruth question herself.
To
help, Martin, a tax attorney, finds a case for Ruth to look into. Charles Moritz (Chris Mulkey), a man from
Colorado, is being discriminated against because he is a man. As a single man, the law does not see him as
a possible caretaker for his mother. It
would be different if he were married, divorced, or a woman. But as a single man, in the eyes of the law,
there is no way he could be a caretaker, and is therefore ineligible for the
caretaker tax break.
Ruth
sees this case as a stepping stone to overturning and changing laws against
women. Unfortunately, she has very
little support. Her old friend at the
ACLU, Mel Wulf (Justin Theroux), dismisses her.
A lawyer, Dorothy Kenyon (Kathy Bates), a woman famous for a past female
discrimination case, will not help her.
Only Martin truly believes in what Ruth is doing.
Something
with Dorothy’s meeting with Ruth must have piqued her interest, though. Dorothy looks at the case and brings it to Mel’s
attention at the ACLU. She also tells
Mel he would be an idiot if he doesn’t take the case.
Mel
finally agrees to see the case through, but only on the condition he has almost
complete control over Ruth. As this is
the only way she can move forward, Ruth agrees.
Things do not go well from this point on.
In
so many ways Mel is far worse towards woman than Dean Griswold is. At least he is towards Ruth. Dean Griswold didn’t pretend he supported
women. Pretty much every word he said
made it clear he didn’t. Mel, on the
other hand, acts as though he has respect for women, but then has no problem
undercutting them. Except for
Dorothy. I think Mel was afraid of her.
No
matter what Ruth does, according to Mel, it is wrong. He tells her to be more appealing to the
judges they will face. Commands her to
smile. Everything she does and says is
not the way to do it. Then Mel decides
it is Martin who should do the talking in court. Ruth should not speak at all. All things I highly doubt Mel would ever say
to a man. The demand to smile in
particular.
In the end, a compromise is made. Martin will speak half the time, and Ruth will speak the other half. But Mel isn’t done causing problems. He asks Ruth to help on a female discrimination case. Ruth thinks she will finally truly be able to help. Be part of the team.
No. That’s not what’s happening. Mel wants Ruth to give her knowledge to the male lawyer to use himself. He also wants, to aid this second case, for Ruth and Charles Moritz to settle. His settlement? One dollar.
Ruth
is not happy with this agreement, but she is obligated to present it to her
client. Charles is reluctant to agree,
as he should be. In the settlement, his
name will not be cleared of wrongdoing, nor will it help anyone in the
future. When Ruth presents these conditions
of clearing Charles’ name and changing the law to Dean Griswold and another of
her past professors, who are somehow the council for the opposing side, they
refuse to agree to them. One dollar is
all Charles will get. His name will not
be cleared. No one will be helped
for the future. Believing they have
everything in hand, the men are shocked when Ruth refuses the agreement and
leaves the room.
In
court, Martin and Ruth split their given time.
Martin stumbles over his answers to the judges’ questions. The exact same questions Mel was so certain
Ruth would be inept at answering. The
judges also keep holding Martin up, preventing him from passing the time to
Ruth. I have a feeling this was quite
intentional, as they did not want to hear from a woman.
But
Ruth does get to speak. It does not go
well, and she saves her leftover time for rebuttal.
After
the opposing council, whose speaking time was used by Attorney James H. Bozarth
(Jack Reynor), have their turn, Ruth speaks again. With strength, certainty, and conviction, we
see who Mrs. Ruth Ginsburg is going to become: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg.
As
good as this film is, there are a lot of frustrating parts. Far too many men needed a good, swift kick
for their behavior. Dean Griswold, Mel,
and the very smug James H. Bozarth needed particularly hard kicks.
Martin,
on the other hand, is a good, sweet man.
He had a couple moments where he didn’t fully understand what Ruth was
trying to explain to him about how people treated her. But he always tried. And eventually he would understand. In either case, when Martin understood and
when he didn’t, he always supported Ruth in what she wanted to do.
The reason this film is important to see is not just because it’s about Justice Ginsburg, although that is reason enough. It is important to not only see what she, herself accomplished, but also to see how far women have come.
It’s also important to understand how these long fought for accomplishments are now sliding backwards. Laws are being made to take away rights at every turn. First one piece. Then another. After that, it’s the entire right, followed by another. Soon, we will be taken back so far, we’ll need another Justice Ginsburg to get everyone back on equal footing. Because it wouldn’t take much to take us back to a time where women had to fight for their right to go to law school.
Justice Ginsburg had a long, hard road to accomplish all she did. Do we really want to put all her work to shame? Accept rights being taken away by those unaffected by their removal? Have rights taken away by people with the power and money to get around the law? Do we really want to start the fight over again?
Unless we do something now, that may be our only option.
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