The Rats in the Cellar

When I heard that Ryan Murphy was going to do a show about the feud between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, I knew I had to watch it. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? has been a favorite movie since I first saw it and I knew a lot of the show would center around that. I knew it would be entertaining. I didn't expect that it would be one of the best feminist shows I'd ever seen.

I suppose I should have realized this. After all, this feud happened in a time where the conditions were becoming needed for a modern feminist movement. Women were in the workforce and knew they were smart and capable, and yet still being treated like shit. I started to put being treated like shit 'by men' but it wasn't just men. With very few exceptions, women were pretty horrible to each other as well. This makes sense. Being awful to men had consequences. Being awful to other women rarely did. A lot of that is still the case, I suppose, but at least we have some level of knowing better now. At least, we do on occasion.

In this last episode, Crawford and Davis asked each other what it was like to, at one point, be known as the best (Crawford the most beautiful woman in the world, Davis as the most talented actress). Both of them acknowledged that while this feeling was wonderful, it was also 'not enough.' Now while this could be taken as it wasn't 'enough' to satisfy them, I took it to mean that it wasn't 'enough' to satisfy everyone else. No matter what they accomplished, it would never be 'enough' to earn them the respect and job security they deserved.

In this same episode, Joan Blondell says that women of a certain age start being ignored by everyone. I remember telling my roommate how odd this sounded to me because, in my life, the older women were never the people who were ignored. Then again, even though those women did not grow up in a feminist society, by the time I was born, we were living in one where feminism was certainly an open idea. You did not ignore the older women. They held power and deserved respect.

I am really impressed with what Murphy did here. He shows a lot of depth and understanding to his main characters. And while I came in being #teamBette, I certainly have a better understanding of why Joan Crawford was so batshit crazy. It's certainly no excuse to beat children with wire hangers, but, still, I have more sympathy now.