MovieChat Forums > Petticoat Junction (1963) Discussion > Today's ME-TV episode- Susan B. Anthony....

Today's ME-TV episode- Susan B. Anthony...


Saw this one today. In part, I remember it from long ago. Seems to me that any supporter of women's rights in the early 70s would have been upset at the way it portrays that era's women's movement.

In the episode, Billie Jo returns from a long trip, wearing a man's-style suit, spewing all sorts of talk about "equality" without really having a clue what it was she was campaigning for. She drops by the barber shop without any purpose. While there, she doesn't converse at all with the others in the shop, is troubled by cigar smoke, and even when welcomed into the barber chair, has no desire for any sort of treatment from the barber.

In the end, she cancels a women's rally they were to hold simply because she made up with her boyfriend Jerry, which was the thing that spurred her action.

She boasted to Bobbie Jo that some members of her women's group are in favor of total segregation between the sexes. Bobbie says, "But if women don't marry men, who else is there?" (To the younger reader, I'll explain that this is the way people commonly spoke from the dawn of history until, oh, about the last 20 years.)

Whatever legitimate causes women had for those rallies back then, they were certainly not advanced by this episode. Of course it was all done for fun, I'm just saying that I bet some "women's libbers" were troubled by this episode.

reply

Yeah, it wasn't a great episode. If you didn't like Billie Jo, this episode sure wouldn't make you like her any better. Basically, she was a Bitter Betty because of a fight with her boyfriend so she embraced women's rights not really understanding and getting it. And since misery loves company she made her sisters have problems with their husband/boyfriend over her radical views but quickly dropped them when she made up with her boyfriend.

It was made worse by Dr. Janet the MD that's as pretty as can be at the Junction putting down Billie Jo's ideas of equality and being against them, considering as a female doctor she must have had to endure a lot of male discrimination. She didn't even try to educate Billie Jo on what women's rights were really about.

I think it was more to make fun of women's rights than anything else. At that time there probably weren't any women behind the scenes as directors or producers, so this was the male view of women's lib. It's kind of like at the same time Dark Shadows presenting a character with long hair and dressed like a hippi as being the spawn of the devil. The people in charge just didn't get it and maybe felt a little threatened by the way things were changing so they made fun of the people that were rebelling against the tried and true.

reply