“The word “woman” does not even appear once in the US Constitution.”
“Nor does the word freedom, Your Honor.”
Felicity Jones channeling the resolve of Ruth Bader Ginsburg as Anna Mae’s “Can’t Knock Me Down” played in the background, the trailer gave me goosebumps. My PoliSci soul (Political Science in politics nerd lingo) beamed with excitement and I knew that I had to catch the earliest show of “On the Basis of Sex”.
“On the Basis of Sex” is the phenomenal story of, the initial years of the law career of, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court judge. In the early years when Harvard University had just begun accepting women to its Law program, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of the 9 extraordinarily talented women who became a part of a class of 500 men. Graduating at the top of her class, she found it impossible to be hired by any law firms because “women are too emotional to be lawyers” or because “a woman graduating at the top of her class must be a real ball-buster”.
The story circles around Ruth seeing the opportunity in the case of a man who was denied tax deductions by the tax court for nursing care because the Section of the Constitution denoting any such allowances only pertains to women, widowers, divorced men or those whose wives are incapacitated. She believes that appealing to the senses of the male judges at an appellate court through a case of “discrimination against men” can topple the system that differentiates on the basis of sex.
What works best for the storyline is the writer’s realization of how less is more. The aim isn’t to set down a blueprint of Ruth’s career but to ceremoniously portray the moment it all began: her journey to take down gender prejudice by means of contesting its legality, one law at a time. I won’t deny that Mimi Leder wraps Ruth in lead heroine clichés by presenting her in moments of distress and hopelessness until an epiphany raises her like a phoenix from the ashes. However, I won’t even go on to say that that is an awful move to make because clearly, it adds to the drama value of the movie. And let’s face it, some of us live for those cheesy, melodramatic moments.
The dialogue is witty, the setting accurate and the depiction of the gender divide of the 70s precise. What stood out for me was the screen time given to the dynamic between Ruth and her daughter who seemed to be her driving force. While the general friction between a teenage girl and her not-so-cool mother was fairly projected, the second layer to the dynamic really left me intrigued (in a good way). Ruth’s daughter Jane pushed her to challenge the status quo and not settle for the bare minimum, by means of hard-hitting criticism. Moreover, Jane’s emphasis on taking the streets to demand equality set out the beginning of a new era of grassroots activism.
The movie does an articulate job in making viewers question the legitimacy of gender roles and the efficacy of them being passed down generation after generation through the dialogue of various characters which in the present day would come across as insanely sexist and absolutely politically incorrect. It contrasts the disappointing lack of support from so-called “educated” men for her plea to challenge the system of an American family, against the unconditional backing of her husband.
All in all, the movie may not be as grand as its real-life counterpart and her lifetime achievements but it most definitely is a guilty pleasure for RBGs sincere fans who just can’t get enough of her trials, her errors and her eventual triumphs.