Red Room Where the Writers Are

It shouldn't come to anyone's surprise that the staff here at Red Room try to be in touch with the best of everything. We only watch the best television shows on PBS, we only read the best authors, and we try to watch Films with a capital C. Therefore, we had to watch a classic for our first Red Room Movie Club Pick. We had to watch a film that stood the test of time. We saw The Feminist and the Fuzz.

Now you might be wondering, how did those wacky kids at Red Room end up watching The Feminist and the Fuzz?  It started three weeks ago when we were having, of all things, a discussion about television movies. I said something how I always wanted to see I Want to Keep My Baby!, which starred Mariel Hemingway as a teen mother. Someone else brought up Barbara Eden, and we looked up IMDB to see how many TV movies she had done. She did one titled The Feminist and the Fuzz.  If you're guessing she's the feminist, boy you are clever!

Now I bet you're wondering who the Fuzz is. He's a man who is probably best known for wishing people good morning America for eleven years on ABC television. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's David Hartman!

You didn't know David Hartman was an actor? Yep, he sure was! He also was in the remake of Miracle on 34th Street with him in the lawyer role and Sebastian Cabot in the Kris Kringle role. Why this isn't a holiday classic, I'll never know.

With a title like The Feminist and the Fuzz, this had to be seen.  I looked around on ioffer.com, and tada! We had the movie! Get the popcorn and Junior Mints!

On an acting standpoint, Barbara Eden is quite good. David Hartman took a bit of getting used to. Maybe it was because I used to watch him when I was a kid when he would interview people like Keith Moon or hold a mini-reunion of the cast of Father Knows Best. So it was a bit odd to see him as Jerry, the cop who is also going to law school, and has some old fashioned ways of how a lady should be treated.  

There were also other highlights as well: Jo Anne Worley playing a child psychologist and the head of WAM (Women Against Men); Harry Morgan as the wise chiropractor who helps out a sex-starved Julie Newmar with her back; Penny Marshall and former California state Senator Sheila James Kuehl were cast as "Liberation Ladies"; and we got to see a early 1970s San Francisco, which was filmed around the time my parents met. I asked my mother if she even remembered The Feminist and the Fuzz. She looked at me and said: "Do you think I would want to?"

After chortling about some things ("Two hundred dollars for a two bedroom apartment in San Francisco!"), it did make me think about being a feminist. I consider myself one, which surprises people sometimes. "You're not shrill!" one person said to me. "You don't have an agenda!" Is that a requirement? Congratulations, you are now a feminist! Pick up your Shrill Card at Window 9!  Your agenda will be waiting for you at the front door with your Susan B. Anthony tote bag!

Another argument: "You read chick lit! Isn't chick lit anti-feminist?" Well, no. Some of the best feminist writing I've read has been in chick lit. Marian Keyes in her books always does a marvelous job showing women who may fall down while wearing pink shoes, but manage to get up and succeed without having to hurt people in the process.  Jennifer Weiner is not only incredibly funny, but her books also show how women can support each other and how body image can be held against women.  

"You don't like labels!" is what I also hear. This is also true. I don't like being called disabled, a nerd, a child of a broken home, what have you. Feminist, hmm.... Doesn't sound too bad. Doesn't sound negative.

I have always believed that women can be equal to men. I do believe like Suzanne Sugarbaker on Designing Women when she said: "...Men...use Women's Liberation as an excuse not to kill bugs for you...oh, I just hate that!!! I don't care what anybody says, I think the man should have to kill the bugs." Amen, Suzanne.   Although I've gotten to be an expert of killing bugs in my life, I wouldn't mind giving this chore to a man if he wanted to do it.

When I think about what it means for me to be a feminist and a writer, I think of a quote I've always loved by writer Joanna Lee: "The women I write about are winners. I want women to win in life."  I love the quote because it's so simple yet true. I've always wanted women to win in whatever they want to do, as long as it doesn't hurt themselves or anyone else.  

Sidenote: Joanna Lee wrote the script for I Want To Keep My Baby!  Just thought I'd mention it.