For the past three episodes, we’ve talked about various models of  conservative womanhood, and their complications for characters whose ideologies are difficult to parse. When we found a clip of Phyllis Schlafly, the main focus of the FX on Hulu series Mrs. America, discussing her love for the film Gone with the Wind, it made us  wonder… why shouldn’t we look there, too?

In the fourth and final episode of our series on conservative women on screen, we return to this Ur text of conservative white womanhood in the  US. The 1939 film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel remains the highest grossing film of all time, when adjusted for inflation, and a very rich text for different visions of ideal white womanhood. It clearly embodies a deep romanticization of the antebellum South, and undeniable racism. What else about this film has endeared it to generations of conservative thinking? How to make sense of Scarlett O’Hara? Why would Phyllis Schlafly find this film, and the character of Scarlett O’Hara, so appealing? What surprising or even  subversive things could be found, if any, in examining this foundational  film to whiteness in America? Join hosts Adrian Horton and Paul Adler  as we explore these and more questions — and discuss some of our 2022  reactions to one of the most significant films of the 20th century.